FACULTY SENATE MEETING MINUTES SEPTEMBER 20, 2022 – 110 BIDGOOD – 3:30 PM APPROVED MINUTES
ATTENDING: Paulo Araujo, Nikhil Bilwakesh, Serena Blount, Seth Bordner, Spyridoula (Litsa) Cheimariou, Kim Colburn, Shibin Dai, Susan Dewey, Rona Donahoe, Amanda Espy-Brown, John Giggie, Brittany Gilmer, Jessica Goethals, Courtney Helfrecht, Kim Lackey, Di Luo, Christopher Lynn, Lyndell McDonald, Micah McKay, Moises Molina, Alessandra Montalbano, Luke Niiler, Shanlin Pan, Matt Reynolds, Sara-Maria Sorentino, Erin Stoneking, Edith Szanto, Alexandre Tokovinine, Soledad Sanchez Valdez, Tyler Walker, Laura Erin Watley, Charlotte Wegrzynowski, Craig Armstrong, Tom Baker, Doug Bish, Todd DeZoort, Chapman Greer, Ruth Ann Hall, Matthew Hudnall, Clay Voorhees, A. J. Bauer, Leah LeFebvre, Bharat Mehra, Cynthia Peacock, Steven Yates, Dale Dickinson, Andrea Wright, Stephanie Buckner, Joy Burnham, Nirmala Erevelles, John Petrovic, Stephanie Shelton, Nicole Swoszowski, David Walker, Sriram Aaleti, Xiaoyan Hong, Tonya Klein, Sushma Kotru, Sundar Krishnan, Patrick Kung, Jialai Wang, Ruigang Wang, Kelly McPherson, Thomas Herwig, Charles (Ian) Crawford, Barbara “Babs” Davis, Amy Ellis, Yeon Ho Shin, Jeri Zemke, Heather Elliott, Paul Horwitz, Barbara Dahlbach, Sara Whitver, Michael Callihan, Rebecca Owings, Kim Parker, Amy Traylor, Carrie Turner, Robert Riter-Parliamentarian
ABSENT: Sheila Black, Nathan Loewen, Hasan Isomitdinov, Nelle Williams, Weihua Su, Dan Joyner,
ABSENT WITH ALTERNATE: Kristi Acker/Susan Apple, Sara McDaniel/Stacy Hughey Surman, Gregg Bell/Meenakshi Arora,
GUESTS: Laura Braddick-Strategic Communications, Caryl Cooper-TUARA Representative
Roll call and quorum check by Faculty Senate Secretary, Barb Dahlbach. Minutes of the August 16, 2022 Faculty Senate meeting were approved.
Secretary Dahlbach attended the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, September 15th and Friday, September 16th held at the Bryant Conference Center. At the April meeting the operating budgets for the UA System and the Health System including merit raise increases was approved. Letters with salary information should have been received, with the raises beginning October 1, 2022. The System budget is 5.9.3 billion dollars. That is a big economic impact on the State of Alabama. The UA System is the largest employer in the State of Alabama. The UA operating budget is 1.16 billion dollars. UAB, UAH, UA and the hospital are all running in the black this year.
Inflation was a topic of concern regarding construction. Ninety percent of all our operating budgets are generated from our own operational efforts such as tuition, grants, hospital revenues, research and other areas. Only 10% of the revenue comes from the State of Alabama or elsewhere.
There is a lot of new construction that’s going to happen on campus as well as a stage three and four requests for construction on campus. There is a sorority and fraternity house at stage one beginning in about eight to ten months. There was an addition to the Gorgas Library budget of $2 million dollars due to inflation and supply chain issues. Two other buildings have seen the same increase for the same reason.
UAB brought forward a childcare proposal to expand their facilities. Current capacity is 92 children and eight infants. The expansion would bring capacity to 224 children and 48 infants. This was met with a great deal of support from the Board of Trustees reasoning it would be an advantage for retention and recruitment for young faculty members.
The UA System grants 43 % of all degrees in the State of Alabama and 54% of all the doctoral degrees in the State of Alabama. There will be three new Bachelor of Science degrees beginning in neuroscience out of psychology; one in sports management out of HES; and one business cyber security from College of Business. The College of Continuing Studies is being reorganized and renamed. It will now be known as “The Office of Teaching Innovation and Digital Education” and will no longer be headed up by a dean but by a vice provost. The search for that position beginning this fall. This office will maintain Early College, Ollie and the New College LifeTrack program. The Bryant Conference Center will move to facilities. The purpose is to have a greater focus on quality teaching, learning, digital education and professional development at UA.
Chuck Karr, retired Dean from UA’s College of Engineering, was appointed as President of UAH.
President’s Report – (Chapman Greer) President Greer presented the priority list of all Faculty Senate committees with the main priority of the Faculty Senate being childcare for faculty, students and staff. It was encouraging to hear the Board’s approval for UAB’s childcare expansion. The Board asked if this was big enough and the answer was negative. The Board replied that they would be expecting UAB to come back and ask for a new building.
There is a 500-child waiting list at CDRC. UA’s childcare will not be an extension of CDRC. It will be proximal to campus, accredited, with a third-party administration. The business case for the childcare facility should be finished by the end of this month and handed over to Matt Fajack.
For the very first time a deaf awareness event was held at Bryant Conference Center. We talk about diversity, equity and inclusion but we do not address accessibility. We have one deaf Ph.D. graduate from UA. There is currently one deaf student at UA. The panel discussion included what services does UA offer a deaf student. Darrin Griffin is heading up this issue and will be speaking to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee along with subject matter experts.
Faculty Life – (Heather Elliott & Alex Tokovinine) This committee is pursuing the establishment of a supporting network for international scholars which begins with identifying those who qualify for assistance and are at risk of conflict and direct threats to academic freedom. The committee is looking at several networks to see which would be the best to endorse for membership. There would be fees and designated representatives and legal implications to consider.
The Faculty Life Committee is researching what their priority will be after parental leave and childcare. Access to various athletic facilities and surveying faculty to determine what would enhance their lives at UA is being considered. It was suggested to have a meeting to talk about those kinds of issues.
Academic Affairs – (Rona Donahoe & Babs Davis) The General Education Reform is making progress. We will be working on it with the Provost.
In a meeting with Lesley Reid several faculty initiatives were brought up. They want to broaden faculty recognition, opportunities and receptions including several Academic Affairs awards for achievements. A process is underway to hire a Director of Faculty Affairs. A development is underway to establish associate professor development for those wanting to go into administration or achieve full professorships. Department chairs now get orientation workshops. They are partnering with a third-
party vendors for some online faculty development programs. Academic Impressions is one of them and the other is the National Central For Faculty Development & Diversity. Improvement in lines of communications for faculty perhaps with forums every other month. Partnership with a company out of Harvard will being doing retention and exit surveys.
The main priorities for the Provost this academic year is Handbook revision Appendix B which is the Mediation and Grievance policy. Concerns are the specific charge for the committee and the extent of their jurisdiction. Those type of issues will be the focus for the coming year. Minor changes were made
to the Supplemental Compensation Policy because there were different reporting channels. There may be additional changes to this policy in the coming year but are expected to be minor. There are apparent differences between Progressive Discipline Policy described in the Faculty Handbook versus the Employee Handbook. Faculty facing progressive discipline are in some cases using the Employee Handbook. A significant proposed change is to remove SOI’s courses as criterion or teaching evaluations. There are some in favor of this because they are teaching a course they did not develop. They do not want to be cutting a course they have to teach. Those that have developed all the courses they teach would like to have student input regarding the value and noted in the process of retention. The Provost’s office will go with the loudest voice, to clarify it’s just removing the one question that rates the quality of their course. There are two very diverse opinions and feedback is needed.
Several suggestions have been made for Chapter Two regarding tenure, promotion and retention including documentation of publications and uploading manuscripts in progress not just accepted and published manuscripts. Also suggested is a clear documentation of the percent contribution or level of contribution, or multi-authored articles. In some disciplines, there can be twelve or more authors making it difficult to evaluate the contributions of the co-authors to a publication.
Another suggested change is to the parental leave policy eliminating maternity leave policy, as all parents are eligible for FML parental leave plus four weeks granted to all university employees, including twelve-month faculty and staff. This would be implemented next August.
Some small revisions might be made for administrators moving backtoteachingstatus, asalldivisionsare nottreating thoseconversionsequally.
Many units do not have their own T&P guidelines. Provost would like each divisions/college to have their own guidelines and not just rely on the Faculty Handbook. Some colleges/divisions are relying solely on Chapter 2, using a verbatim interpretation of what counts and what doesn’t count, instead of using the list of acceptable actions as examples, especially for research purposes. The best judges are those working within that discipline. Feedback will be gathered and taken to Leslie Reid.
There will be an email from the Provost to take a vote on the General Education Reform possibly in early November. The vote will be the pathways model or no change.
Research & Service – (Shanlin Pan & Clay Voorhees) This committee will be conducting a stakeholder meeting of IRB with faculty representatives and faculty senators on September 29 from 1:00 to 5:00 PM. An invitation has been sent via email. Please help by getting this information out to your colleagues.
Grants have been established for $10 million for building renovations. A small grants program supply
$6,000 to $12,000 for travel costs. Grant acceptance decreased 81.25% in 2019 to 35.19% in 2022.
OSP employed four additional specialists recently and is actively recruiting a senior specialist with five years of direct research administrative experience.
A summary table of FY19-FY22 data from the ORED Small Grants Program was included in the agenda for today’s meeting. Equipment grants for level three were last awarded in 2018. In that year, there were two proposals, and both were awarded. The level three award amount totaled $121,191, with an additional $122,067 for cost sharing.
Student Life – (Amanda Espy-Brown & Kim Parker) The Student Life Committee requests faculty participation on sub-committees for Homecoming Queen elections. A taskforce led by students reviewed the election process for Homecoming Queen and their recommendations have been implemented for the fall election process. Homecoming Queen candidates will submit four (500 word or less) essays based on the four pillars of Homecoming Queen. Five faculty members are being sought to review and score each essay to be done between Tuesday, September 20th and Sunday, September 25th with the deadline to be 11:59 PM on that Sunday night. Five to fifteen applicants are expected.
Each Queen candidate will individually interview with an interview panel. Two faculty members are being sought to serve on this panel. Interviews will be held on Wednesday, September 21 through Sunday, September 25th.
Shannon Hubbard has doubled the student population in the REACH program with a possible lunch-and- learn event in October. Anyone wishing to help can access the wish list on Amazon.
Mental Health is a top priority for this committee.
IT and Strat Com – (Patrick Kung & Xiaoyan Hong) The OIT 2022-25 Strategic Plan has been published. Faculty may send comments and concerns to this committee.
The Vice President for Strat Com will be at the Faculty Senate meeting in December. Please send your questions to this committee to be addressed in that December meeting.
Faculty & Senate Governance – (Jeri Zemke & Ruth Ann Hall) The affirmation vote confirms Dr. Meenakshi Arora for the Mediation Committee effective immediately.
Community & Legislative Affairs – (Joy Burnham & Steven Yates) Forty-five people came from Athens, Georgia for the Town and Gown event. The Chime-In survey led to the “You Make UA Great” event on October 3, 2022. UA leads all SEC schools in United Way contributions.
Campus Culture Taskforce – (Barb Dahlbach) The taskforce will receive the Chime-In survey data.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – (Thomas Herwig & Alessandra Montalbano) This committee had their first meeting. The focus is to create a network of resources on campus. A meeting with Vice President Christine Taylor has been scheduled.
Financial Affairs – (Todd DeZoort & Tom Baker) The Financial Affairs Committee will be meeting with Vice President Matt Fajack.
Compliance Committee – (Babs Davis) If compliance training has not been completed by October 30, the training will revert to refresher training taking several hours to complete.
Faculty & Staff Benefits Committee – (Rona Donahoe) The Faculty and Staff Benefits Committee met on September 8, 2022. The second year of the Remote Working Pilot Program is seemingly successful.
Eighty percent staff and thirteen percent faculty have participated in the Paid Parental Leave Program. With fifty-two percent of those being male.
October 15th through the 30th will be open enrollment dates. FSA/HAS will not roll over. After several years of deficits, improvements are being realized. There is a 24% increase in the deductible, 12.5%
increase in seed and no change in maximum out-of-pocket expense. All changes will be posted during open enrollment.
If you have any issues with PayFlex, forward those to Rona Donahoe.
Tel-a-Doc is not being utilized very much and will most likely be discontinued.
A Bone-Marrow Drive presentation with “Be the Match” coming to campus October 3rd through the 6th.
Anyone 18-40 years of age can participate in this program to determine if a bone-marrow match is made for someone in a critical health situation.
Meeting adjourned 5:00 PM