FACULTY SENATE MEETING
JANUARY 18, 2022 – VIA ZOOM
ATTENDANCE: Paulo Araujo, Julia Bannerman, Sheila Black, Seth Bordner, Ibrahim Cemen, Spyridoula (Litsa) Cheimariou, Kim Colburn, Matthew Dolliver, Alexis Davis Hazell, Susan Dewey, Rona Donahoe, Kim Lackey, Matthew Lockwood, Nathan Loewen, Moises Molina, Luke Niiler, Shanlin Pan, Tyler Sasser, Rainer Schad, Edith Szanto, Alexandre Tokovinine, Laura Erin Watley, Bo Zhang, Yong Zhang, Tom Baker, Doug Bish, Jennifer Dempsey, Todd DeZoort, Chapman Greer, Ruth Ann Hall, Matthew Hudnall, BC Kim, Mary Stone, Brian Britt, Cynthia Peacock, Bharat Mehra, Alyx Vesey, Steven Yates, Cecily Collins, Suzanne Henson, Nelle Williams, Andrea Wright, Tracy Hinton, Joy Burnham, Nirmala Erevelles, Michael Lawson, John Petrovic, Stephanie Shelton, Sriram Aaleti, Jaber Abu-Qahouq. Xiaoyan Hong, Sushma Kotru; Patrick Kung, Weihua Su, John Van Zee, Jialai Wang, David Taylor, John Latta, Carla Blakey, Barbara “Babs” Davis, Amy Ellis, Yeon Ho Shin, Jeri Zemke, Heather Elliott, Paul Horwitz, Dan Joyner, Barbara Dahlbach, Russell Peterson, Michael Callihan, Susan Appel, Rebecca Owings, Leah Cheatham, Amy Traylor, Robert Riter, Andrea Wright, Brad Porter (PSA), Laura Braddick (Strat Com).
ABSENT: Serena Blount, Brittany Gilmer, Christopher Lynn, Lyndell McDonald, Alessandra Montalbano, Regina Range, Bulent Tosun, Sara McDaniel, Nicole Swoszowski, Sundar Krishnan, Kim Parker, Hank Lazer (TUARA).
ABSENT WITH ALTERNATE: Courtney Helfrecht/John Vincent.
Clay Ryan, Senior Vice Chancellor for External Affairs (UA Systems Office), started the meeting with an update on pending legislation. The number one priority is maintaining academic freedom. The best method in addressing these issues is to move legislation away from ideas that may or may not be presented by a professor and focus on the notion of student assent and remaining knowledgeable about the material while not necessarily agreeing with an idea falling within a vein of divisive concepts. There has been an effort to combine the two pending bills with the engagement of other members of higher education and the Higher Education Partnership organization which represents the fourteen public universities in Alabama. Another legislative session begins at 4:00 P.M. today and the revised draft of these bills will be presented with the goal of legislation that is acceptable and applies to all expressed concerns. Questions included: What impact could this legislation have on academic freedom in K-12? Answered – Unknown at this time. Appreciation was expressed to Clay for his efforts on behalf of the faculty. The Faculty Senate’s resolution was not a positive or negative impact on the pending legislation. It did not aid or inhibit the passage of legislation. A special legislative session has been called to deal with the allocation received from the ARPA program. This will delay consideration of the two bills discussed. Clay Ryan will return to give updates.
The next guest is Matt Fajack, Vice President of Finance and Development, reporting that UA is in a very strong financial position right now. UA received $140 million with about $70 million going out to students. About $70 million replaced lost revenue. There was very little travel due to Covid shutdowns which was a savings. A lot of buildings were shut down saving utility and supply costs. State appropriations were up offsetting some of the lost revenue. Tuition did drop in 2019 and 2020 decreasing from $532 million in net tuition to $42 million which is about a $50 million decrease. The head count stayed pretty flat and credit hours dropped due to a shift from full-time undergraduate students to part-time graduate students. Working capital and endowments lost $12 million due to Covid. This year there was a return of $406 million on endowments which is a 30% increase. Long term debt was reduced by $80 million. Enrollment dropped from 38,103 to 37,842 which is only 261 students. Endowment is up over a billion dollars and cash and investments in the bank are 1.3 billion on top of the endowment.
Some construction moved forward which used up some cash and decreases the long-term debt. The old Tutwiler will be demolished and the new Tutwiler dorm should open in August of this year at a cost of $100 million. Hewson Hall opened this year at a cost of $48 million. Bryant Denny Stadium renovations which were paid for by fundraising by athletics at $100 million was completed. The second avenue overpass is open at a cost of $10 million. Math and Science building renovations at $22 million and the nursing building addition at $13 million were completed. The Performing Arts construction costs have not been finalized but will be in the $80-$100 million range. Bryce Main has had some pieces completed with final construction to begin as a $85million project. Renovations will begin soon on the Alabama Mobility and Power Research Center in partnership with Mercedes and Alabama Power which is a $37 million project. The Northport UA Medical Center construction will begin this summer at $7 million. Fashion and design building will begin construction this summer at $17.5 million.
UA has had three large graduating classes over the last three years. Up to this year, three relatively small freshmen classes have come in, so enrollment has declined a little in credit hours, but this year’s freshman class is up 17% which bodes well for the future. Applications were at a record high along with a high record of housing deposits. Freshman enrollment and State appropriations are strong. The Education Trust Fund was up about 17% probably from Federal dollars. UA will receive $13 million to use for building renovations and technology improvements. Inflation is on the rise which will affect the increase from State appropriations. In-state tuition has not increased in four years and no out-of-state tuition increase in three years.
Questions included inflation, raises, head count and credit hours, percentage of high school students going to college, and maintaining a solid financial foundation.
Fajack discussed unused flight credits and the advantages of using Concur to book air travel which includes moving flight credits and funds to another department, the ability to use travel tracker to aid anyone on university business traveling internationally, travel agents available 24/7 for support, compliance with University policy, and reconciling travel expenses. Questions and comments included risk assessment delays for international travel, negotiating grant expenses (paying workers in foreign countries) and field research work, difficulties paying car and hotel expenses with PCard which is not recognized in other countries, difficulties traveling with students internationally when they do not have PCard in hand, whether PCard pays for lost luggage, insurance coverage, and using personal credit cards for booking travel at the faculty’s personal risk. Other issues discussed included the situation of a faculty member having very limited travel funds booking a less expensive flight through a travel site like Expedia, small conventions depending on hotel bookings to hold events (PCard could be used to book hotel), traveling on someone’s grant would exclude the use of travel tracker, and a lot of extra time for faculty to deal with reconciliation of expenses. Fajack pledged to look into each of these situations and requested any specific circumstances be sent to him to be reviewed.
Roll call and quorum check by Barb Dahlbach, Faculty Senate Secretary.
The Faculty Senate meeting minutes of December 14, 2021 were approved with corrections.
Secretary’s Report – (Barb Dahlbach) Resignation notice from a senator has been received leaving a vacancy as representative to the Campus Master Plan Committee (term goes through August 15, 2022). If you are interested in filling this vacancy, please notify Secretary Dahlbach.
President’s Report – (Chapman Greer) The spring calendar for Faculty Senate meetings has been distributed. Meetings will be February 15, March 22 and April 19, 2022.
A town hall meeting will be held tomorrow at 11:00 A.M. It will be recorded, and the event will be live streamed. There is an online form to use to submit any questions prior to the meeting.
President Greer received an email from the Registrar’s Office that Degree Works is about to change. It will impact any doing that kind of advising. The look of Degree Works and the planner function will have significant changes which will be rolled out in March. Faculty should check with their registrar to inquire about training dates and times for their respective colleges. There are general training sessions on February 24/ 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. and February 25/ 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. for anyone wishing to attend.
Vice President’s Report – (Matthew Hudnall) No report.
Secretary’s Report – (Barb Dahlbach) Secretary Dahlbach has proposed taking roll electronically regardless of the venue which will call for a bylaw change. Following discussion, the following (in Faculty & Senate Governance Committee report) was presented with a vote to be taken at the February meeting.
Faculty & Senate Governance Committee – (Ibrahim Cemen & Jeri Zemke) –
Bylaws change:
Current language – The Secretary will call the roll of senators at each meeting of the Senate. Any absences in excess of two by a senator will be reported by the Secretary to the Faculty and Senate Governance Committee. The Secretary shall also record the attendance, by name, of each visitor having floor privileges pursuant to Article III. Section 3, Paragraph 4, of every attending member of the press, and of other special visitors to the Senate.
Suggested Revision: The Secretary will record the attendance of senators at each meeting of the Senate. Any absences in excess of two by a senator will be reported by the Secretary to the Faculty and Senate Governance Committee. The Secretary shall also record the attendance, by name, of each visitor having floor privileges pursuant to Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 4, of every attending member of the press, and of other special visitors to the Senate.
The committee has issued a call for nominations and election to replace Dr. Cathy Pagani (retiring December 31, 2021) as the Ombudsperson. There is a call for nominations for Ombudsperson to replace Dr. Linda Parsons.
A call for nominations has been sent out to replace Janie Hubbard on the Mediation Committee.
IT & Strategic Communications – (Patrick Kung & Nathan Loewen) – The committee reminded everyone to train your junk mail folder.
Starting December 16, 2021 everyone must use their MyBama ID and password to log in to Zoom which has new features.
Academic Affairs – (Rona Donahoe & Babs Davis) – The Faculty Senate voted to approve the Academic Program Review Council proposal. This was forwarded to the Provost’s Office.
After receiving feedback from the Academic Affairs and Research & Service Committees, ORED has forwarded what they considered to be the final copyright and IP policies. The Committee will meet on February 1, 2022 to discuss and vote on those final policies, as well as other changes made to the Faculty Handbook.
The Provost has accepted the Graduate Councils recommendation to remove Appendix J (Criteria for Graduate Faculty Appointments) from the Faculty Handbook and put this information with other information for Graduate Faculty in the Graduate Catalog. Significant changes have been made to Criteria for Graduate Faculty Appointment, that will allow departments and/or colleges to establish their own criteria for graduate faculty appointments based on their tenure, promotion and retention guidelines. The Graduate Council did withdraw its proposal for non-tenure track research faculty and staff to be able to hold graduate faculty appointments as full or associate members. Another change is that renewal of graduate faculty appointments, which is currently done every six years for full and associate members, has been eliminated. Departments and colleges will now have the ability to withdraw graduate faculty membership if a faculty member no longer meets the minimum criteria established by that department or college. Babs Davis, Rona Donahoe and Chapman Greer continue to meet with Associate Provost Reid and Provost Dalton to discuss additional changes to the Faculty Handbook. Changes will come to the Faculty Senate in February with a vote to be taken at the March meeting.
Compliance training for fiscal responsibility is due by February 28, 2022. The remainder of compliance training will be in the fall.
Research & Service – (Shanlin Pan & Douglas Bish) – This committee received an email from the Office of Research and Economic Development calling for committee members for the Intellectual Property Patent Committee. The committee would be composed of five employees, three ad hoc technical experts and one faculty senator. This follows a recommendation by the Faculty Senate Research and Service Committee to include a member of their committee to serve on this newly established committee.
Community & Legislative Committee – (Joy Burnham & Steven Yates) The Community and Legislative Committee sent invitations to Senators and Alternates to attend the Legislative Reception to be held on January 31, 2022 in the Camilla and Yellowhammer Rooms in Gorgas Library. RSVP’s are due by January 24th with the Legislators making an opening statement and taking questions.
The Brewer Porch Teacher Appreciation Luncheon will be May 5, 2022.
Faculty Life – (Ruth Ann Hall & Heather Elliott) – The Faculty Life Committee continues work on the childcare issue and are working with the Professional Staff Assembly and the Office, Clerical and Technical Staff Assembly to advance this very important issue.
Financial Affairs – (Mary Stone & BC Kim) – Vice President for Finance spoke at today’s meeting addressing the financial status of UA. Any specific situations with the use of the PCard or Concur should be sent to these co-chairs.
Student Life – (Jennifer Dempsey & Amy Traylor) – No report.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – (Lyndell McDonald & Luke Niiler) A link listing all the activities and events regarding diversity, equity and inclusion was emailed to the Faculty Senate listserv.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will be February 15, 2022.
Meeting adjourned 5:15 P.M.