AUBURN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL ASSEMBLY

 

Monday, December 2, 2002 – 2:00 p.m.

Dixon Conference Center

Unapproved

 

Kathy Harmon, Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:04 p.m.

 

The following assembly members were present: John Asmuth, Dennis Block, Stacy Bozeman, Cara Mia Braswell, Drew Burgering, Amy Douglas, Lisa Fleming, Kathy Harmon, Phyllis Harris, Harriette Huggins, George Konstant, Melissa Morris, Cathy Ramey, Karen Rankin, Betty Reese, Anna Reynolds, Linda Sayers, Thomas Stofer, Martha Taylor, Mary Ann Taylor-Sims, Kim Trupp.

 

Review and Approval of Prior Minutes: A motion by Dennis Block, seconded by Linda Sayers to approve the minutes of the August 13, 2002 meeting passed. The minutes were approved as printed.

 

Kathy Harmon presented the speaker, Sherri Fulford, Office of Government Affairs, who presented an update on the budget and finance prospects for FY03. With a new governor and new legislature we do not see many changes forthcoming. The fact is Auburn University does have a great deal of legislative support. The big difference will be in the Senate where the Lt. Gov. is a Democrat. Lucy Baxley has pledged support for higher education.

 

  1. Budget Cycle.
    1. Alabama ended FY02 by the “skin of our teeth.” The only way we were able to end the year without proration was because they went through all accounts related to Education and scrapped the dollars to come up with the money to get us over into the next fiscal year. Because it was one time money we were able to meet the budget – some of it was through residuals from the bond issue, which we will be paying for many years to come.
    2. We enter FY03 knowing we will be $130M in the hole. Revenue estimates indicate money is not coming in the way it should; last year (02) we did not have enough money. FY03 budget was based on revenue that should have come in during FY02 and did not. Income tax collections were down 1 ½ percent for FY02, General sales tax was flat or low, Corporate income tax revenue was down, Gross sales tax was up only because of sales tax. Able to scrap together about $200M. Able to pay all the Corporate Income Tax refunds due for the last year and a half. Expect $130-$200M shortfall in FY03. There is about $240M in the “Rainy day account” which will probably be tapped to meet the FY03 budget. Once tapped, it is gone. Legislation provided for repayment of the money, but did not specify how it was to be repaid. With no process to follow there is not much incentive to put the money back in.

 

  1. FY04 is when things are really going to hit hard. Teacher Retirement has used reserves and is seeking $78M. PEHIP, the Public Employees Health Insurance Program (We participate as retirees) is increasing from $433 per employee to $522, a little over $100M additional funds.
  2. Campaign for Alabama, a group of 16 Birmingham business leaders, has been meeting under leadership of Bill O’Connor. They are talking about what they can do. They are looking at all levels of education to see what the impact for ETF will be. They have raised $3M. This inclusive group may have some influence developing plans for tax reform to hit everyone. They're meeting will representatives of education. Auburn University has already set priorities and determined needs, as well as having set up proration prevention fund. This has been done internally. Hope all these things will put AU in a favorable position when we go before the Campaign for Alabama to explain needs and why we merit additional funds. Should meet in January. Adamant that the tax structure in Alabama is morally wrong. Attempt to level burden of who pays how much. Some changes require constitutional. The group is not addressing Constitutional reform. Because so much tax legislation is tied to the constitution, the hope is by addressing tax reform and making some changes, and then Constitutional reform might be more acceptable.

 

Questions:

  1. Could the Proration Prevention Fund come back to bite us? No. It only amounts to $6-8M and it is not enough to make a difference in appropriation, but it is enough to make it clear that Auburn University is accountable. Other institutions say they would establish a "rainy day account" if they could get more money from the state. Auburn bit the bullet and made the necessary changes to reduce costs. There was a lot of unhappiness when we were going through the process of examining viability of programs, merging programs, but in the end able to live with allocations when other institutions have not. We have raised tuition when others said they could not attract students. Auburn has proved that wrong. We are largest institution; we have largest freshman class, we are continuing to grow.
  2. Do you foresee us going into proration at the end of this year?  Probably earlier than that. After first of year when new governor looks at accounts and revenue income, he will most likely call for proration.
  3. What sort of support do you see coming from Gov-elect Riley? University representatives will be meeting tomorrow. He indicates an understanding of the role of research and economic development within the state. We are optimistic.
  4. Speak to the issue of the fighting between K-12 and higher education over funding and the fact that higher education always seems to be on the short end. Friction remains. Paul Hubbert runs a very effective political machine. The emotions of the public are K-12; you are talking about their children. We are working to get past and form coalition to work together with the Campaign for Alabama with ways to work together to increase amount of money available for all levels of education. Auburn has gone through all the streamlining and still there is not enough money. It is hoped that experience will help folks understand there is not enough money going into education.
  5. I have read of a proposal by Roy Johnson to separate the education budget into two separate budgets -- one for K-12 and one for higher ed. Is that a possibility or a wild idea? Wild ideas sometimes have a way of becoming law! What he really proposes is take K-16 (including the 2-year institutions), making it a function of state government and never being subject to proration. Auburn University has no problem with K-12 getting as much funding as needed. We do not support unlimited funding for two-year schools over four-year schools. Campaign for Alabama is looking at two-year schools as a work-force development system. Because of that it may be shifted back into K-12, where it used to be a division of the State Department of Education. Two-year schools were broken out in 1982 during the first James administration, making it the Department of Post-Secondary Education with a Chancellor and administrative structure.
  6. Any possibility of Alabama going to a Board of Regents system like Georgia? All four-year institutions are fighting for pieces of the higher education dollars. It would seem at some point in time all four-year institutions would have more level funding. There is no discussion of a Board of Regents at this time. The Campaign for Alabama is not discussing this at all. We have "formula funding."  If that formula were used, there would be level funding for institutions. We just can't seem to get the formula to work. Auburn' s state funding is about 60 percent of the regional average and others are at 90 percent. This is a definite inequity. If there is an across the board 2 percent increase in funding, the inequity remains. If the 2 percent total increase in funding increase were applied according to the formula, equity would eventually result.

 

Ms. Fulford left information about an initiative of Auburn Legislative Action Network, called Tiger Tracks. It encourages involvement in the legislative process by having individuals contact legislators about issues related to Auburn University. A calendar provides info about what should be done during a particular period of time. She suggested talking to legislators after the organizational session to get to know them. Then, during the regular session, she suggested contacting legislators about issues. The legislative plan for the regular session will be decided upon as the position of the new governor is made known and the direction for Campaign for Alabama is clearer.

 

 Ms. Harmon presented the following nominees to serve on the A&P Nominations committee:

Dianne Jay, Office of Sponsored Programs

Mary Ann McKenzie, Internal Auditing

Dianne Anderson, Research Institute

A motion by Kim Trupp, seconded by Drew Burgering, to accept the nominations as presented passed.

 

Committee reports

 

The Nominations Committee is working on recommendations for getting better representation. There are problems arising out of shifting of Vice-Presidents every year resulting in unbalanced representation. Ms. Harmon called attention to the separation of Alumni & Development between two Vice-Presidents. That division has resulted in no representation on the Assembly for Development. We need to continue to encourage people to participate and want to be involved.

 

Grievance committee has had more grievances come before it this year than at any time previously.

  1. Training with HRD and Staff representatives has already been held. The course will be offered on a regular basis.
  2. Guidelines do not address some of the issues coming before the committee. More detailed procedures need to be developed in conjunction with Human Resources. Record keeping and length of for filing a grievance and receiving a response are two particular areas of concern.

 

Ms. Harmon addressed a question from the audience about how committee members are selected. Surveys are distributed to A& P employees in the spring of each year. The nominations committee reviews the names of people who express willingness to serve on committees and develop a slate of nominees that comes before the Assembly for a vote. It was suggested in the future short bios about each nominee for Assembly positions are included when ballots are distributed.

 

The grievance process was explained. Extension Service, Faculty, A&P employees, and Staff employees groups all have grievance procedures. Our procedure is described on A&P website and also appears in the A&P Handbook, p.23 Administrative and Professional Grievance policy.

 

New Business: Tom Stofer requested the assembly consider scheduling a program in the future for Pat Deery to explain the Professional Enhancement Program.

 

Adjournment. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.