Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting
March 23, 2006
4:00 p.m.
107 Samford Hall

Attending: Conner Bailey (acting chair), Kathryn Flynn, Ann Beth Presley, David Cicci, Roger Garrison, Jack DeRuiter, John Heilman

Conner attended the meeting and served as acting Chair because Rich Penaskovic was out of town.  The minutes from the March 9 Steering Committee meeting were accepted as approved. 

April 4 Senate Meeting

Conner stated that we were not sure if Dr. Richardson would be present for the meeting.  

Action Items:
Art Chappelka will present the Academic Program Review Committee’s report and a resolution recommending adoption of this report by the Senate.

Joe Molnar will report on the evaluation of Administrators.  He will brief the Deans the day before the Senate meeting and he will brief John Heilman.  He will not present information specific to any individual. 

The reports from both Art Chappelka and Joe Molnar will be put on the Senate website before the Senate meeting. 

Gary Waters has been asked to report on the process currently underway to get athletics recertified by the NCAA.  He will report on AU’s NCAA Certification and the Academic Performance of Student Athletes.

A short discussion followed dealing with the length of the Senate meetings.  It was agreed that we would notify Gary Waters that there was a chance, given the length of the agenda, that he might get bumped to the May meeting. 

General Discussion

The Steering Committee then discussed the draft letter to Dr. Richardson detailing the input from Senators on the Fisher Report.

The committee discussed the issue of the ad hoc Committee on Organizations first brought up at the February 23, 2006 meeting.  After some discussion it was decided that the problems that originally stimulated the formation of this ad hoc committee were not widespread and that no further action was needed at this time.  Conner Bailey proposed, as a non-voting member, that Rich Penaskovic write to the Chair of this committee thanking her and the rest of the committee for the work they did.  This letter will be forwarded to John Heilman.  The materials provided by the ad hoc committee will be forwarded to Lee Armstrong and he can decide if any further action is needed.  It was noted that this is one of many issues that needs to be addressed in a revision of the Faculty Handbook.

The committee then discussed the letter Rich Penaskovic wrote to John Heilman concerning sabbatical leaves.  John Heilman has asked his staff to research what happens within units here at Auburn, at our peer institutions, and how it is done systematically. The issue is that there are so many needs competing for available funds.  Conner Bailey mentioned that there are faculty on campus whose careers have been furthered by sabbatical leaves and this should be considered when making a decision about the establishment of a fund for sabbatical leaves.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.