UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
Faculty Senate
Approved Minutes
11 March 1998
1 and 2. Call to Order and of Roll
The special meeting was called to order by Suzanne McGill,
Chair, at 3:00 p.m. in Library 5. The Secretary called the roll:
Present:
Allison, Ardell, Ballard, Broadus, Daughenbaugh,
Davidson-Shivers, Dilsaver, Engebretson, Evans,
Foster, Frederick, Hain, Hamm, Haywick, Kulkarni,
Labbe, Lally, Langan, LeDoux, Martin, Matthews,
McGill, McIver, Moak, Moore, Rodgers, Sauer, Sweet,
Swint, Sylvestre, Thurston, Tucker, Van Haneghan,
Vinson, Weston, G. Wilson, Zhang
Absent (excused):
Arata, Aucoin, Bell, Brandon, Chryslee,
Cromwell, Donovan, Dorman, Douglass, Fruh, Isom,
Izenburg, Kulkarni, McAfee, Moore, Mulekar, Parker,
Simpson, Vetrosky, C. Wilson, Yeoman
3. Completion of Pending Business
Minutes of the regular meetings of 12 November 1997 and 14 January 1998
were approved.
4. Report from the Chair
Suzanne McGill introduced Gordon Moulton, Vice President
for Services and Planning, who reported on the prospects for an
increase in state funding for the University. Moulton emphasized
that the particulars of his report reflected only the current
political situation in Montgomery, which will change many times
before the funding for USA is approved. Generally, USA has
yet
to recover the seven and one-half percent cut from the first
year
of Governor James' current term in office; funding since then
has
been level which means, taking inflation into account, funding
has decreased. USA currently is operating on a 1.7 million dol
lar budget deficit, and an additional 3 million dollars in cuts
have been spread throughout the O&M (non-medical) budget owing to
the funding reduction of the first James year. The Educational
Trust Fund split before the James administration was one-third/two-
thirds for higher education/K-12; in the James years,
the one-third for higher education has been decreased to 27%.
In this election year, James is proposing an eight percent
increase in funding for higher education salaries. Complicating
the financial picture is the RSA windfall caused by a change in
the accounting procedures; Moulton pointed out that the RSA in its
newsletter is urging caution about predicting additional windfall
amounts in future years. Moulton urged faculty to lobby the state
legislators for a funding increase, and said the the Council of
Presidents for the public universities in Alabama had gone on
record making salaries their top funding priority. McGill thanked
Moulton for his report, and he took questions.
Page 2
McGill reported that the president informed her that John Filer had
resigned as his special assistant.
McGill reported that two SrVPAA candidates were interviewed on campus and
the search committee was weighing the options. The VPMA search committee
will identify a short list of candidates from its application pool.
McGill expressed concern about the academic quality of courses now being
offered via the internet, and raised the issue of transfer credit for
courses offered by remote delivery, including correspondence courses.
McGill identified a nominating committee for officers and standing
committee chairs for 1998-99: Cindy Thurston, Richard Vinson, David Langan,
Pat Rodgers, Phillip Bell, and Jo Ann Broadus, with Pat Rodgers the chair.
5. Reports of Senate standing committees
Evaluation. Tom Hain reported that the annual survey of faculty opinion
and evaluation of administrators would be distributed the second week of
Spring Quarter.
Planning/Development. Douglas Haywick made no report.
Policv/Handbook. Richard Daughenbaugh reported that his committee members
had divided the pages of the handdbook amongst themselves and were
reviewing the document for possible changes/corrections relative to
semester calendar conversion.
Salaries/Benefits. Phillip Bell reported that the committee met on 4 March
1998 and reviewed the issue of a 10% salary increment for promotions, and
is also making an inquiry whether there is a limit to the number of times
one can seek promotion if one does not at first succeed. Bell led a
discussion of a draft resolution on promotion increments and agreed to take
the resolution to the committee again for further discussion. Bell reported
that the committee decided that administrative promotion policy was outside
its purview, and therefore had nothing to recommend on this issue.
6. Reports of Caucus Leaders
7. Old Business
8. New Business
9. Communications from the President
6, 7, 8 and 9: None
10. Adjournment
McGill adjourned the meeting at 4:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
T. Lally, secretary