Approved Minutes
15 September, 1999

1. & 2.Call to Order and of Roll

Present:

Spector, Thurston, Vetrosky, Arata, Bowers, Brown, Chryslee, Cohen, Dilsaver, Haywick, Jones, Labbe, Morris, Payne, Rogers, Bracken, Hsu, Kennett, McGinnis, Langan, Ryder, Trufant, McIntosh, Frederick, Strange,Hamid, Murray, Norman, Ballard, Brandon, Cepeda, Cox, Foster, Honkanen, Kayes, Nelson, Teplick, Townsley, Wesenberg,DeWitt, Doolittle, Weitzel.

Absent (Excused):

Allison, Caldwell, Hitt, McAfee, Miller, Zhang, Parker, Olsen, Davidson-Shivers,Ballard, Sternberg, Stevens, Tuck-Muller, Engebretson, Wesenberg, LeDoux, Weston. Wilson, Van Haneghan,

3. Approval of Minutes:

Minutes were not discussed during this meeting and will be approved next senate meeting. 

4. Report from the Chair:

Dr. Labbe discussed the Foundation Board meeting in Montgomery. Dr Whiddon made a motion to add a faculty member to the Foundation Board. Drs. Ledoux and Evans objected to this unless the President was also added. No further action on the motion was taken. None of the requests from the faculty senate to the Board have been honored thus far. 

To date, $4,345,660 has been received from the Foundation, and one million of this amount was a loan to the USA Health Services Foundation. (Only represents 1.59% of the Foundation net assets).

A Federal judge has ruled that the suit between Messrs. Brunson and Lanhan against the Foundation be moved out of Federal court and back to state court in Mobile.

Once again, the Foundation has granted Prime Health monies, this time 2.6 million during the August meeting. Prime Heath has lost major Medicaid contracts (3/4) of its business) and will probably continue to lose other contracts.

President Moulton will investigate other options for the administration of the USA health plan if Prime Health fails. (Prime Health administers the billing aspects of the USA health plan). The president encourages you to call Gerald Gattis if you are experiencing problems due to Prime Health.


The resolution passed by the senate during its last meeting met with some opposition. Some faculty and senate members did not approve of the resolution as they thought it was not fair to Dr. Whiddon. They also felt that the resolution made it appear that the faculty was Asiding@ with the administration. Dr. Labbe voiced the Faculty Executive Committee=s frustration with the lack of truth and Areal@ response from the Foundation.

Three of the four committees of the Athletic Task Force have concluded their investigations. The fourth, which has to do with football, has not. President Moulton promised to encourage the conclusion of this process.

Reporting on the renovation of the library, Dr. Labbe stated that after President Moulton had met with the architects, the best recommendation would be to build a completely new facility and use the old library for archives and storage. It would be less expensive to proceed in this manner. 

5. Reports from Standing Committees:

There were no formal reports from the standing committees.

6. Reports from Caucus Leaders:

There were no formal reports from the Caucus Leaders.

7. Communications from the University President:

President Moulton stated that a sick leave policy was approved August 26th . There will be sick leave hours given based on a faculty members years of service prior to the institution of the sick leave policy, but these days can not be applied toward credit for retirement. All sick leave hours accrued after the institution of the sick leave policy will count toward credit for retirement. Compilation of faculty compensation baseline data both within the University and externally continues. These data will be used for legislative purposes when appropriate.

The search procedures for the President and long range university planning committee has been named and announced. A meeting will be scheduled soon.

The USA Board of Trustees Budget Council recommended the following:

The sale Saenger Theater to the City of Mobile. A partnership with the city will allow the university use of the theater during specified times.

The sale of the university=s yacht Alice.

Search procedures for the VP for Academic Affairs, the Dean for Arts and Sciences, and an Executive Development Officer are in progress. There will be a search for a new VP for Medical Affairs when Dr. Baugh leaves/retires.

Campus enhancement efforts are underway. The president urges any faculty member who is having problems with the buildings or grounds to contact maintenance. A system for faculty and staff to request work orders is in the process of being set up.

Enrollment is down by 265 less freshman (2%), and 3% down on credit hours.

8. Old Business:

Mr. Joe Gottfried addressed the faculty senate in regards to establishing football at USA. He outlined a five year plan to raise funds, and stated that there would need to be local community commitment to the University=s plan. He also voiced that unless sufficient monies could be raised from entities outside of the university he could not see how a football program would succeed.


9. New Business:

Nominations for Faculty Senate Vice Chair were entertained as Dr. Bryce Evans retired. Elections were held and Dr. Dan Rogers will be the new Vice Chair. The College of Allied Health Professions will hold an election to replace Dr. Evans. The College of Nursing has elected Norma Doolittle, RN as a replacement for Ms. Swint who has retired.

An ad hoc faculty senate committee to continue to investigate football at USA was established. The committee chair is Richmond Brown, and members include Doug Haywick, Jim Norman, David Bowers, Steve Morris, and Steve Kayes.

10. Adjournment:

Elise Labbe adjourned the meeting at 4:08 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by:

D. Vetrosky, Secretary


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