UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
Faculty Senate
Approved Minutes
February 20, 2002

1. Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 3:05

2. Roll Call:

Present: Bailey, Bowers, Bracken, Broughton, Foster, Garmon, Gifford, Hermanson, Kayes, Kimball, Kwiatkowski, Murray, Olsen, Perkins, Rogers, Rowe, Swofford, Temple, Townsley, Wesenberg, Wheeler, Willis, Wilson

Absent (Excused):  Boggs, Broome, Brown, M. Cohen, Dagenais, Ellis, Figarola, Gray, Guest, Hanks, Hill, Hsu, Longenecker,  Matheson,  Mozur, Pettyjohn, Shardo, Slagle

Absent (Unexcused): Barik, Blackwell, S. Cohen, Comstock, El-Saba,  Hamm, McNair, Miller, Painter, Spector, Sylvester,  Vest, Weitzel

3. Approval of Minutes:

The minutes were not approved due to the lack of a quorum

4. Report from the Chair:

Faculty Senate Chair Rogers told the senate about the executive committee meeting with President Moulton.  There have been some changes to the health policy to fix some overlooked omissions and improve some features for employees.  Diabetes care will be less expensive, radiology costs will improve, lab test costs outside of the University will improve and the University rate will be charged if an ‘outside’ physician uses a USA lab.  The number one gripe is drug copays.  The suddenness of the change and disparate charges.  It was brought up that we would have gone to a tiered drug copay system even if we didn’t change to BCBS.

The governor has signed the DROP bill for all state employees to try to get employees to stay longer.  Employees with 25 years of service and who are 55 or older may participate if they agree to stay 3-5 years or longer they can profit.  The University has a total of 123 eligible employees.  RSA homepage has information on it.  It is state law and begins June 30 of this year.  Sick leave time does NOT apply.  Not sure if time can be bought or not.

Building projects were discussed next.  The library addition is moving along.  All components have been bid out.  Using a construction management company may have slowed down the process but saved money.  It is estimated that it may be finished as early as January, 2003.  Intramural fields have been moved from next to Old Shell.  Contracts are out and land is being cleared.  One of the fields will be NCAA softball approved. 

Women’s softball sounds like a possibility.  Old Shell will be widened soon.  They are clearing trees and moving utilities now.  Completion is scheduled for 14 months.

On campus transit, funded federally, is being worked on.  Test vehicles are scheduled to be on campus Feb. 21, 2002.

The faculty senate executive committee reminded President Moulton that faculty want raises if possible.  He wants to give employees raises but don’t have the money yet.  He is considering presenting something to the Board in June.  There has been no hint of what % or amount the raises might be.  They will have to guess at enrollment income and tuition hike amounts if they present a proposal in June.

Elections are coming up very soon for faculty senate.  Retiring senators and present assignments on committees conclude at the end of March.  Please encourage other faculty to help.

Dr. Kayes mentioned RSA-1 457 and said faculty need to be aware of it.  There are brochures available from Personnel but the information is not being disseminated unless requested.  

Chairman Rogers commented that not many people were taking advantage of Southflex and many not taking advantage of TIAA CREF matching funds.  There have been some requests to reopen Southflex.  We can ask – it is possible after major changes have been made to the policy.  Some people thought it might actually still be open.

There was a short discussion of the sick leave policy.  The senate is trying to get this included in the Faculty Handbook by June if possible.

5. Reports from Standing Committees:

Chairman Rogers said that Sharon Vest and Isabel Brown were going to look into recognizing people who are not tenure track.  There is only one rank and they would like to have some recognition available.  Contact Isabel or Sharon to be on an ad hoc committee to help with this.  There were no other reports.

6. Reports from Caucus Leaders:

none

7. Old Business:

none

8. New Business:

none

9. Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 3:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by:

S. Murray, Secretary