Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
*** The complete Recording for this meeting can be
January 14, 2015
Found at http://www.american.edu./facultysenate/agendas-minutes.cfm
Present: Professors: Lacey Wootton, Larry Engel, Candy Nelson, John Douglass, Maria Gomez,
Billie Jo Kaufman, Despina Kakoudaki, Iris Krasnow, Joshua Lansky, Christine Lawrence,
Jonathan Loesberg, Jun Lu, Mary Mintz, Glenn Moomau, Arturo Porzecanski, Andrea Pearson,
Steve Silvia, Chris Simpson, Provost Scott Bass and Interim DAA Mary L. Clark
Professor Wootton called the meeting to order at 2:35 PM
Chairs’s Report – Lacey Wootton
Professor Wootton stated that she had no discussion for the Chair’s report other than the
approval of the December 3, 2014 minutes.
Professor Wootton opened the floor for discussion of the December minutes. There was no
discussion; the Senate VOTED and the minutes were approved 17-0-1 in favor.
Provost’s Report – Scott Bass
Provost Bass welcomed everyone back from break. He stated that there are a number of
initiatives that are in motion and that it will be important to complete them in the spring term.
1) SET’s and the current system will no longer be supported as far as the technology aspect,
and a new system needs to be put into place. There has been a committee charged with
this task and the expectation was that the new system would be approved by the Senate
this term, allowing for IT to have a full year to implement in Fall of 2016.
2) Social Media Guidelines for faculty. A Senate ad-hoc committee is working on
recommendations from the Senate for faculty as to what to put in their syllabi in terms of
protection of intellectual property and use of recorded material in the classroom.
3) Graduate enrollement for Spring term did not meet overall budget guidelines for the term
and for the year. CAS has implemented a new management system and this has helped
CAS to exceed last year’s enrollment numbers. SPA is on target but the remining units
did not meet the target numbers for enrollment from last year’s numbers.
The law school’s numbers have been hit the hardest, which is a national phenomenon.
Both the law school and the MBA are showing a weakness. There is expectation of a
rebound over time for the law school as the economy improves and for the MBA and
other Masters Programs in the business school. Kogod has completed an agreement with
2U for an online MBA that will start in October of 2016. Additionally, approved by the
Faculty Senate • January 14, 2015 Minutes
Page 1 of 4
Senate Curriculum Committee is an online MA in Analytics, which will be intergrated
into the MBA.
4) The campus climate for students remains a sensitive subject. With the increased diversity
of the student population, there have been some negative exchanges. As a result Campus
Life and Interm DAA Mary L. Clark have worked together on a series of programs and
events for students and faculty on issues of race, gender and class.
Communications at AU – Terry Flannery
VP of Communications Terry Flannery gave an overview to the Senate of how emergency
communication is handled at AU. She presented the actual time frame and “chain of command”
on the event last December, “Gunman on Campus”. The step by step presenation showed the
connection with Public Safety, local authorities, students, faculty and the media.
Conflict of Time Commitment (COTC) – Jon Tubman
VP of Graduate Curriculum Jon Tubman returned to the Senate with the revised COTC
Disclosure Questions and draft form. The revised form was reviewed and tabled with some
changes to be returned to the Senate in February 2015. The changes included:
1) To include a reporting period on the face of the form
2) Put the procedural statement first before the reporting form
3) Clarify “1 out of 5 days” as written in the manual
Professor Simpson asked who would have access to the data provided on the COTC form: Who
from the Provost’s office has access. Does the Provost’s have access to the data?
VP Tubman stated that while the process goes through the intial set-up, he would be a systems
administrator. After the launch of the actual form to faculty, the DAA would be the systems
administrator because the data relates to faculty actions.
Professor Simpson requested that clarity be made on what information is exactly expected from
faculty as to time committement vs. monetary.
Professor Wootton agreed that the document be revised with the requested changes and brought
back to the Senate in February.
Budget Update – John Douglass
Professor Douglass stated that the University Budget Committee is midstream in the budget
process. The committee will meet again on January 23, 2015. For now, the revenue side did fall
short due to graduate student enrollment. There will be a tuition increase to catch the university
up with its peer institutions. The increase being looked at is between a 2 ½ to 4 ½ % increase as
approved by the BOT. Other increases include merit increase for faculty, minimum wage
Faculty Senate • January 14, 2015 Minutes
Page 2 of 4
increase for mainly students, medical and dental plan increases (Carefirst increasing 7 1/2% and
Kieser increasing 8%), transfer to the quasi endowment, and term faculty salary increase.
Faculty Manual Changes – Candy Nelson
Professor Nelson stated that when the University Library manual was combined with the main
campus manual, Thi Southern from Legal Counsel called attention to some areas that needed to
be revised. These changes are a result of this review;
Pg. 10 – Foreword, tabled for further review.
Pg. 16 – CFA Governance at AU – language changed for clarity
Pg. 18 – CFG Governance at American University – Clarity on DAA’s authority
Pg. 19 – General Conditions of Faculty Appointments – Clarity of “full-time faculty.”
Pg. 21 – Teaching, Scholarship and Service - Course load changes agreed to in writing. This
was deleted to reflect current practice.
Pg. 25 – Distinguished Professor/Librarian – Language added for clarity of DAA’s
responsibility and language removed because of redundancy.
Pg. 25 – Emeriti and Emeritae Faculty – Removed the word “approximately” for clarity
Pg. 26 – Affiliate Faculty – removal of the word “and” for clarity
Pg. 27 – Joint Faculty Appointments – Added “full-time faculty” for clarity and removing
duplicate paragraph currently in manual.
Pg. 29 – Template was included accidently and will not change.
Pg. 30 – Pre-tenure Credit for Prior Service – Current language redundant
Pg. 32 – Extension of Time for Tenure Consideration – Reorganization for clarity so reference
is added to language in Delay of Tenure.
Pg. 32,33, & 34 – Contractual Terms of Service…. – correction of letter sequence
Pg. 34 – Teaching and Primary Responsibilities – Language added to clarify minimum
expectations for evaluation of student work.
Pg. 39 – Dean of Academic Affairs and Provost Reviews – Corrected spelling of
“extraordinary”
Faculty Senate • January 14, 2015 Minutes
Page 3 of 4
Pg. 41 - Professional Obligations – Language changed to make section consistent with Section
10, General Criteria for Evaluation of Faculty
Pg. 41 – Professional Obligations – Language omitted to reflect existing practice
Pg. 68 – University Retirement Plan and Retirement Options – Tabled
Professor Pearson asked about the language on Pg. 34 Teaching and Primary Responsibilities
and how this language clarifies faculty responsibilities.
Provost Bass stated that this language is going to be clarified next year when the Senate works
on grade inflation. The proposed language is a minimal language fix for now.
Librarian Mintz asked if there was a current document for the university’s retirement incentive
policy. She asked if there was such a document. Her understanding is that the process is done on
an individual basis.
Dean Clark stated that in her experience it has been done on an individual basis. She is not aware
of any document.
The Senate VOTED on changes from pages 16-41 15-0-0 in favor. Changes on pages 10 and 68
were tabled; page 29 was included accidently and the Senate was told there will not be any
change to this section of the manual at this time.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:59 PM
Faculty Senate • January 14, 2015 Minutes
Page 4 of 4