Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
*** The complete Recording for this meeting can be
October 8, 2014
Found at http://www.american.edu./facultysenate/agendas-minutes.cfm
Present: Professors: Lacey Wootton, Larry Engel, Candy Nelson, Tony Ahrens, Sheila Bedford,
John Douglass, Todd Eisenstadt, Alex Hodges, Billie Jo Kaufman, Despina Kakoudaki, Joshua
Lansky, Christine Lawrence, Gwanhoo Lee, Jonathan Loesberg, Jun Lu, Mary Mintz, Glenn
Moomau, John Nolan, 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 2:40 PM
Minutes Approval – Lacey Wootton
Professor Wootton asked the senate to vote on two sets of minutes. The Senate VOTED and
approved the revised April minutes 17-0-4 and the September minutes 20-0-1
Chair’s Report – Lacey Wootton
Professor Wootton stated that there are university offices that already have Social Media
guidelines but there are none at this time for faculty. The two areas of concern are:
 How to develop policies or language that faculty can use for students to possibly include
in their syllabi to protect the faculty’s intellectual property
 Guidelines for faculty usage of social media to protect student intellectual property.
Professor Wootton asked for suggested names from senators units for an ad-hoc committee to
develop guidelines.
Professor Simpson requested that the Committee on Information Services be involved with the
ad-hoc committee in the development of this process, which Professor Wootton agreed would be
a good combination.
Professor Wootton informed the Senate that the Fraternity and Sorority Coalition Project visited
the campus. They met with a number of different campus constituencies, including faculty from
across the university. The committee was invited to visit the campus by AU to help figure out
what can be done to bring about best practices with the Greeks on campus. The faculty had
positive feedback with the sense of belonging and service work and expressed some significant
concerns:
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Academic performance drop for first-year students
Gender and class issues and their effects
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Provost Report – Scott Bass
Provost Bass stated the following;
 The upcoming retreat is full and is certain to be a great event
 The voluntary retirement program window closes October 20, 2014
 East Campus is moving along well and is sure to be a lovely facility
 A new University Enrollment Management Task Force has been put together to look at
the university infrastructure and how we serve the students, co-chaired by Assistant VP
Fanta Aw and Vice Provost Sharon Alston
 A sophomore class event was held to provide over 200 students that attended
information about all that is available for them at the university. It was a great success
and will be held again.
Ombudsman –Stacey Marien and Lauren Weis
Librarian Stacey Marien and Professor Lauren Weis presented a proposal to establish a
committee to research the possibility of having an ombudsman at AU. The interest has come
both from Stacey Marien as well as the ad-hoc Term Faculty Committee. Senators discussed
whether there is a need for an ombudsman, and this has been an issue on the senate floor in the
past, but with the change in the faculty as a body it was VOTED in favor 19-2-2 to establish a
committee to research the need.
SET Committee Report – Tony Ahrens and Lenny Steinhorn
Professor Ahrens and Steinhorn informed the senate of the results so far of the committee’s
findings. These include the use of SETs, the importance of meaningful context for SET results,
and the problems with the "summary" questions. The senate had a lot of discussion about all of
these issues and encouraged the committee to continue its research and to continue to solicit
faculty input, as well as student input.
Senate Blog – Larry Engel
Professor Engel expressed that he hopes the senate committees will begin using the blog site now
that there is active university information to discuss. He informed the senators that new log in
information should be in everyone’s email from CRTL.
Committee on Academic Budget and Benefits: Request from Faculty – John Douglass
Professor John Douglass stated that the senate budget committee has met and is asking for
reasonable requests. It is a lean year. There are already substantial requests for a tuition increase,
increase in term faculty salaries and others that he cannot yet share as they have not been
discussed with the committee at this time. It is important to get them in now for consideration.
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Professor Simpson stated that CIS does have a wish list that they will be sending to the
committee.
Provost Bass stated that the important information will need to be discussed and prioritized
Graduate enrollment shortfall has impacted the revenue and will affect the merit increases
The meeting was adjourned at 4:35PM
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