Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
January 15, 2014
Professor Nelson called the meeting to order at 2:36 PM
Professors Present; Candice Nelson, Lacey Wootton, Barlow Burke, Daniel Abramson, John
Douglass, Artur Elezi, Larry Engel, Bryan Fantie, John Heywood, Clement Ho, Gwanhoo Lee,
Stacey Marien, Glenn Moomau, Mohamed Nimer, John Nolan, Arturo Porzecanski, Gemma
Puglisi, Jerzy Sapieyevski, Chris Simpson, Matthew Taylor, Elizabeth Worden, Provost Scott
Bass, Dean Phyllis Peres
Chair’s Report – Candy Nelson
Professor Nelson welcomed everyone to a new semester. She stated that she also wanted to
welcome Clement Ho who will be representing the University Library this semester. She also
stated that the announcement from Beth Muha went out introducing the new benefit Back-Up
Child and Elder Care by Bright Horizons. This is available now so please contact HR with any
questions.
Professor Nelson stated that the Family Work Life Balance survey was sent out yesterday. The
survey was created by the task force and was modified slightly due to the implementation of the
urgent care benefit. Please inform your colleagues to take the survey.
Provost’s Report – Scott Bass
Provost Bass stated that a memorial service for Don Myers will be held on January 23, 2014 at
3:00PM at the Metropolitan United Methodist Church. Don was an epic figure in the history of
this institution. He served at AU for 46 years. His vision and commitment to the university was
exemplary. He will be terribly missed.
Provost Bass encouraged the senators to visit the new SOC building. He stated that it is
spectacular and that the transformation of this historic building is remarkable. The progress of
the East campus is moving along. The buffer building is a technology and innovation building
and will house Physics, Math/Stat, Computer Science and the new gaming initiative. This
building will provide the necessary learning environment and learning spaces for the growth of
the university.
Provost Bass stated that the university received a million dollar gift for students to be engaged in
community based research. There will be a variety of programs around community based
research headed by Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies, Lyn Stallings. This will involve
students in projects in the neighborhoods that provide data and information back to the agency
and community. The hope to is to teach the students that attend AU their responsibility to give
back to others in a substantive and academic way, not just being a volunteer.
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Provost Bass stated that the Ann Ferren conference this year was very well attended. A continued
topic that was discussed was the development of university wide learning outcomes. There are
learning outcomes that are being used but are not being used university wide. This would mean
that every student that graduates from AU would have confidence that they would have acquired
the skills and knowledge from the outcomes. Provost Bass also stated that he would like to see
these considered by the Senate Learning Outcomes Committee and ready for the Middle States
visit.
Conflict of Interest (COI) and Conflict of Time Commitment (COTC) – Jon Tubman
Vice Provost of Graduate Studies Jon Tubman stated that he has been working with the Office of
Information Technology, (OIT) and purchasing to demo four different products for COI. He
stated they have been looking for a product that will be user friendly for a diverse group of
faculty. We have selected the program from Osprey Software Solutions. The product is external
to the university being cloud based. This was chosen for the reassurance of privacy expressed by
faculty. VP Tubman gave an overview of the step by step process of the program and a few
example questions that would be asked. He also explained the internal process of review for COI
as directed by the procedural statement of the university. The senators had further discussion and
questions about the Osprey process. Among the issues and questions raised were;



What happens to the information after it has been received and processed?
Will the disclosure statement be sent out annually?
Can you provide the senate with sample questions anticipated to be used.
VP Tubman stated that he would work with the smaller group developing the site to create the
questions and return with them to the senate. The disclosure would be sent out annually and after
the information is gathered in the Osprey site it will be sent to the appropriate person in each
school or college.
Professor Nelson asked that the senate re-visit COI after VP Tubman comes back with the
questions that are developed for the Osprey site. This will eliminate some of the uncertainty. She
also directed the conversation to begin on the issue of Conflict of Time Commitment.
VP Tubman stated that the draft that was provided was written by a subcommittee of the senators
and additional faculty members. He stated that he facilitated the conversation of COTC but it
was the committee of the senators’ colleagues that wrote the document. VP Tubman stated that
the procedural statement for COTC parallels the procedural statement for COI. It also states
disclosure and management, where necessary, is important to protect the reputation of the
university. The policy statement is codified in the Faculty Manual. In terms of outside activities,
the university will be asking people to disclose consulting, ownership, management or
involvement in other commercial enterprises as well as holding another job or a management
position at a commercial entity outside the university. The policy statement does not say that
these items are forbidden, but that they have to be disclosed to the head of the individual
academic units. The parallel procedural statement indicates that disclosure will happen once a
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year and that some disclosures may need to be managed. The senators discussed various aspects
of the COTC process, such as

Will the senior officials at the university have the authority to disclose discovered
conflicts?
Provost Bass stated that nothing will be disclosed unless involved in a legal matter.
 Confusion was expressed about summer earnings and clarity was requested.
Dean Peres stated that there are clear examples in the Faculty manual to reference.

Will Term Faculty on one year contracts be excluded?
VP Tubman said that this could be something to be discussed when setting the parameters
of who will be selected to receive the disclosure.

Will this process require a valid subpoena for the university to disclose the collected
information to a third party or will it be at the discretion of the President or Provost?
VP Tubman stated that this was an issue for General Council.

In the event that there is an unauthorized disclosure, what sanctions if any are attached?
VP Provost Tubman stated that this is also an issue for General Council.

Does this process require all faculty to report minor conflicts such as anything less than
one day a week?
VP Tubman replied yes.
Professor Nelson asked if the senate would like to table this discussion and have VP Tubman
come back with more clarity of the document and the questions that have been raised by the
senators.
Professor Nelson stated that she would let VP Tubman know that the senate tabled the issue of
COTC and would ask that he meet again with the committee that created the current document
with revisions for more clarity. She also stated that this would come back to the Senate in March
or April.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:06 PM
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