Meeting was called to order by President Pat Bauch. Steven MacCall, Secretary, called roll and declared a quorum.

Guests: Dr. David Beito

Absent: Bill Chaplin, Deborah Martin, Jerry Rosiek, Carol Donovan, David Arnold, Debra Novak, Peg Lyons
Alternates: Nancy Rubin for Margaret Garner, Marcia Winter for Carol Drolen

The minutes for the September 19 Faculty Senate meeting were approved. President Pat Bauch made some corrections to the agenda for today's meeting. The item "Provost Merit Pay "Policy" was changed to read "Provost Equity Pay "Policy" and the item "Graduate Faculty Referendum" was added.

President's Report - (Dr. Pat Bauch) - Pat reported that sixty-two people have enrolled for the next two and one-half day Diversity Workshop which is the next phase for training and organization. The three dates will be in December, January and February. Pat will be speaking to the Council of Deans encouraging them to attend. President Sorensen has requested that Pat speak to the President's Council, Vice Presidents and Administrative Staff encouraging them to attend the workshops. Some objections have been raised regarding the workshops such as, it is anti-intellectual and it is an indoctrination activity. Pat has exchanged e-mail with several people and met with two people who had several questions. After those questions were discussed, they were satisfied with the purpose of the workshops. Dr. Jim Otteson came to the October Faculty Senate Steering Committee meeting and expressed the concerns and questions of some of his colleagues. The Faculty Senate offered an open forum for those whot would come forward and participate. The question was asked if the group conducting the workshops, Crossroads Ministries, was a religious-affiliated organization. The answer was "No". For workshops for religious groups, their analysis is based on faith analysis. For secular groups, their analysis is value based. They are a 501C3 teaching institution.

Dr. David Beito, a former member of the Faculty Senate, began voicing his objections to the workshops. The President asked that he hold his remarks until the business of the Faculty Senate was completed. He had not requested to be on the agenda and was told he would be heard at the end of the Faculty Senate meeting.

Some Senators asked questions about equity pay. Pat replied that the Provost reported that there are policies regarding spending equity monies. The Provost tells the deans how much money is available and what percentage is available for equity spending. Then, the Deans are required to submit a detailed request based on a rationale. The Provost believes it would be detrimental to establish additional policies because the needs of each college is different.

A request had been made about ACHE workload data progress. The Planning and Operations Committee planned to look into this, however, it was reported that there was not a lot of support from the administration concerning this issue. Pat reported, however, that the Provost and her staff have been working very hard and are in favor of using the Delaware study to gather workload data. The Provost has written many letters to Mr. Hector of ACHE . She, Bill Jones, and others in the administration are working to delay reporting due to costs and the fact that a large amount of student data, at tremendous expense, has been sent to the Legislature, with no response yet about how it will be used. The Provost has taken the position that she will wait and see what is done with this data base before sending faculty workload data. Dean Ron Rogers goes to all ACHE meetings and would be an excellent source of information along with Bill Jones.

The Provost will be sending out a faculty referendum regarding the evaluation of the Dean of the Graduate School, Ron Rogers. The Provost is required to notify the Faculty Senate when such a referendum will be sent. She will be asking Graduate Faculty to vote on whether Dean Rogers should be evaluated. It would be his five year evaluation If the percentage is 25% desiring or 1/3 of total divisional faculty in favor of an evaluation, he would then be evaluated. This would occur before the "Evaluation of Deans and Chairs" resolution is approved as policy.

Vice President's Report - (Norm Baldwin) - Norm distributed the results of the Priority Survey filled out by Senators rating the importance of issues to be considered by the Faculty Senate. Four of the top ten issues concerned salaries and reimbursements. Next came technological support and multi-media classrooms. The issue of governance, input into the University budget and Master Plan were also listed. The domestic partner benefits issue had a tri-polar response with twelve people voting it should be a high priority, nine felt it should be a priority of medium importance and nine were neutral. The Faculty Life committee will address this issue. Norm and Pat encouraged each committee to look over these issues and choose those that come under that committee's jurisdiction and give a report of their selections at the next Steering Committee meeting.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Committee meeting concerning ticket allocations resulted in a review of ticket allocations and an allocation policy. Faculty and Staff football season ticket allocations will be 4,000. Each faculty and staff member will be allowed to order four season tickets but if there is an over-subscription, the order will be reduced by two beginning with the lowest priority based on years of service. The allocation was increased from 3,984 to 4,000, which is an increase of 16 tickets. The general consensus of the Senate was that if there is a reduction, everyone should share in that reduction, not just the faculty. Compared to other institutions, 4,000 tickets for faculty and staff seem to be a relatively large number. The Alumni Office and alumni took the largest reduction this year. If there are any other concerns, please pass those on to Pat or Norm.

Secretary's Report - (Steven MacCall) On our Faculty Senate Web Page, we are developing links to University Standing Committees, Senate committees, committee minutes and reports. This will build a historic base and also makes it easy to access information.

The search for a dean of the College of Continuing Studies has narrowed to three applicants and a selection will be made after the October 31 meeting.

Everyone was encouraged to send their minutes to Steven to be posted on the web.

Financial Affairs Committee - (Keith Woodbury & Deborah Martin) The Financial Affairs Committee brought forth a resolution concerning the sweatshops that manufacture officially licensed memorabilia for The University of Alabama and other institutions. This resolution supports a living wage being earned by the workers in those sweatshops. There was an attachment listing comparisons of the Fair Labor Association standards and Workers Rights Consortium labor standards. The last paragraph of the resolution urges the University to join an organization supporting Labor Standards in underdeveloped and developing countries, which supports the right to a living wage such as the Worker Rights Consortium. This resolution recognizes the work done by the University in dealing with this issue in an effective and prompt manner. The committee working on this issue earlier recommended the University join the Fair Labor Association. At that time, the Worker Rights Consortium had few members. Included in the discussion was the point that WRC could actually be detrimental to the workers in that by supporting a living wage could possibly reduce the number of jobs available in those countries. WRC supports a 48-hour workweek, no mandatory overtime and one day off every seven days plus holidays. FLA supports a 60-hour workweek and compulsory overtime. The resolution urges the University to join an organization that supports fair labor standards. They are not asked to cancel any membership. Strong objections to the last paragraph and concerns about the economic impact of a comparable living wage on the worker and their country were voiced. For example, there were only three faculty members on the committee and this violates the structure established by the University for membership of a committee. It should be a majority of faculty. A motion was made and seconded to amend the resolution by dropping the last paragraph. It was defeated. There was a call for the question. The resolution easily passed, but with minor dissent.

Whereas, The University of Alabama despises the exploitation of labor in underdeveloped and developing countries, and
Whereas, The University of Alabama licenses logos to producers which may have manufacturing facilities in underdeveloped or developing countries, and
Whereas, the Fair Labor Association operates to monitor the working conditions in factories producing goods under license by members of the Association, and
Whereas, the Fair Labor Association propagates a Labor Code of Conduct to the workers and trained monitors at the manufacturing facilities used to produce licensed goods, and
Whereas, the Labor Code of Conduct, and the Women’s Rights Rider and Factory Disclosure Rider, seeks to eliminate "sweatshop" conditions, but does not guarantee a living wage,
Be it resolved, that the Faculty Senate of The University of Alabama supports the membership of the University in the Fair Labor Association, and
Be it resolved, that the Faculty Senate applauds the swift and appropriate actions taken by President Sorensen to respond to the concerns expressed by student and faculty groups about the potential manufacture of University-licensed products under "sweatshop" conditions, and
Be it further resolved, that the Faculty Senate Supports the right to a living wage and urges the University to join an organization supporting Labor Standards in underdeveloped and developing countries, which support that right, such as the Worker Rights Consortium.

Other issues this committee is considering: the University ACT card commercial contractual agreement with AT&T, mail-order prescriptions, and travel reimbursement.

Academic Affairs - (Don DeSmet & Steve Miller) - This committee is continuing to examine undergraduate policies on suspension, probation, etc. They are gathering data on how frequently these are applied.

Faculty Life - (Wythe Holt & Rob Ingram) Wythe requested that due to the late hour the meeting allow discussion of the Diversity Workshop issue.

Student Affairs - (Rob Ingram & Dexter Gordon) The Senate considered last year the issue of Greek organizations allowing them to sponsor activities on Thursday nights where alcohol could be served. That was not permitted last year. This year Sybil Todd has decided to allow it with monitors and policies in place.

Senate Operations - (Norm Baldwin & Jim Taylor) This committee's responsibilities include monitoring attendance by the Senators and two unexcused absences with an alternate taking their place is allowed. Please notify this committee if there are extenuating circumstances.

Legislative Agenda Committee - (Margaret Garner & Scott Bridges) Jim Taylor gave a report that this committee met with Representative Tim Parker and his message was a dose of political reality. The AEA is becoming more aggressive. To be effective our faculty and staff must be organized, acquire more donations and become more active. Margaret Garner proposed a breakfast meeting with Howard Hawk, Head of the House Budget Committee. The breakfast will be Nov. 17^th with the place to be determined. Pat will send an e-mail reminder with RSVP to Linda Knowles and a reminder to join the Partnership. This is a voluntary Faculty Senate meeting with more information available at a later date.

Announcement - The Faculty Senate history document has been composed by Wythe Holt and is posted on our web page. Please read it and if there are corrections or additions, forward them to Wythe. At our next meeting we will vote approval of it as the Faculty Senate’s official document concerning its history.

Discussion on Diversity Workshops - A motion was made and seconded to suspend the rules and declare a 30-minute deliberation session to hear objections to the Crossroads Ministry Diversity Workshops being conducted on campus. Dr. David Beito, a member of the history faculty, was given the floor.

Dr. David Beito spoke about research he had done on Crossroads Ministry organization and Joe Barndt's book, Dismantling Racism, in which he states that all whites are racists. An example was given that one of the trainers, Anne Stewart, had statements on her webpage from people objecting to affirmative action. Inviting Crossroads to campus could be illegal since as a state institution it is illegal to take a position for or against legislation. Affirmative action legislation is being considered all across the country. Dr. Beito stated that there was a civil rights organization (FIRE) that stated they would bring a lawsuit and fight against the University for holding these Diversity Workshops. He feels it is public money being spent on a political issue. Dr. Beito would like no further funding for these workshops, which requires a 20-year contract with Crossroad.

Pat pointed out that no such contract has been signed with Crossroads, the workshops are the only agreement we have with them to provide services, and that anti-racism is a 20-year effort, not a 20-year contract. Pat asked what Dr. Beito would like to have done to further the cause of diversity rather than having these workshops. He replied that he felt individuals should take action on their own time and organize efforts to combat racism.

Pat responded to the charges of using University time and money by reminding everyone that the diversity issue is part of the White Paper authored by Dr. Barrett and approved by Dr. Sorensen. There are diversity workshops held all the time on campus. Individual racism is not the target of these workshops; rather, institutional structuresand policies are the focus.

Marvin Johnson wanted to know how this effort parallels other institution's efforts across the country. Pat responded that we would be the first major university in the country in opening dealing with systemic racism within our institution and the local community. Marvin replied that as a Southern, he could not be in favor of this effort.

Wythe addressed the religious question about Crossroads Ministry. They are not a religiously-based organization. The word "ministry" is not necessarily religiously related. Rob Ingram made the point that we are on dangerous ground if we advocate a particular political position. Everything about this organization leads him to believe that this is not the case. The issue is to develop a forum to discuss our concerns about racism, have open discussion, identify the problems and figure out how to deal with these situations. It is not the intent to have any kind of indoctrination. The idea is not to bring someone in to tell us there is only one way to look at the world. Everyone that attended the workshop on October 1 and 2 agreed to pursue those goals with this organization.

Deborah Martin asked how the Senate’s effort is involved with Human Relation's University-wide diversity effort. There is no specific relationship but they are working along parallel lines. There should be efforts made to coordinate these. We keep them informed and they keep us informed.

George Rable said that his experience was on a small campus with a workshop that had an unfortunate impact on that campus. They did not come close to achieving their objective. He felt that universities have become increasingly distracted with workshops.. He made the point that if the University really wanted to make a difference they would put more money into hiring more minority faculty.

Bob Sigler made two points. First, he thinks Dr. Beito feels we shouldn't be doing this at all and second, he doesn't care for the people doing it. Bob said he is somewhat embarrassed by the apathy on campus concerning race. We have a special obligation to make the maximum effort to become as clear of discrimination as we possibly can. We need the Crossroads organization in order to get our attention and focus on the problems. They will help us form a plan of action after analysis of all information, which comes from those attending the workshop.

Norm Baldwin made the point that public money being spent on a political agenda happens all the time: departments such as social science and engineering receive enhancement funds that come from political sources. Consequently, the whole university is enhanced.

Dr. Beito reiterated that Dr. Barndt stated that all whites are racist and blacks cannot be racist. He gave further information about FIRE and their web site address. He also does not understand why dissenting opinions have not been posted on the web. A statement was made that the e-mail sent by Pat inviting the faculty to attend the workshop gave the impression that it would be politically correct to attend and that it was mandatory. Neither is true. Others pointed out that they also do not believe this is a racist institution and that all white people are racist.

Dr. Beito indicated that Crossroads quoted scripture. Bob Sigler argued that academic freedom and freedom of speech must be maintained. Dexter Gordon said the name of the organization "Crossroads" means that it is an intersection of people. He feels that minority faculty leave the university because they do not feel welcome and comfortable here. If this was a religious organization, he would strongly oppose that. If you are serious about attracting people of color, then take the step of making those people feel that this is a place they can work and be accepted. Pat made the point that Crossroads Ministries are organizers.

Wythe made the point that the renovations of Foster Auditorium do not include a Civil Rights museum or memorial of any kind.

More than 30 minutes having passed, Pat offered to remain with those who would like to continue the discussion. The approximate length of the discussion was close to an hour.

Meeting was adjourned 5:20 PM

(Note: Dr. Beito and about a dozen Senators remained to continue the discussion for another 30 minutes.)

Posted 11/2/00