It was announced and congratulations extended to Dr. & Mrs. Charles Nuckolls, parents of twin girls Margaret and Catherine, born last weekend.

Jeremiah Arsenault, President of the Student Government Association, was introduced and addressed the Senate. The major issues being considered by this group is a recycling project, teacher evaluation, encouraging HEP membership and voter education and registration. Thanks were expressed for the opportunity to speak.

The University Supply Store supplied refreshments for the Senate. Robert Palmer, Director of the University Supply Store, informed the Senate of available services and highlighted financial contributions to the University. He expressed desire for better communications with the faculty, reviewed some aspects of the textbook ordering procedure including some legal aspects and the procedures of turning in textbooks. Academic publishing is available through the Supe Store. Since 1996 the Supe Store has contributed $992,000 to the University. A portion was applied to the three percent raise given faculty and staff. In the last 24 years, the Supe Store has reinvested $22.3 million dollars in the University community. The Supe Store is totally self-supporting and costs the University nothing to operate. They have a book loan fund available to students receiving awards, etc., for their use until funding is received. There have been student complaints that books are not available at the Supe Store. The Supe Store does not order 100% of the books listed. If enrollment dropped as it did last year, returning a large number of books to the publisher is very expensive.

Academic Affairs – (Beth Macauley & Garry Warren) The use of photos for identification of students, grade inflation and methods of encouraging class attendance are still under discussion by this committee. Norm Baldwin has composed a preliminary resolution calling for a concentrated effort regarding academic excellence. Dr. Hank Lazer will attend the next meeting of this committee. Input has not been in favor of mandatory class attendance for freshmen and sophomores. The committee would like any ideas, input, etc. to be emailed to them.

Faculty Life – (Wythe Holt & Nick Stinnet) Diversity of faculty is at the top of the list of issues for this committee. The difficulty of locating the equal opportunity statement on the University web page was brought to the Steering Committee. With the help of the Provost, this has been corrected and the statement is now available on the university’s main web page. A resolution should be ready for the next meeting regarding the policy of parental leave. Reallocation is also a concern of this committee. A resolution has been proposed, debated and divided into two resolutions with the first concerning reallocation and the second concerning external funding for the University, featuring tax reform. The members of the Board of Trustees and the Governor are asked to use all tools at their disposal to seek external and additional funding for the University. A member of this committee suggested a faculty bus tour around the state to various places to have interaction with the public. A suggestion was made to change the title of the "Resolution on Reallocation" to "Reallocation Alternatives". The Budget Reallocation Committee dominated by deans has had only one faculty member and after requesting that additional members be added, two additional faculty members will be elected at today’s meeting as members of this committee. Extra Steering Committee meetings have been conducted in the last few days concerning reallocation, resulting in the addition of two faculty members to the committee and a reallocation resolution. A motion was made to suspend the rules and consider the reallocation resolution at this point in the meeting. The point was made that referring to "tax reform" is a broad statement and should be more specific and that the public should be told we are willing to clean up our own house along with needing more funding. Over the past ten years, the number of faculty members has remained approximately the same with professionals increasing from 739 in 1991 to 950 in 2000. The resolution does not speak against reallocation but there were no other suggestions. It was suggested to add "pre-" to the phrase "K-graduate" which would read "pre K-graduate". Also the phrase "seems risky" should be changed to read "may risk the quality of some of the programs and functions of The University of Alabama". This was accepted. It was mentioned that "the deficiencies of education" be changed to read "a long-term solution to get adequate funding for education". This was accepted. It was suggested to ask for a freeze on administrative hiring. This resolution is the first step in the process of dealing with reallocation and the sense of the Senate was to have the resolution ready rather than wait until the next meeting. This resolution passed, with five opposed and three abstentions.

Financial Affairs – (Catherine Davis & Keith Woodbury) The issues of faculty being paid on twelve month rather than nine month basis, the possibility of sharing UAB health care plan which was rejected by the committee, graduate student health benefits, reallocation and the role of this committee in that process and funding sources for the University are being considered by this committee. A decision was made by the Chancellor for UA to share the same dental plan used by UAB and UAH. This was not processed through any committee before the decision was made. The Chancellor will meet with the Steering Committee next week to discuss this and other issues.

Planning & Operations – (John Mason & Matthew Winston) – This committee is considering the equal dispensation of salaries across campus and data is being collected regarding this issue. They are also supporting the recycling project proposed by the SGA. Using Social Security numbers as a tool for identification of students is being investigated since this might open avenues to other personal information. A request has been made to secure 15-minute parking spaces at Ferguson for those using the Post Office. Economical campus space utilization is also being considered since the Shelby Building will cost one million dollars a year in maintenance and utilities. There are fifteen buildings on the horizon for the University but none will be built without a built-in budget for maintenance and utilities. The University has eight million square feet with 19,500 students and Florida State has eight million square feet with 26,000 students. The Chancellor has committed to increasing faculty salaries by college to SUG fifty-percentile average in five years. That will be approximately a 34% increase in faculty salaries from this past year to the year 2006-07. There are possibly three sources of funding for this increase: a three percent increase in state funding per year, the eight percent tuition increase per year approved by the Board of Trustees provided the University has $5.8 million dollars in reallocation. There will be millions of dollars in budget deficit and those additional funds that must be found will possibly come from internal reallocation.

Student Affairs Committee – (Clark Midkiff & Jeff Richetto) Frannie James has been invited to this committee meeting regarding the use of international students as teaching assistants and ideas and suggestions concerning other issues that should be addressed by this committee would be welcomed.

Senate Operations – (Frannie James & Harry Price) One issue brought forward by this committee is voting to allow the Graduate Student Association representation in the Senate. This was read at the last meeting since it will be a change in the by-laws and will be voted on at this meeting. Section 3 will read "Section 3. Access to Senate Meetings. 4. The privilege of the floor, including the right to address the Senate on any pending question subject to applicable rules or parliamentary procedure (deleting the phrase "and non-voting membership on the Steering Committee,") are extended to one delegate representing the Retired Faculty Association of The University of Alabama, one delegate representing the Professional Staff Committee, one delegate representing the Office/Clerical/Technical Staff Committee, one delegate representing the Maintenance Personnel Committee, one delegate representing the Student Government, one delegate representing the Graduate Student Association and one delegate representing the Office of Alumni Affairs." After a brief discussion, the change in the by-laws passed unanimously.

The election of two representatives to the Budget Reallocation Committee was opened with nominations from the floor with five nominations: Marvin Johnson, Bob Sigler, Amy Ward, Harry Price and Jim Otteson. The votes were counted with Bob Sigler and Harry Price being elected and those names being passed along to the President of the University.

Legislative Agenda Committee – (Margaret Garner) The Legislative Breakfast was held with Bob Riley as the featured speaker with 120 attending. Emails will be sent with information about the next meeting and speaker. The HEP Executive Board has adopted a combined statement regarding the problems facing higher education and education in general. This was handed out at the meeting. This would assist anyone wishing to speak or write to a legislator concerning funding and other problems of education. The "Constitutional Reform Seminar" will be held Thursday, September 26^th at 3:30 pm in Room #310 Bidgood conducted by Bailey Thomson.

President’s Report – (Steve Miller) The President of the Faculty Senate will be attending the meeting of the Board of Trustees this week and the Presidential Search Committee meeting. Concerns of the Faculty Senate have been relayed to the office of the Chancellor.

Healthy Campus 2010 (Jim Eddy) is pursuing causes and solutions for retention, class attendance, social behavior, stress, mental health and improving the image and having a healthy campus at the University. Data is being gathered to be interpreted and applied to these problems.

Meeting adjourned 5:15 pm

REALLOCATION RESOLUTION

Whereas, the Faculty Senate of The University of Alabama applauds the announced intention of our Board of Trustees, our Chancellor, and our President to award faculty and staff raises at a level sufficiently high to ensure that the University retains its status as a national, comprehensive research university; and

Whereas, internal reallocation of funds at The University of Alabama is but one way to obtain funds for such raises; and

Whereas, primary reliance on internal reallocation, in view of the effect of recent prorations of State education budgets, may risk the quality of some of the programs and functions of The University of Alabama; and

Whereas, evidence is mounting that serious tax reform is the only long-term solution to inadequate funding of education (pre K - graduate) in the State of Alabama; and

Whereas, members of the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama are prominent and powerful members of the State community who have influence and prestige which can be brought to bear to seek appropriate changes in external funding sources for the University,

Be it therefore resolved that the Faculty Senate of The University of Alabama urges the Governor, the Legislature, the Board of Trustees, and the administration to seek additional sources of revenue for education (pre K-graduate) in the State of Alabama.

September 17, 2002
The University of Alabama
Faculty Senate
Originated by the Faculty Life Committee