ABSENT: Majeed Alsikafi, Martin Bakker, Norman Baldwin, William Doty, Sellwyn Hollingsworth, Rhoda Johnson, Robin Rogers, Alvin Winters, Alternate present for Marion Paris, Ashley Evans, Alternate present for Richard Lomax, Anna McFadden, Jerry Rosiek, Rocky Durrans, Perry Wheless, Alternates present for Norm Stein, Marcia Evans, Joanne Terrell, and Jerry Webster.

The roll was called by Margaret Garner, substituting for Norm Stein. A quorum was present and the minutes of the October meeting were approved, with minor editorial corrections, as distributed electronically.

Dr. Nancy Barrett, Provost of The University of Alabama, presented an interim report regarding White Paper. (Report was attached to the agenda.)

President's Report - (Rob Ingram)

The Faculty Senate Presidents from four-year institutions in Alabama met last weekend. Hank Hecter, Executive Director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE), spoke concerning the faculty workload database issue. An act of the Legislature passed in 1996 calls for two and four-year public institutions to develop a system to include an electronic faculty unit record system to provide meaningful, comprehensive and timely information pertinent to the formulation of decisions and recommendations by ACHE and Legislature. This collected information could be used to formulate decisions and recommendations made by the Legislature and ACHE. No one at this point is sure how this information will be used.

ACHE is responsible for designing this and deciding what is in it. Each institution, two and four year, will update this information about faculty workloads annually. Data will be reported at the individual faculty level. This information will then be reported to the Governor and the Legislature. An Advisory Committee will be established composed of various representatives of these institutions. Higher Education Information Advisory Group is an advisory committee composed of twelve people. These have been appointed by the institution Presidents. The University of Alabama systems representative is Kim Tama, a research assistant in the systems office. Most of the representatives are in institutional research because they will be responsible for collecting the data. There are thirty-four states that use performance indicators to assess professors and fourteen of those states use this as a basis for funding. Dr. Hecter does not feel that this is the direction Alabama is moving.

The basis for the faculty workload database push according to ACHE is that some believe (1) undergraduate education should be the first priority of the institution, (2) tenured faculty are not the ones teaching undergraduates, (3) education is too expensive with inefficiencies that decrease the value of education, (4) too many of faculty are being used for research and not teaching classes, (5) faculty workloads are less than justified by salary and compensation packages and workloads vary widely among institutions, and (6) increases in tuition costs can partly be blamed on declining teaching loads, non-productive research, bloated administrative hierarchies, and high salaries for faculty. Dr. Hecter stressed that this was not the attitude of ACHE, and the database will provide an opportunity to counteract some of these claims. Higher education has not done a good job of convincing the Legislature or the public of the value of higher education.

A proposed part of this database will be teaching load related, a part will be personal information, i.e.; social security number, gender, etc., and the third part will be general workload of faculty including advising students, assisting with thesis, books, research grants, etc. Dr. Hecter would specifically like to have input about what should be included in the third area. The Provost made the suggestion that a Faculty Senate standing committee or ad hoc committee meet with Bill Fenley, Director of Institutional Research for the University. Margaret Garner made the point that there is no provision in this bill to provide funding for the institutions to comply with these guidelines. Pat Bauch attended the PBS down-link of Accountability in Higher Education program. This is on a national level and it backs up what ACHE is requesting. We have an opportunity to help determine what the indicators will be and which are appropriate for our institution.

Vice President's Report - (Pat Bauch) There has been a delay in appointment of University Standing Committee members because of insufficient secretarial help in the President's office. The Committee on Committees developed a timeline to avoid this problem next year. Pat asked for volunteers from the Faculty Senate to serve on the Evaluation and Reward of Teaching committee.

Academic Affairs - (Carmen Taylor & Marion Paris) - No report.

Financial Affairs - (Norman Baldwin & Robert McLeod) The Committee reported on a meeting with Bob Wright concerning University financial issues. (Report was attached to the agenda.)

Planning & Operations (Marcia Evans & Jerry Webster) No report.

Research & Service - (Steven MacCall & Bing Blewitt) No report.

Student Affairs - (Dexter Gordon & Jim Taylor) The committee met last Friday and will continue to work with the Diversity Oversight Committee. Dr. Andrew Sorensen will address the Faculty Senate in December concerning this issue.

Senate Operations - (William Andreen & Bill Motes) - No report.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Committee met and a large part of the discussion was concerning the Board of Trustees setting up the Oversight Committee for the Athletic Department. The Board is not unanimous in supporting this committee.

A meeting has been scheduled by the Legislative Agenda Committee (LAC) for Tuesday, December 7 at 4:30 PM in Room 20-Alston Hall with all faculty and staff invited to attend. Chancellor Meredith will discuss the legislative plan for the year 2000. A letter will be going out to all faculty and staff inviting and encouraging them to join HEP. There will be a membership form attached with payroll deduction available as a convenience for the $1.00 per month cost of membership. Over 400 members participated last year but half of those were students. There are over 3,000 employees at The University of Alabama. Having close to 200 as members of the Partnership represents a good start but one which we need to grow aggressively. A communications team will be happy to come to any department to present the advantages of this membership. Faculty Senator Jerry Webster is co-chairing the Partnership Membership Subcommittee of the LAC along with Cathy Andreen of University Relations. Any suggestions to improve communication plasn for this year will be welcomed.

New Business - The vote on the proposed addition to the Faculty Handbook regarding a Faculty Wide Voting Policy ( Chapter 1, Section. V, item.D, page 12) was deferred until the next Faculty Senate meeting. It was determined that there was no longer a quorum present for voting.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 PM.