UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA

FACULTY SENATE

2002 – 2003

Approved Minutes

Sept. 18, 2002

Humanities Bldg., Rm. 160

3:00 p.m.

 

MINUTES

 

 

1.  Call to Order—3:05 pm

            Agenda was adopted by voice vote.

 

 

2.   Roll Call

 

Present:  Aronson, Bailey, Barik, Bowers, Broughton, I. Brown, R. Brown, Dagenais, Dickens, Donovan, Ellis, El-Saba, Gamble, Garmon, Godfrey, Gray, Hanks, Haywick, Hill, Jefferson, Kimball, Kwiatkowski, Longenecker, Moreau-Johnson, Morris, Perkins, Peters, Pillen, Quinn, Rowe, Sanders, Slagle, Sylvester,  Tate, Wilson.

 

Absent (Excused):  Aldes, Cohen, Figarola, Gifford, Mozur, Robertson, Rodning, Teplick, Wheeler.

 

Absent (Unexcused):  Foster, McNair, Pettyjohn, Temple.

 

 

3.  Observation of a Minute of Silence in Memory of Fellow Senator Louise Hermanson.

 

 

4.  Mr. Wayne Davis, Vice-President for Financial Affairs:

            Mr. Davis was the first guest speaker of the day.  He talked about the new BCBS health plan at USA.  He handed out a 6-page handout about the USA Health Plan, with statistics and graphs, as a response to faculty comments in the faculty survey last spring.  Some highlights from the handout included:

             Employee cost:  Single premiums are $30 and Family premiums are $138—the same since 1990. 

            Employer cost:  Total annual premiums have more than doubled since 1992.

            Health care cost:  Pharmacy costs have risen almost 5 times in last 10 years.

            Pharmacy is now the leading cost of health care.

Some adjustments have been made to the original BCBS plan since its implementation in Jan. 2002.  Three of these changes were outlined in the handout.  Co-pay systems for both physicians and pharmacy received the most negative comments in the faculty survey.  Mr. Davis recommended to Pres. Moulton that there be a subcommittee of the Fringe Benefits Committee to look at the options for pharmacy costs to remedy the problems of high co-pays.

 

 

5.  Dr. Allan Tucker, Faculty Representative on the USA Foundation Board:

            The second guest speaker, Dr. Tucker, wanted some sort of consensus from faculty about their views concerning the USA Foundation.  Dr. Tucker gave a brief history of the relationship between the University and the Foundation. The biggest portion of the principal in the Foundation funds came primarily from the health care system. In recent years, this principal has been used to finance deficits in Prime Health system.

            Dr. Tucker believes the Foundation’s job should be how to manage the principal and make it bigger, and it is the University’s job to decide how to allocate the interest to the betterment of the University. 

            It was pointed out that money that is earmarked to specific programs should not be included as discretionary money.

            There is a search firm running a national search for a replacement for the Managing Director of the Foundation.  This is already in “internal” candidate for the position.

            Consensus was that the principal should be ensured, if not increased.  Money from interest that has not been already earmarked should be funneled to the University to be used as needed, rather than have it determined by the Foundation.  The possibility of developing a resolution by the Faculty Senate may help give the Faculty representation to the Foundation Board some leverage.

 

 

6.  Approval of Minutes of the July 17, 2002 meeting:

            Approval, with minor corrections, was carried by voice vote.

 

 

7.  Questions Regarding the Chair’s Report:  (submitted to Senators via email on 9/17/02)

            The Chair’s Report, concerning the long-range planning document, highlighted the point that the involvement of the Caucus leaders will be important.

            Senator Dickens questioned the statement about the replacement of Chairs and Deans.  Two years ago, tenured faculty of MCOB voted “no-confidence” of their Dean. Chair Brown questioned what has been done with the annual evaluation of Chair/Dean. A question was raised about the procedure concerning the replacement or removal of Chair or Dean.  Motion to defer the question to the Policy and Handbook committee to review the procedure/policy regarding the replacement or removal of Chair or Dean.  Voice vote carried the motion.

 

 

8.  Reports from the Standing Committees:

 

Salary & Fringe Benefits—Only 7 months of statistics have been gathered regarding the new USA health plan, but basically the plan is working, with the possibility of minor changes to the plan.  The committee will also look into the regional comparative of faculty salaries.

 

Planning & Development—The first meeting of the semester will be next week.

 

Policy & Handbook—The committee has not yet met this semester.  Potential issues may be sabbatical competition, in addition to issues already discussed.

 

Evaluation—Faculty Survey from 2002 has been completed.  Now looking at new information and points of view to develop next year’s survey.  Last survey had a lower response rate, but the survey was issued after the school year was over.  First meeting will be within the month. 

 

 

9.  Reports from Caucus Leaders:

 

Arts & Science—Senator R. Brown reported about meeting with their Dean.  Topics included vacant lines, sabbatical competition, and tenure process (the importance of the 3rd year review).

 

Education—Senator Brougham brought up the question of Moulton’s tenure as University President.  His five-year appointment is up in Dec. 2003.

 

Engineering—There was a question about where the bar-graph handout came from.  Chair Brown explained that it was from the “Realizations … Visions Achieved” which has been sent to all faculty members.  This was a follow-up to the long-range planning goals that were outlined in “Visions” which was developed in 1999.

 

MCOB—The Business School had their annual retreat with their Dean.

 

Medicine—Senator Aronson referred to the report that Dr. Boggs presented at the last faculty senate meeting.  The College has hired new a transplant surgeon.  All medical students have passed their boards.

 

 

10.  Old Business:

 

            No old business

 

 

11.  New Business:

            The faculty of the College of Education were concerned about an interim Dean taking over after the retirement of the current Dean.  The faculty of the College passed a resolution requesting a nation-wide search for their new Dean.  They also requested the support of the Faculty Senate in presenting the resolution to Dr. Covey and Pres. Moulton.

            Senator Morris requested that the long-range planning goals be reviewed carefully by the committees.  Comments can be given to the standing committees.

 

 

12.  Adjournment:

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm