On Feb. 17, the Auburn University Senate held its seventh meeting of the 2025-26 year, in which the senators discussed application and enrollment statistics, capital projects, initiatives and programs across colleges.
Introductions
Virginia A. Davis, University Senate chair, facilitated the meeting, reviewing her meeting expectations and processes.
"My goal is for senate meetings to be informative, timely and respectful," Davis said. "As described in the faculty handbook, The Auburn University Senate serves an advisory roll to the Auburn University president. The Senate was established with the belief that members of the University community who were involved in the day-to-day life of the University should participate in the formulation policies affecting the faculty and the academic life of the institution."
Rachel Prado serves as secretary, Lori Eckhardt serves as past chair, Jason Bryant serves as chair elect, Sunny Stalter-Pace serves as the secretary elect and Deidre Tilley serves as the parliamentarian.
The University Senate consists of 89 senators, and 50% plus one – in this case, 45 senators – must be present to have a quorum, which is necessary to perform official actions as a lawmaking body. This meeting was called to order with 60 senators.
The agenda for the meeting was developed in consultation with the steering committee and was posted on the Senate website on Thursday, Feb. 12.
There were no corrections to the previous meeting on Jan. 20, as the Senate unanimously approved the minutes.
Senate Awards
Davis shared that this is the second year of having Senate Awards, which recognize leadership of the senators and committee chairs. Nominations are due March 15 for the New Senator Award, Outstanding Senator Award and the Senate Committee Chair Award. Each awardee will receive a $1,000 honorarium. Details about the nomination process is on the Senate website.
Student Government Association
President Christopher Roberts was absent from the meeting, so Provost Vini Nathan read his remarks.
Roberts and the senior leadership team attended one of the official weekly meetings of the Student Government Association (SGA), and Nathan spoke about Roberts' approval of how business was conducted.
"Through the conduct of their business, our SGA leaders and student senators demonstrated vision, dedication and care for all aspects of Auburn University and particularly those that directly impact the student experience," Nathan said. "President Roberts in the entire senior leadership team thank the current SGA leadership for a job well done, and we welcome the incoming SGA leaders. President Roberts and his leadership team looking forward to working with all of them."
Roberts specifically congratulated Willis Orr, who will service as the president, Lilly Pool who was elected as the vice president and Jackson Morse, who was elected as the treasurer. He also spoke of the Miss Auburn election, congratulating Riley Johnson for being elected as Miss Auburn 2026.
Applications and Enrollment
In terms of enrollment, the undergraduate applications are in excess of 63,000, and the final round of decisions will be March 6.
"Our current focus as an institution is on yielding our admitted students, and we are paying particular attention to getting our in-state resident admitted students to deposit," Nathan said.
She shared that while tracking the fall 2026 graduate admissions, as of Feb. 10, there were approximately 2,800 applications.
"That's about a 15 percent decline from last year's unusually high volume, but it is almost in line with where we were in 2024," Nathan said. "So, one way to look at it is that it is a return to normal levels, rather than a downturn."
The biggest change in terms of gradate applications is on the international side, which is down 30%. However, there is a slight increase in domestic applications. The doctoral applications have shown the biggest drop and the master's demand remains stable.
Auburn Advancement
Regarding advancement, Nathan shared that Rob Wellboum, senior vice president for Advancement, and his team have been working alongside the Foundation Board and other advisory board members to prepare for the next comprehensive campaign for Auburn University.
As part of the preparations, the advancement office has provided three professional development workshops for campus leaders interested in donor engagement and philosophy. This was the first time that formal training was extended to departments heads and chairs, directors, associate deans and assistant and associate vice presidents.
While the campaign goals are still being developed, a key priority continues to be to increase the number of endowed positions of the faculty and to double the current number of endowed faculty positions.
Nathan also said that another goal is to establish endowments to recruit, reward and retain staff.
Capital Projects
At the previous board meeting, the board approved the previously mentioned list of capital projects, one in particular relating to the Haley Center. The board approved the selection of Davis Architects, from Birmingham, Alabama, along with Robert A. M. Stern as the team to conduct advanced comprehensive analysis of Haley. This will include options about replacement or deconstruction and rebuild or a combination of the two.
Compliance Review of Auburn Policies
The board also introduced and approved a governance and authority policy at the previous meeting, affirming the constitution and fiduciary responsibility for university policy, not creating new authority or expanding its role.
"As president, Dr. Roberts has been authorized and directed to lead a compliance and alignment review of administrative policies across the institution," Nathan said. "The president noted that the board expects shared governance to operate as it should through thoughtful input and perspective from faculty, staff and administrators. The board emphasized that nothing in this policy diminishes the board's commitment to academic freedom of the individual faculty member, the student and of the institution and nothing in this policy compromises due process or other constitutional rights."
The promotion and tenure process is in the advanced stages of review.
There have been 41 proposals from faculty from seven colleges for professional improvement leave and an ad hoc review committee.
Business Items
Committee member Carey Andrzejewski motioned to accept the revisions to the handbook. There were 67 yes votes to the proposed motion, so the motion was carried.
It aimed to focus on uniformity in reporting the vote and voter participation without compromising confidentiality, provide clarity regarding who may participate in the drafting of the departmental letter and enhance readability of section 3.6 point 5E of the handbook.
Secretary Rachel Prado led the nominations from the Senate floor for the Rules Committee. With three vacancies on the committee for August, an election will be held in March, and the winners will have two-year terms.
Senator David Miller nominated Peter Panizzi, professor from the Department of Drug Discovery and Development in the College of Pharmacy. Senator Danilea Werner nominated Kerri Munoz, assistant professor in Spanish from World Languages and Literatures. Senator Rebecca Riggs nominated Vinicia Biancardi, associate professor in neurosciences from the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Chase Bringardner, professor and associate provost for Academic Affairs, gave a curriculum committee report and encouraged members to volunteer for other committees.
Rehman Qureshi, president of Graduate Student Council, shared a few initiatives that are in progress.
Qureshi shared that in student initiatives, the focus is on modernizing the graduate governance experience, increasing the engagement of the graduate population, supporting the research activities of all graduate students and improving the affordability of graduate school.
He motioned that the Senate formally adopt filing recommendations for a scheduled 20% increase in the minimum stipend levels each year for the next three years. It will be debated and voted on at the March Senate meeting.
Andrew Pendola, nominating committee chair, shared an update on the candidates for chair-elect and secretary-elect.
The current candidates for chair-elect are Brian Anderson, professor in the College of Engineering, Carey Andrzejewski, professor in the College of Education and by petition, Sanjeev Baskiyar, professor in the College of Engineering. The candidate for secretary-elect is Luca Guazzotto, professor in the College of Sciences and Mathematics.
Katie Boyd, executive director for Academic Insight, provided the annual quality enhancement plan (QEP) update to the Senate.
Focusing on the 2025 cohort postgraduate outcome for summer 2024, fall 2024 and spring 2025 graduates, Boyd shared that there was an increase in the overall success rate because of an increase in the employment-seeking students' success.
"Nearly 75% of our students are seeking employment, while the remaining 25% are typically seeking some form of continuing education opportunity," Boyd said. "There was a slight decline in our continuing education success rates and increase in our employment success rates, although still shy of that 87% percent target that we'd like to hit by 2028."
Greg Peden, executive director of Clinical Health Services, shared an update within the College of Pharmacy.
Peden spoke of programs, including medication synchronization and Tiger Meds, a service offered to employees that provide tier one and tier two medication. Peden shared the medications are deliverable across the campus. He shared that there are now drop boxes for users to dispose of the medicine.
The Pharmaceutical Care Center has a Healthy Tigers program, which allows patients to receive a $25 discount on monthly insurance premiums for the employee and the spouse. The new program, Test to Treat, allows a pharmacist in the clinic to test employees, and if found positive, they can prescribe medicine for employees.
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