The Auburn Board of Trustees voted Friday to create a Presidential Academic Advisory Council to replace the current Faculty Senate and put in place a "Curriculum, Courses, Syllabi, and Core Educational Requirements Policy." The decision makes them the first in the state to comply with one of two major provisions of State Rep. Troy Stubbs' (R-Wetumpka) House Bill 520 (HB520), which passed at the end of the 2026 session.
Auburn's systems include Auburn University in Montgomery (AUM).
"Auburn is strengthened by faculty whose expertise, dedication and scholarship sustain the excellence of our teaching, research and service to students," said Vini Nathan, Provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, in a statement provided to 1819 News. "As this work moves forward, it will be guided by academic quality, intellectual rigor, educational excellence and clear communication so that the resulting processes reflect both institutional purpose and the values that have long shaped Auburn's academic community."
State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), the chairman of the Education Budget Committee, praised the school's actions.
"I'm pleased to see Auburn take these steps toward empowering the board and getting more accountability on their campuses. Auburn appears to be the first to do this, less than two months after the bill passed," he said.
The legislation states, "Only the governing board of a public institution of higher education may establish a faculty senate at the institution. It further explains requires that faculty senate leadership positions to be appointed by the university president."
It adds, "Taking the initiative to address things like tenure and the authority of the faculty senate, that's how we want our boards of trustees to govern across the state with each of our schools of higher education."
After the bill's passage, there was concern that, because Auburn and the University of Alabama's school systems are constitutionally established, they would not have to comply with the law or could delay compliance.
When asked if that was correct, Orr replied, "Well, yes or no."
Orr stressed that the Board of Trustees has the authority to make the changes as they did and said that by taking proactive action, they prevented a worst-case scenario and strengthened the school's relationship with legislative appropriators.
"We could have gone to court and litigated and fought, and they could assert their constitutional status, and we could say, you know, well, that's well and good, but on things like this, we still have authority," he explained.
"We do hold the purse strings," he said.
Auburn's actions and leadership have all eyes looking towards the University of Alabama and other colleges right now to see what they're going to do. The law goes into effect on October 1.
"We would expect all the schools, Auburn being remarkably early in the process, but my point is, it'll take the others more time, and that's to be expected and understood as they make these transition or transitory steps," Orr said.
"The expectation, yes, would certainly be that the rest of the institutions will comply with the law that was passed."
SEE: Ivey signs law allowing firing of tenured university faculty, limits faculty senate authority
According to the school, the Presidential Academic Advisory Council policy establishes a refreshed framework for faculty consultation. It is intended to provide the President, Provost and senior leadership with faculty expertise and perspective on matters including curriculum, educational quality, faculty affairs, student success, accreditation and institutional effectiveness.
Not everyone is happy about the move.
"These policies were adopted without meaningful faculty input, despite the fact that faculty—not the Board—carry out the academic mission every day. Faculty are not employees in a corporate structure to be managed through top-down authority," the Auburn AAUP wrote in a perplexing statement reported by Inside Higher Ed that ignored that an updated faculty committee will continue to advise the Board of Trustees.
Orr stressed that the changes were needed.
"The faculty senates had, in some situations on some campuses, garnered a role outside of where it should be, where it was almost shared governance with the Board of trustees. The trustees are the final authority, and the buck stops with them. They're the ones responsible and entrusted, as the name would indicate, to govern the campus, and they govern it through the president that they hire. It's their job to hold that person accountable to execute the mission of the particular university," Orr said.
In addition to the faculty senate changes, additional changes were made through a second agenda on "Board Policy on Academic Curriculum, Courses, Syllabi, and Core Educational Requirements."
"The Curriculum policy reaffirms the Board's oversight of degree programs, credentials, core educational requirements, courses, syllabi and related academic processes. It is intended to advance academic quality, transparency, consistency and institutional alignment while preserving meaningful faculty participation," the statement from the university explained.
The new policy stressed the board's role in maintaining a standard of excellence at the University and said:
- All new degree programs, academic majors, minors, graduate certificates, undergraduate certificates, and other transcript-recognized academic credentials shall be submitted to the Board for approval before implementation.
- All new courses, substantially revised courses, courses proposed for inclusion in degree programs, minors, certificates, or the core curriculum, and courses otherwise identified by the Provost as requiring review, shall be reviewed under the authority of the Provost before being offered to students.
In addition, "Before a credit-bearing course may be offered, the instructor for such course shall submit a current course syllabus to the institutional syllabus repository in accordance with the procedures determined by the Provost."
According to the school, "Auburn's Student Government Association has advocated for a campus-wide syllabus bank for years. The SGA supported students' ability to review course expectations, grading structures, required materials and major assignments to help students understand what a course entails before they commit to it. Many peer institutions, such as the University of Florida, University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Clemson University and Purdue University, have similar syllabus repositories."
"Students deserve access to the information they need to make informed academic decisions before they register for classes," said SGA President Willis Orr, a junior business analytics major, said in the statement. "This resource will give students greater insight into course expectations, workload and requirements while helping them build schedules that support their success. We are excited to see this long-standing student priority will become a reality and grateful to the Board of Trustees for making this possible."
Auburn Board Curriculum, Courses, Syllabi, and Core Educational Requirements Policy by aprylmarie.fogel
A second part of the Stubbs bill gave public institutions of higher education greater flexibility for reevaluating tenured faculty, which was not addressed at this meeting.
"It shouldn't be a situation of you once you get tenure, you have a job for the rest of your life, regardless of what you do," Orr explained.
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees will be on September 11. A copy of the full 175-page work packet from the June 5 meeting is available on the school's website here.
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