Criterion One: Mission and Integrity Core Component 1d: The organization’s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the organization to fulfill its mission.

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	The Faculty Senate The Faculty Senate [Senate] is the primary body representing UMKC’s faculty. Each school, except for the College of Arts and Sciences, elects two members to the Senate. Due to its large size, the College elects six faculty members to the Senate — two each from the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Sciences. In addition, the Senate has a non-voting member from the Staff Council and one from the Council of Part-Time Instructors. Five faculty members are elected to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee in university-wide elections. These five officers include the Chair of the Faculty Senate, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and two members of the Intercampus Faculty Council. (The Chair is our University’s third member to IFC.) The Faculty Senate Executive Committee meets monthly with the Provost. Faculty Senate meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and are open meetings. Usually the Provost attends Senate meetings to offer a report and to field questions from the Senators. The Chancellor attends as often as his schedule permits. Other administrative leaders are occasionally invited to the Senate for reports on their activities.
In the past four to five years, the Senate has become a proactive, rather than a reactive, body, helping to establish shared governance at the University and increase faculty participation in decision-making across the two campuses. In the process, many of the problems between the faculty and the administration have been overcome. A few examples of the proactive nature of the Senate’s activities are: The Faculty Senate Budget Committee took the lead in studying different budget and resource allocation models. This committee supplies three members to the University Budget Committee [UBC], which makes final recommendations to the Chancellor on budgetary policies and issues. Finally, the Senate leadership and the Faculty Senate Budget Committee played a major role in the design and implementation of UMKC’s new budget or resource allocation model. This represented the first major overhaul in many decades of the way our resources were allocated. The Senate took the lead in identifying the need for, and then developing, a UMKC Policy on Privacy in the Use of University Communications Systems, as well as policies and procedures for granting access to personal computer files when necessary for safety and security or law enforcement purposes. As a consequence of its work in this area, the Senate established a new standing committee, the Information Technology Privacy Committee, with faculty, staff, student, and administrators as elected members. Other significant policy statements established through collaboration between faculty and Staff Council and the University administration include: University Policy Statements on Academic Dishonesty and on Discrimination, Intimidation, and Sexual Harassment The Senate drafted University policy statements on academic dishonesty and on discrimination, intimidation, sexual harassment and the abuse of power. After campus-wide discussion and vetting with the Chancellor and Provost, the documents were adopted as campus policy statements. Faculty Grievance Process and the Establishment of an Ombudsperson on Campus The Senate requested permission from the Board of Curators to pilot a new faculty grievance process starting in January 2009. The old process, governed by the UM Collected Rules and Regulations, had proven overly cumbersome, time-consuming (some grievances were not adjudicated for more than two years) and unfair. In addition, the Senate, working with the Provost, has recently established the position of ombudsperson in order to address concerns and problems that faculty and staff may encounter. Revised Promotion and Tenure Guidelines and Processes The Senate led a push to revise the campus promotion and tenure guidelines and procedures. Working with the Provost Office, the Senate produced a new document that guarantees fairness and uniformity to faculty members in this most critical review process, a clear indication that shared governance is increasingly valued at UMKC.