MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE March 24, 1998 (Approved 4/7/98)

3:OOPM The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Kathy Loncar.

The minutes of March 10, 1998 were approved as written.

Announcements

Institutional Researcher - A search committee has been formed to fill the position of institutional researcher for the UMKC campus. The committee is chaired by Vice Provost/Executive Dean Marvin Querry.

KC Corporate Challenge - UMKC will again be participating in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge along with 138 other companies and institutions in the Kansas City area. The athletic competitions are held to raise funds for local charities. This year the charity is the Kidney Foundation. The Chair will be sending a letter to all faculty encouraging participation as athletes or volunteers.

Bookstore Study - Recently a study of the UMKC Bookstore was completed. The study examined the operations and budget of the Bookstore. The Chair will request a copy of this study so that the Senate may be fully informed. The operations of the Bookstore have become an important issue for both the faculty and our students. During this academic year members of the administration have criticized the faculty for failing to cooperate with the Bookstore in the matter of ordering textbooks. This criticism is unwarranted. The Chair will meet on April 8th with representatives of the Bookstore to identify problems and seek solutions. A report will be made to the administration following this meeting so that they might take into account the faculty's point of view.

Committees

Academic Issues Committee: No report.

Administrative Issues Committee:

1) Election of Senate Officers - Barbara Glesner Fines suggested some language changes in the letter to all faculty requesting nominations for Senate offices. These changes were approved unanimously by the Senate. The letter will go out within a few days with a request for nominations by April 15, 1998. It was agreed that the Senate will develop a set of written procedures for holding officer elections which expand on the minimal Guidelines in the By-Laws and Collected Rules and Regulations.

2) Deans' Evaluations - The Senate has chosen not to conduct deans' evaluations this academic year. The three deans scheduled for evaluation in 1997-98 will be evaluated in the 1998-99 academic year. The Senate will be revising the procedures and instrument used in the deans' evaluations and will also be discussing with the Chancellor and others the use of these evaluations by the Division of Academic Affairs. The Senate is very concerned about the lack of importance given these evaluations by the administration.

Faculty Welfare Committee:

1) Educational Assistance - Valerie Blanco Johnson reported that two senators met with members of the Staff Assembly who are working on the issue of expanding educational assistance to the spouses and children of employees. The Staff Assembly has researched educational assistance policies in other institutions and has requested that the Faculty Senate help them draft a proposal to be presented to the system administration. Robert Downs reported that the UM System Benefits Oversight Committee is currently discussing this issue with the system administration along with other benefits issues. He suggested that the Staff Assembly wait for the administration's response to the efforts of the Benefits Oversight Committee before proceeding with their proposal. It appears that the administration may have a favorable view of this issue since the university's trust funds have grown in recent months.

2) UM System Pension Plan- Robert Downs also reported that the university's pension plan is secure but the UM system contributes less each year to our pension plan than is contributed to the pension plans in other comparable universities. This is attributed to the fact that our pension fund is doing well and generating money allowing for a lower contribution by the system. The Benefits Oversight Committee will be making recommendations on how to use this money.

Intercampus Faculty Council

1) Benefits Proposals - Hans Uffelmann reported that the IFC is also discussing the benefits package and the suggestions for expanding educational assistance. The discussion included the point that it may not be advisable to send proposals on both the retirement plan and educational assistance to the system administration and the Board of Curators at the same time. This could prove to be detrimental to one or the other of the recommendations. The IFC did pass a resolution to increase the system benefits package.

2) Articulation and Transfer Agreement - The agreement of 1987 between the state's community colleges and four year institutions has been under revision for the last several months. A tentative agreement has been reached and will be offered to the appropriate state legislative committees by the Coordinating Board for Higher Education. There was some concern expressed during the discussion about the limited level of faculty participation in the revision process.

3) State Higher Education Appropriations - The budget recommendations for higher education appropriations from the House and Senate and from the Governor were significantly higher than last year. The Chancellor will review the recommendations for the Faculty Senate at the next meeting.

4) IFC Practices - The IFC has decided to create a document which details the practices that the IFC has followed for the last several years. The document would include the purpose of the IFC, the rotation of the chair among the four campuses, and voting procedures.

Other Discussion Items

Revising the Collected Rules on UMKC Faculty Senate: The Chair reminded the Senate that we need to revise the By-Laws of the Senate as they are currently written in the Collected Rules and Regulations. In particular, we need to update the section which defines the composition of the Senate so that we include the Coordinated Engineering Program, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Program, the School of Biological Sciences, and the new Department of Basic Medical Sciences. Other issues to be considered are the use of non -voting substitutes for senators, and proportional representation of the faculty.

There was also a discussion on the need to have all university service and in particular, service on campus-wide committees recognized and rewarded. This issue will be discussed further with the intent of developing a set of recommendations to be presented to the administration.

4:35PM Adjournment

Attendance

Present: Greg Arling, Robert Downs, Ann Dykas, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, Alfred Esser, William Fredrickson, Barbara Glessner Fines, Robert Groene, Ashok Gumbir, Valerie Blanco Johnson, Steve Krantz, Kathy Loncar, Janet McKinney, Jerry Place, Nancy Stancel, Hans Uffelmann, Nancy Weatherholt, Robert Willson, David Yourtee.

Absent: Charles Cobb, Ray Coveney, Joseph Hughey, Tony Manzo, Ed Mills, Dennis Pyszczynski, Tim Richards, Jan Russell, Khosrow Soraby, Don Thibeault, Jakob Waterborg.

Respectfully Submitted,

Nancy D. Stancel

Secretary, Faculty Senate