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MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE

October 15, 1996 (Approved 11/05/96)

The October 1, 1996 minutes were approved with minor corrections.

3:00 P.M. Kathy Loncar called the meeting to order

Faculty Senate Committee Reports: Academic Issues: Kathy Loncar reported that House Representative Kinder has re-introduced the “dead” Missouri bill on English fluency. The Chancellors needs a response by December 1st for interim UM President, Mel George. The Senate’s response should include recommendations proposed by the IFC in their summer session. Kathy handed out a draft policy statement for the Senate to review. She will not be turning in the statement for a week so any additional recommendations for the Chancellor can still be included in the committee’s report.
Administrative Issues: Barbara Glesner-Fines has compared the current version of UMKC’s draft copyright policy to the recommendations made by the Senate last year. All of the Senate recommendations were included in the revised policy. Barbara made a motion to move that she communicate to Jerry Jensen that after reviewing the policy, we thank the committee and accept the policy. Her motion was moved and seconded. In a call for the question there were 21 ayes, no nays, and one abstention.

Evaluation of Deans and Directors: Barbara brought up the question of who is eligible to evaluate deans and directors. She moved that as a general policy, all full-time faculty be eligible as defined in the Collected Rules and Regulations, unless circumstances require that we develop particular rulings. This would give the broadest reach for the evaluation process of deans and directors. It is not accurate to use the condition of “voting faculty” because it limits eligible faculty in some units. A better determination would be “benefits eligible” faculty. This will impact the Medical School but that can be resolved at a later time. The resolution was seconded to use the language “benefits eligible faculty” as defined by the Collected Rules and Regulations. This motion does not resolve the issue of visiting professors. It would exclude many faculty members in Biology and Computer Sciences and also research faculty and lecturers who are not permanent appointments. Can a full-time appointment be the distinction? At the Law School full-time faculty are FTE benefits eligible. The Senate does not wish to exclude those people are who are the most powerless faculty (untenured) in the unit and who have as much at stake as tenured faculty. A friendly amendment was made (and accepted) to exclude part-time faculty with 51% FTE. Some faculty are on bound contracts defined by a grant but they may be here for years and have a stake in the university. The term “visiting professor” if excluded in the process, would need to be defined by each unit. There followed much discussion and some dissension as to where one “draws the line”. Currently, the policy excludes visiting faculty members, joint appointments, professor emeritus, and faculty members who made an unsuccessful bid for tenure. A friendly amendment was made and approved, not to change that part of the policy. There was a call for the question. The result was 20 ayes, two nays, no abstentions. The approved resolution reads:

Faculty eligible to evaluate deans and directors should include all benefits eligible faculty members, with the exceptions contained in Section III-B. of the “Procedures for Faculty Evaluations of Administrators” (i.e., unsuccessful tenure applicants, emeritus professors, joint appointments in the unit in which they are not benefits eligible, and visiting faculty members).

Academic Issues: The committee has nothing to report yet. It was determined that Monday afternoons and Friday mornings are the best times for the committee members to meet. The committee will meet on Friday, November 1st. Kathy will call committee members with the time and place of the meeting. The first agenda item will be creating proposed guidelines for deans in the selection process for choosing honorary degrees recipients.

Faculty Welfare Committee: There is no report yet from the committee.

Intercampus Faculty Committee: There has been no meeting since the last Senate meeting. The next IFC meeting is this Friday. No agenda has been set as of yet.

New business: Can the Faculty Senate get a copy of physicians list’ for the health care programs?. This question will be given the Faculty Benefits and Welfare Committee. The topic of serious decline of cleanliness in the Law School bathrooms was brought up. Faculty members at that school met with Cecil Washington to discuss the problem. Five buildings on campus have this problem because the facilities are used for classes at night and are open to other students besides law students. The University News quoted the Chancellor about dormitory renovations. Although the information reported was inaccurate, the Senate was unaware of these discussions and is concerned that there was no sharing of information. Why was Senate not involved? Kathy Loncar asked if we should invite Dr. Joe Doerr to the next Senate meeting to give an update on campus facilities. Senators thought that this would be a good idea.

4:00 A motion to adjourn was made and seconded.

Present: Greg Arling, Jane Carl, Les Chafetz, Julie Cheslik, Robert Cleary, Ray Coveney, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, William Frederickson, Barbara Glesner-Fines, Rich Hamilton, David Harris, Joseph Hughey, Steve Krantz, Kathy Loncar, James McKinley, Ed Mills, David Schwarzer, Khosrow Sohraby, Nancy Stancel, Hans Uffelmann, Jakob Waterborg, David Yourtee

Excused: Jean Braun, Valerie Blanco, Janet McKinney, Jerry Place, John Rapley, Jan Russell

Absent: Alfred Esser, Dennis Pyszszynski

Sincerely,

Nancy D. Stancel


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