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MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE

November 19, 1996 (Approved with minor corrections 12/3/96)

3:00 PM Jean Braun called the meeting to order.

3:05 Minutes of November 5, 1996 were approved as written.

Faculty Senate Committee Reports:

Academic Issues: Kathy Loncar reported on for the Ad Hoc Committee on English Proficiency. She distributed a handout that explains the rationale of the draft policy. Specific points of the policy were addressed:
1. Hiring process of full-time faculty; the process leaves control of hiring at the unit level. There is no language in the policy that would block a unit from hiring a person. 2. The draft policy speaks to responding to student concerns.
3. In the existing policy, the section is not written yet that will address faculty who are not full-time regular faculty. It was suggested that Section 1.2.B. should say that if a candidate has taken an oral test at a different institution, that person should not have to do it again. In Section 1. 3.c. The Ad Hoc Committee is implying that an action on the part of a Vice-Provost to prevent the hiring of a faculty member, does not necessarily prevent the hiring of that person. The IFC recommended that the wording “A significant number” in Section 2.2., replace the qualified numbers of “5” & “10.” The draft policy was well received by the IFC and Mel George. The wording “the class can substantiate” what is considered as a problem in learning, may be reworded. The policy needs to be conscientious, but fair to the university. It should show the legislature that the university has an effective policy. The revised policy could also be included in the student catalog to address how a student issues a complaint. The Chancellor will get the draft policy by the end of the semester.
Administrative Issues:
Barbara Glesner-Fines reported that the evaluation packets for the Dean of Biological Sciences have been prepared and will be mailed out shortly. Barbara has received a list of faculty members eligible to evaluate the Deans of Arts and Sciences and Nursing. Those packets will go out soon. She will follow up with phone calls to each of the Deans to make sure that their packets are in the designated places for review.
Intercampus Faculty Council Meeting Report:
Interim President, Mel George spoke on the topic of the university’s sexual orientation policy. He felt that the university should affirm the idea that the university support’s each person’s opportunity to be successful, etc. The policy will be discussed with the Board of Curators. The UMKC Faculty Senate will forward our recommendation letter to President George, stating what we feel the policy should say.
Common Calendar:
One more guideline has been added to the policy. Spring break will always be the fourth week in March.. This change satisfied our Chancellor’s preference that it not be the eighth week. The recommendation was accepted by IFC. The IFC would like any additional comments about the common calendar that was passed last year from the units before we ask the Board of Curators to accept the guidelines.
The grievance procedure not addressed in this meeting. The criteria that only regular, full-time faculty can serve on the panel needs to be changed. Non-regular full-time faculty were accidentally excluded from being able to serve on the panel. Currently, two non-regular full-time faculty members serve on UMKC’s Grievance Panel.
A handout explaining the “Presidential criteria” was distributed to senators. This was created by the Board of Curators to serve as a posting for the position.
Faculty Welfare Committee:
The committee will meet after this senate meeting to schedule a time to convene. Dr. Joe Doerr and Jean Braun called Ken Hutchinson to discuss the continuing problems of communications between Columbia and the Kansas City campus in the distribution of health care information. They were able to get an extension until December 10 for the deadline to enroll in a health care plan. Jean talked with Jim McGill and explained that people need a set of instructions on preparing the forms, not just literature on the plans. The language of the health care information is difficult to understand. Dr. McGill suggested a committee be formed to review this.
MU Presidential Search:
Curator Fischer reviewed all of the suggestions presented to him to constitute a faculty advisory committee for reviewing the top three presidential candidates. He is not in favor of the campuses electing faculty members to serve on that committee. Faculty membership will be drawn from the Curators’ Professors’ list. There is another meeting this Friday (November 22) to discuss the Presidential search. Jean will take names our faculty recommends, and send them to Kathy Miller to give to the Board of Curators. There were no suggestions as to how each campus selects faculty members to serve on this committee. Curator Adam Fischer would like each Chancellor to select faculty members. The recommendation of also having junior faculty members serve on the committee was not well received. The next meeting is December 18. There will be a one Board of Curators meeting on December 13, in Columbia. The next General Officers meeting is December 3rd.
Our Senate got a list of Curators’ Professors for our campus. It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Faculty Advisory Committee these two names: Linda Voigts, George Thomas. The vote was all ayes, no nays, no abstentions. It was agreed that we should not select an emeritus professor for this committee.
There was no time at this meeting to discuss the issue of tenure. It was noted that on NPR today, the Kansas Board of Regents is looking into post-tenure review that would essentially eliminate tenure as it now exists for that institution. The Senate needs to write down its thoughts in a policy statement. Otherwise, we may soon be facing the same dilemma. (See NY times. Sun).
Executive Order 21:
This is a draft policy that deals with students with disabilities. Jean Braun requested that senators take the draft policy back to their respective units for comments from faculty. The issue will be discussed at the next IFC meeting. One difficult area is the problem of confidentiality on ADA issues, when different treatment in the classroom is noticed by other students. Should it be the responsibility of student to inform the class of a non-physical disability (i.e., needs more time on test)? This must remain confidential in the unit so often tests are given in another location. By law, we have to make reasonable accommodations. We need a document that speaks to the current state of the disability and its effect on the student’s ability to learn. The Senate will ask if Dee Steinle can come and speak about disabilities at our next meeting on this issue.
Adjourned 5:00 p.m.

Present: Valerie Blanco, Les Chafetz, Julie Cheslik, Robert Cleary, Ray Coveney, Alfred Esser, William Frederickson, Barbara Glesner-Fines, Rich Hamilton, David Harris, Joseph Hughey, Steve Krantz, Kathy Loncar, James McKinley, Ed Mills, Jan Russell, David Schwarzer, Nancy Stancel, Hans Uffelmann, Jakob Waterborg, David Yourtee

Excused: Dennis Pyszczynski, Gary Pettett, Jerry Place, John Rapley, Hans Uffelmann

Absent: Greg Arling, Jane Carl, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, , Khosrow Sohraby

Respectfully Submitted,

Nancy D. Stancel
Secretary, Faculty Senate

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