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MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE

January 21, 1997 (Approved 2/4/97)

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

3:05 Minutes of January 21, 1997 were approved as written.

Role of the ombudsman: Dr. Gary Widmar, Deb Lewis, Nate Chouteau

UMKC Ombudservice pamphlets and longitudinal study sheets were distributed to the Senators. The student ombudsman position was created in 1991 to answer questions concerning a variety of topics. The Vice Chancellors met and agreed to contribute money to create this position. Since there was a vacancy in Vice Chancellor Widmar’s office, the position was housed in that office, though it is a campus-wide position. It is administrated by Deb Lewis.
The services of the ombudsman are advertised through, posters, flyers, etc., particularly in the Student Services building. It is also promoted on the UMKC home-page, under the “Help” selection, “New employees and faculty orientation.” This position requires a person with strong interpersonal skills, customer service experience, and an understanding of the process of “going to college”. The majority of questions come through phone calls initiated by students. A small portion of the calls come from staff, faculty, and the community. The ombudsman does not take on the role of negotiator or arbitrator. Instead, he/she refers people to the correct locale. There is very little contact with faculty members. The ombudsman person can be involved in an appeal. In these cases, it is the ombudsman’s role to make sure issues are correctly identified. Many calls to the ombudsman are anonymous. More undergraduates than graduate students use the service.

English Proficiency:

Mel George wants a finished copy of the recommended policy by end of month. A friendly amendment was passed on Section 1, the first sentence of the first paragraph. The sentence will read: “After the effective date of this policy, all persons who are applying for or appointed to a regular faculty position ... “. Two exceptions were made to the recommendations: Section 2, No.3, p.3. Academic Affairs wants the annual report kept on each campus and not sent to Central Administration; Section 1, No.1, p.1. Hiring of faculty. It was not recommended that a Dean pick the second person to make an informal evaluation of a candidate. Instead, the recommendation will state that the second person to review the candidate will be selected by Dr. Agapito Mendoza’s office (Affirmative Action/Academic Personnel). In recommendation No.2, p.2, if either a dean or designee felt that a candidate has problems which affect student learning, there was to be an appointment of a “3rd person” to review the candidate’s English language proficiency. This clause was removed from the process. Instead, the candidate will be directed to provide a speak score and/or go through a training session in English. There was much discussion about skipping this third person who was proficient in English as a second language. It was moved and seconded that the Faculty Senate accept the policy with the above changes. The motion passed. Should the attached form be part of the policy? It was decided not to include the form at this time. The questionnaire will be adjusted and the Senate will look at it later. It was agreed to strike the first three questions on the form. The vote on this recommendation (what to include on the form) was 17 ayes, 4 opposed, and 1 abstention.

Chancellor’s Memorandum No.77:

Les Chafetz distributed a memorandum he had written concerning Chancellor’s Memorandum No.77. Senators still did not have a current copy of Memorandum No.77, but one was found and it was copied and distributed. The current document and Dr. Chafetz’s comments will be discussed at the next business meeting.

Discussion of agenda items for UMKC/IFC Faculty/Curators' Breakfast meeting (March 20-21) when it meets in Kansas City

This meeting is being held in Rolla, not in Kansas City. We will have time to discuss this before the May meeting.

Faculty Welfare Committee:

Rich Hamilton passed out a table that noted leaves taken by departments from 1994 through 1997. The table generated by Central Administration did not accurate reflect leaves taken on our campus. Even the figures our own campus gathered do not appear to be accurate. Since Human Resources has to mark the PAF’s with leave information, it was thought that this may be a better source for these statistics. The committee will be meeting on February 12, at 7:30AM (First Watch in Westport).
The Future of Tenure: Robert Unger has sent the Faculty Welfare Committee a disk that has 150 pages of annotations to articles discussing the demise of tenure. Many of the articles cited have already been researched by the Faculty Welfare Committee.

Administrative Affairs: No report. The review of deans process is moving forward. Letters to the faculty will be coming out shortly. The question came up again as to why Deans are reviewed and not other administrators?

COPE Representative: The Faculty Senate needs to appoint a replacement for Pat McSwegin. This body will meet with Dr. Marvin Querry to discuss its charge. This involves selecting from each unit, one or two committees for which a person would be a COPE evaluator. The COPE report is read and the committee spends about one-half day reviewing it and then it writes up a report. Khosrow Sohraby volunteered to be the representative. This is an annual appointment. The first COPE meeting is tomorrow from 3:30-5:30 in Mag Conference Room in the Bloch School.

4:45pm Adjournment

Present: Greg Arling, Jean Braun, Jane Carl, Les Chafetz, Robert Cleary, Ray Coveney, Alfred Esser, William Frederickson, Rich Hamilton, David Harris, Joseph Hughey, Kathy Loncar, James McKinley, Janet McKinney, Dennis Pyszczynski, John Rapley, David Schwarzer, Khosrow Sohraby, Nancy Stancel, Hans Uffelmann, Jakob Waterborg, David Yourtee
Excused: Valerie Blanco, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra , Steve Krantz, , Gary Pettett, Jan Russell
Absent: Julie Cheslik, Barbara Glesner-Fines, Ed Mills, Jerry Place

Respectfully,

Nancy D. Stancel

Secretary, Faculty Senate


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