MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE
April 15, 1997 (Approved as written 5/6/1997) |
3:00 P.M. Jean Braun called the meeting to order
3:05 Approval of minutes (April 1, 1997) Approved as written.
Business Meeting:
Announcements: Jean Braun: The last Senate meeting will be a luncheon to be held on May 6. It will be held in the Chancellor’s large conference room from 12:00-2:00.
University “Image Committee”: Rich Hamilton announced that the University “Image Committee” is looking into creative types of funding for the university. This would include partnerships in industry and business. Mike Woods of the UMKC Alumni Board, Subcommittee on Faculty Awareness suggested the idea of developing a proposal for an alumni center. There was also consideration that this alumni center house an alumni office, the Faculty Senate office and offices for other faculty centered services. There was discussion on the possibility of considering Epperson House for these organizations.
Classroom Calendar changes and scheduling: Hans Uffelmann addressed calendar changes and scheduling. Haag Hall and the Geosciences building will be closed as of September 1 and there will be displacement of sixteen classrooms. Royal Hall will be available for classes. A potential problem is that classes are already scheduled for the fall term. The scheduling of temporary classrooms will greatly affect the Arts and Sciences faculty and other schools because those are the classrooms other schools normally use. We need to ask questions of the Administration about the rescheduling of classes. The Student Services building and the “Aviation” building have been mentioned as replacement classrooms. The Arts and Sciences Dean has asked Dr. Doerr to provide scheduling early enough so that faculty affected by the construction can deal with getting to classrooms and parking lots that may be far apart. The fear is that as soon as the faculty leave after the semester, classroom scheduling decisions will be made that will be detrimental to students and faculty returning for the fall semester. The question was posed as to whether it is possible to get assurances from the Chancellor or Dr. Querry of what the classroom schedule will be before faculty leave at semester’s end. There is a public relations issue involved as well. If the temporary classroom schedule creates havoc for students and faculty, UMKC may lose students because of the affects of scheduling.
Resolution: “The UMKC Faculty Senate asks that Chancellor Schwartz urge Vice Chancellors Doerr and Widmar to proceed as expeditiously as possible in arranging classroom space, classroom scheduling, parking space, and shuttle services owing to the displacements caused by the pending renovations of Haag Hall and the Geosciences Building; and further, that in order that these displacements have minimal adverse effects on students, staff and faculty, that all these be informed of the new arrangements by July 1, 1997.”
Dr. Judith Killen: Report--Office of Graduate Faculities and Research position:
Campus Safety Issues: Dr. Bruce Bubacz: Dr. Bubacz is the Chair of the task force that is investigating campus safety and security issues. It’s this task force that dealt with the survey sent to senators. Angela Rusk (Chair of Staff Assembly) will also respond to questions senators may have. The task force was reconstituted from a previous committee to look into the safety and security of persons and property (i.e. issues that would engage campus police). The task force was given a vague charge to provide a white paper to be delivered to the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellors. In addition, Student Services has done a series of surveys on safety issues. The top priority of students has always been safety on campus and open forums were held around campus last week. The task force talked to people in various units and looked at UMKC’s strategic plan to determine future safety needs. For example, the projected increase in student residences on campus will change the character of some of the work police will have to do. There may be an increase “domestic disturbances” with more students residing on campus.
Suggestions made by the task force:
Present: Valerie Blanco, 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, Nancy Stancel, Hans Uffelmann, Jakob Waterborg, David Yourtee
Excused: Greg Arling , Julie Cheslik, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, Barbara Glesner-Fines, Steve Krantz, Ed Mills, Gary Pettett, Jerry Place, Dennis Pyszcynski, John Rapley, Jan Russell, David Schwarzer, Khosrow Sohraby
Respectfully Submitted,