MINUTES UMKC FACULTY SENATE December 2, 1997 (Approved 1/13/98)

3:00 PM Kathy Loncar called the meeting to order.

Minutes of November 18, 1997 were approved with minor corrections.

Announcements:

1. The Chair will distribute the Senate draft and public minutes and the FYI newsletter on e-mail. If there are any objections to the public minutes, then they will be held until the next meeting for final approval. It is hoped that this method to post minutes will make them available in a more timely manner.
2. Parking regulations: All employees should have received the new booklet on parking regulations. The Parking Committee will try using hangtags for one year to determine if this will ease the parking situation for faculty and staff. Hangtags will not designate a specific lot.
3. Senate meetings for the remainder of the year: January 13, 27; February 3, 17; March 10, 24; April 7, 21; May 5, 19 (if necessary). On March 10, Faculty Senate will meet in the Administrative Center, C-1.
4. Guest presenters to Faculty Senate: A representative of the Women’s Council would like to address the Faculty Senate concerning graduate assistants’ funds. Much of this money has not been awarded in the past so the Women’s Council wants to make it known that awards up to $2,000 are available. Bob Simmonds (architect on the UMKC planning team) would like to speak to the Senate about physical plant plans and Becky Zahner (from Columbia campus) would like to address the Senate about participating in the campus master plan as a focus group.
5. Northwest Missouri State campus has requested a copy of UMKC’s guidelines for the evaluation of deans and directors. The Chair asked the Senate if it was okay to do this and the Senate agreed that this was acceptable. The procedures are posted on the web but the questionnaire is not. The questionnaire is currently being reworked. 6. No Faculty Senate meeting on December 16: The meeting has been canceled because this date falls during final exams week. The Senate officers wish to express their thanks to the Senators for their service and wishes all a happy and safe holiday.

Discussion with the Chancellor and the Vice Provost

1. Evaluation of Deans and Directors:

* Who should get the report? The Senate Administrative Affairs Committee felt that all faculty should get the statistical report but written comments should go only to the Deans and Dr. Marvin Querry because of privacy issues. There was some dissension by Senate members on this point.

* How helpful are these evaluations to the Vice Provost? Dr. Marvin Querry responded that the results to the evaluations were well written last year and he would like the Senate to continue to provide him with this information. He reads them all as do the deans and many faculty members. Dr. Querry uses the evaluations to discuss job performance with the deans. The formal evaluation may contribute to the dismissal of a dean or director but it would not be used by itself for a dismissal. The evaluation would have more impact for him if it was nationally normed and statistically validated. The deans and directors do go through a formal written annual evaluation that is used to set goals and measure the outcomes specified. There is a review of goals of the past year and discussion of goals for the new year which are based on the strategic plan. Deans and directors should be willing to share these goals and objectives with their faculty. Dr. Querry takes all appointments concerning Dean performance and feedback of this type is taken seriously. He is willing to help the Senate make this process more formal but this requires professional help to develop a normalized form. He would be interested in knowing how many schools have formalized the dean evaluation process.

2. The Virtual University: This topic is strategic issue number 6 in the Academic Affairs strategic plan and it is being developed by the ITEC (Information Technology Executive Committee). It will be whatever the faculty decides it will be. Dr. Querry sees the virtual university as a tool to extend technology and the reach of the university to those who are not on campus. An example of this would be the dual credit program. We intend to bring technology to those areas where technology is already successful. This is not appropriate for all students because some students need faculty contact. There will be intense competition to determine where we find prospective students in the future. We have maximized the number of entering freshmen to our campus. Nontraditional students are most likely to use long distance learning. The professional schools do not have these types of enrollment challenges and are able to maintain their enrollment. UMKC generates 30,000 off campus credit hours. Not many faculty have the equipment necessary to teach this way. There will be an instructional lab put into Miller Nichols Library that will be staffed and will help promote using technology in the classroom. The ITEC has discussed the organizational structure for campus technology and recommended that a chief information officer be appointed who reports directly to the Chancellor. Faculty can send comments to ITEC at www.umkc.edu/sites/itec (see also UMKC Inside 11/14/97). Dr. Querry mentioned that every dean has been asked to appoint a unit technology committee to discuss issues at the unit level.

3. Faculty Reward System: Dr. Querry stated that if a faculty member creates a rigorous portfolio on teaching that has a strong scholarly activity portion, the faculty member should be able to obtain tenure. Each unit has the responsibility to determine the criteria for achieving promotion and tenure using Chancellor memorandums 35 and 77 as a guideline. Research is a generic term that can be included as a part of the teaching component. Unit and campus promotion and tenure committees need to standardize criteria and this is an issue that the Faculty Senate should address as well.

Present: Greg Arling, Valerie Blanco, Julie Cheslik, Robert Cleary, Charles Cobb, Ray Coveney, F. Ann Dykas, Rafael Espejo-Saavedra, Alfred Esser, William Frederickson, Barbara Glesner Fines, Robert Groene, Joseph Hughey, Steve Krantz, Kathy Loncar, Tony Manzo, James McKinley, Janet McKinney, Ed Mills, Jerry Place, Dennis Pyszczynski, Khosrow Sohraby, Nancy Stancel, Jakob Waterborg, Robert Willson

Absent: Ashok Gumbhir, Jan Russell, Hans Uffelmann, David Yourtee

Respectfully Submitted,

Nancy D. Stancel

Secretary, Faculty Senate