VOL. XXX, NO. 4

Minutes of the Academic Council Meeting

January 18, 2001

XXX,4. The meeting was called to order at 1:35 P.M. by President Don Myers. Roll Call was taken by the office secretary. Members absent were: James Stone, Matt Insall, Patrick Guinta, Richard Hall, Shubhender Kapila, S.N. Balakrishnan, H.L. Tsai, Lance Haynes, Ronald Bieniek, and Wendell Ogrosky. There was a motion to approve the minutes of the November 16, 2000 meeting as distributed. There was a second, and the vote was taken. Motion carried.

.1 REPORTS AND RESPONSES

A. PRESIDENTS REPORT

 

  1. President Myers called on Jeff Cawlfield to give a report from IFC meetings. Professor Cawlfield mentioned items of discussion at the most recent meeting.
    1. Faculty evaluation of Administrators
    2. Post Tenure Review Document-It was reported that the survey here concerning this document resulted in 45 yes votes and 5 no votes. At the other campuses-UMKC voted nearly unanimously in support of the document. UMSL voted about 2-1 in favor. UMC had 60% of their 437 votes against supporting the new document.
    3. Discussion and clarification about the Engineering department at UMKC
    4. Intellectual Property Rights
    5. Launching the new K-16 initiative
  2. President Myers reported additional items from the December IFC meeting.
    1. Discussion of encouraging administrators to look at dependent tuition assistance
    2. Vice President Lemkuhle voice his concerns about recruitment and retention of Faculty and what the UM System can do to assist in this.

B. CHANCELLOR’S REPORT

 

  1. Dr. Thomas gave a slide presentation on enrollment figures. He said the “tide has turned”, but we need to work together to keep that trend going.
  2. The Chancellor then showed slides of Ds, Fs, and Ws by section (See attached). Each of the sections listed had approximately 25% or more of the registered students receiving Ds, Fs or Ws. These sections represent less than 1% of all the sections offered by UMR. Further, the Ws were not recorded until after the 6th week of class. Dr. Thomas pointed out that many of these courses with a high percentage of low grades or withdrawals have the same instructors. He referred to a report distributed at the meeting from the Admissions and Academic Standards Committee.(See attached)
  3. The Chancellor said he will be speaking to the Deans and Department Chairs to encourage them to ACT NOW to correct this Problem. Dr. Thomas said it would do less harm to change an uncaring faculty member currently teaching an undergraduate section now than it would to let this go on.
  4. Dr. Thomas mentioned ways to assure turning applications into Admissions. He said he will be sending out a request to all departments to identify people who work well with young people to make calls to students who have applied. They would set up a time to answer any questions the applicants might have.(See attached).

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - There were no questions from the floor.

.2 REPORTS OF STANDING AND SPECIAL COMMITTEES

A. ADMISSIONS AND ACADEMIC STANDARDS-Professor Keith Stanek gave this report with an overhead presentation (See attached).

  1. President Don Myers mentioned the referral he had made on “sticking points” to this committee and the AD HOC Mentoring Committee. He said there had been no report from the latter as yet.
  2. There was a question from the floor about input for the conclusions on the committee report. No one from the committee was present to answer.
  3. Professor Jerry Bayless asked about ways to check the grades these students had made in prerequisite courses.
  4. Registrar Laura Stoll said PeopleSoft would have the capability to check prerequisite grades.
  5. Professor Ralph Wilkerson inquired as to when this would be available. The Registrar said it might be two or three semesters away.
  6. Professor Michael Hilgers asked if there were a target goal to improve the D, F, W rate. The Chancellor said the target was soon, and there is a need for motivation.
  7. Professor Neil Book said students sometimes take a W to transfer to another department when they realize they are not really in their chosen discipline.
  8. The Registrar stated that the Early Warning System the Retention Committee is working on will start in about two weeks.
  9. The Chancellor said he urges the Department Chairs to look at these Situations; they should know which courses have good reasons for the D,F,W rate, and which do not.

B. CURRICULA-Professor Charles Morris gave this report from their December and January meetings.

  1. Professor Morris first moved to approve the Masters of Engineering Degree in Materials Engineering. There was a second and the motion carried.
  2. Professor Morris then moved to approve the CC1’s from both meetings. There was a second and the motion carried.
  3. The EC1’s were presented for information only.

C. RULES, PROCEDURE, AND AGENDA-This report was presented by Professor Jeff Cawlfield.

  1. Professor Cawlfield said the Chancellor had requested that they look at the possibility of redundancy in the committees-both in the Academic Council committees and Chancellor’s committees.
  2. He said it is within this committee’s charge to keep check on the committee setup, and it will be doing this over the next few weeks. They will then bring a report back to the Council.
  3. Professor Cawlfield said some committees might need to be eliminated or combined, and possibly new committees formed that do not now exist.

D. PUBLIC OCCASIONS-Professor Jerry Bayless presented this report.

  1. 1. Professor Bayless passed out copies of the calendar for 2002-2003 that was approved by the Academic Council at the November meeting.
  2. At the time the calendar was set up for UMR, Spring Break was set for the first week in April to allow more time between it and the St. Pat’s Break. However, the Coordinated Calendar has Spring Break as the last week in March.
  3. Professor Bayless said the question before the Council was whether we should change our dates to comply with the Coordinated Calendar.
  4. Professor Paul Worsey said this would be a hardship on Faculty who have children in the Rolla Public Schools by putting them out of sync with their calendar. Professor Lenn Koederitz said the Rolla Schools set their calendar one year after we do, and they try to coordinate with UMR.
  5. Professor Bayless called for a motion to modify our calendar changing the break to the last week in March. Professor Greg Gelles moved to do this. Professor Charles Morris seconded, and motion carried with one opposed.

.3 No old business was presented

.4 NEW BUSINESS

A. STAFF COUNCIL-President Greg Harris gave this report.

  1. Mr. Harris said this group had their organizational meeting on September 14. He said their members serve two year terms, causing a 50% turnover.
  2. The group’s purpose is to support the mission of the campus, and also to represent the approximately 750 staff members. Mr. Harris aid they want to try to do their best to make this a place where students want to be.
  3. Mr. Harris announced that on February 15, Dr. Dale Henry will speak to staff on Customer Service issues-how to interact and encourage students. On February 22, the Wellness Bash will be held. Staff Day wil be on May 23, and Mr. Harris urged departments to allow staff the freedom to participate.

B. There was no representative present from Student Council.

C. REFERRALS

  1. The Administrator Review Issue was referred to Personnel.
  2. The Committee Review was referred to Rules, Procedure, and Agenda.

There was a motion and a second to adjourn. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lenn Koederitz

Secretary

*Minutes of the Academic Council are considered official documentation and notification of actions approved.