Volume XXXIII, Number 6
Minutes of the Academic Council Meeting
April 22, 2004

A. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - This report was presented by Academic Council President Todd Hubing.

1. The Provost has approached Academic Council about forming a strategic planning committee whose goals would include establishing a long range vision for the University with regard to strategic vision and enrollment. This committee will have four or five administrators on it. Faculty members will be appointed by RP&A. Nominations are welcomed. This committee will be formed before the end of this semester and will start convening over the summer.
2. At the upcoming General faculty meeting three individuals will be elected to the Public Occasions committee. One person Student Awards and Financial Aid committee and one to the Student Scholastic Appeals committee. If you would like to serve please inform Lenn or Todd.
3. The IFC has met twice since the last Academic Council meeting and there are two issues to report:

a. The Board of Curators approved the revised Workload policy so it is now in effect.
b. An inter-campus committee has been investigating the establishment of conflict of interest guidelines and policies for UM System employees. Their report will be placed on the Academic Council website.

B. CHANCELLOR'S REPORT - This report was presented by Gary Thomas.

 

1.University Development

a. We had a successful weekend with the Academies including celebrations with major donors of UMR.2. Budget
a. It appears that the budget recommended by the House is virtually the same as last year. Because the Senate added about $20M to the budget, a compromise budget is expected. Therefore, we are possibly looking at an appropriation that is a little bit higher or the same, as last year.

b. In structuring the budget, it was based on the amount expected from the state, not the amount appropriated, to account for withholdings in prior years. Due to improving economic conditions in the state, we may have perhaps $1M dollars more than anticipated.

3. Building

a. The Mechanical and Aerospace building started out as a Life Sciences initiative but that bill is unlikely to pass. b. There are some other bills within will perhaps become law. One is to create a series of matching funds for chaired position in the Life science areas. UMR anticipated this and submitted a list of eight potential chairs in Life Science and biomaterials that have been approved, if the bill passes. The bill could create as many as 100 chairs if it passes. It is open to all colleges within the state.

c.The Jobs now bill is also unlikely to pass. Therefore, new facilities will most likely need to be paid for by the University.

4. Flat tuition

a. In 2001, The Curators of the University of Missouri passed a policy change that would allow UMR and UMC to have a flat tuition rate. All full time students would pay the same fee regardless of the number of hours taken, with a cap of either 17 or 18 hours. This would allow students to enroll in courses they might be interested in exploring in addition to those required for their degree program. This will be discussed in Student Council over the next few months.

C. PROVOST'S REPORT - This report was presented by Harvest Collier.

 

1. Information Technology

a. Power stability, heating, ventilation, and cooling in the data center are moving ahead. Construction is progressing to separate the old and new data centers.b. Information Security has improved and testing of critical servers is in progress.c. New streamlined work flows have resulted in great improvements in request response time. d. There has been a consolidation of multiple web environments. This should be completed in the next 12 to 16 months. e. E-mail stability deployment of Windows 2k3 has been completed. All IT mailboxes have been moved to the new server utilizing the Dell SAN. f. Fundamental operating issues- the solutions desk has been very helpful in solving problems on a timely basis. The evaluations of request responses have been generally positive. The helpdesk resolved 813 client requests in an average response time of 15 minutes. g. The IT department is looking into providing anti-virus software for all students. h. Support for the CLC is being evaluated. i. Wireless access is being considered from cost and location perspectives. It is estimated that the cost to install will be about $190 per office.

j. Server consolidation and Inventory are still ongoing. It is estimated that the consolidation is more than 50% complete.

2. Research

a. Proposal submissions through March have increased 10.2% from last year, from $93.8M to $103.3M. b. Proposals awarded to date are up 1.1%. Funded research totals $21.4M.b.c. The Missouri Transportation institute will launch on July 1, 2004, with a $2.5M contribution from MODOT.d. The $8.6M proposal for the Center of Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT) has been submitted. Hopefully, the University will be informed of the decision in May. e. More than 100 OURE applications were submitted by UMR undergraduates. It should be possible to place all students.

f. Eleven UMR students served as Ambassadors at the UM wide Undergraduate Research day held at the Capital. One student received a commendation.

3.Education

a. The Missouri Department of Higher Education has developed a new consortium on Measuring Valued Added Student Learning. More information will be forthcoming about this consortium that will survey 100 freshman and seniors to assess student learning during higher education. Twenty eight institutions across the state have joined the consortium. b. There is a new Deans teaching scholar award.

c. We are looking into having mandatory Tuberculosis testing for international students based on the significant increases in Tuberculosis that have occurred recently worldwide.

A.BUDGETARY AFFAIRS- This report was presented by Don Myers.

1. The committee met with Carol Heddinghaus and Steve Malott, to discuss the revised guideline impact on the budget model. Where there was a $4.9M deficit it is now showing a $2.7M deficit based on the new assumptions. This includes going from a 4% salary increase pool to about 2%.2. The Provost has asked the committee to look at developing a model for allocation of resources.3. The results of the budget reduction survey were sent to all faculty.4. The committee handed out a paper copy of their recommendations to the Academic council concerning the Budget. A copy can be found at: AC Budget Reduction Recommendations

5. There was a motion to accept the recommendations made by the committee. The motion passed.

B. CURRICULA- This report was presented by Charles Chusuei

 

1. The Curricula committee asked the Academic Council to accept the changes on the DC forms. The motion passed. 2. The Curricula committee asked the Academic Council to accept the changes on the CC forms. The motion passed. 3. There was a motion to approve the name changes for the following departments. The Department of English is requesting its name to be changed to the Department of English and Technical Communication. The Departments of Mining Engineering and Nuclear Engineering are merging into one department to be called: Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering. The Departments of Geology and Geophysics and Geological and Petroleum Engineering are merging into one department to be called: the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering. The departments of Ceramic and Metallurgical Engineering proposed changing the department name to Materials Science and Engineering. (Ceramic and Metallurgical are merging). The motion passed.

4. The EC forms have been submitted by University departments for experimental courses that will be offered in the near future.

C. STUDENT AFFAIRS - This report was presented by Hal Nystrom.
1.There were four constitutions submitted for approval.

a. Marshall Society

b. Amnesty International

c. The Financial Management Association

d. UMR Skydiving Clubd.

3 NEW BUSINESS

 

A. ANNOUNCEMENTS-Mike Hilgers

1. Mike is the representative to the Faculty Accomplishment System wide task force. There is an effort to have our entire faculty reporting activity to be electronic. 2.FAS met will move forward and have a reporting mechanism in place by this Fall

3.There will be a meeting on May 10 to discuss any last minute system changes. There will be an open seminar on April 29, 2004 to address any concerns.

B. STAFF COUNCIL - No Report Given.
C. STUDENT COUNCIL- The results from the survey on offering an MBA program will be distributed.
D. COUNCIL OF GRADUATE STUDIES- No report submitted.
E. REFERRALS-None

Respectfully submitted,
(electronically submitted, 5/24/04 - 12:30 p.m.)
Robert Schwartz, Secretary