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

Todd Hubing opened the meeting by introducing UM System President, Elson S. Floyd and announcing that President Floyd would be reporting to the council and answering questions after the Provost's Report.

B. CHANCELLOR'S REPORT - This report was presented by Y.T. Shah.

 

University Development

a. A draft of the UMR Strategic Action Plan was handed out. One aspect of the UMR Strategic Plan is that it will be aligned with the UM System Strategic Plan. b. The FY 2005 State Appropriations increase was discussed. 1. The UM System has set aside for UMR $750,000 for need-based scholarships. The campuses will be required to match the amount they receive from the UM System. 2. Each campus will initially be allotted two endowed chairs with two additional chairs being sent on a first come first serve basis. The campus must match the chairs with $1.5 million each plus a regular faculty position. If the campus does not provide the match by July, 2005 the chaired positions will be returned to the UM System.3. UMR needs identify two or three Strategic areas in which we can achieve national prominence by September. The campus will need to match any funds received from the UM System that are allocated to achieve these goals.

4. One goal that the university should strive to meet if for UMR to become a top 10, and eventually, the top technological university in the country.

C. PROVOST'S REPORT - This report was presented by Y.T. Shah.

a. Despite the general decline in interest in science and engineering among high school students, UMR continues to experience significant interest among potential students in these areas. However, the general decline in interest means that we will need to capture a larger share of the market. b. We will attain our target enrollment goal this year. c. The new ID cards are now available. d. ACT (AIM & EIS) training is now available for faculty and staff. e. Freshman enrollment is doing well, but we may need to shift the composition of the class. Transfer enrollment is down, but we are working more with community colleges in the St. Louis area. f. A concern continues to be graduate enrollment because of INS and Sevis issues. A steering committee consisting of the Vice Provosts and the four Associate Deans will work to identify strategies we must adopt to capture more of the US market, to address the international market, particularly China, where we used to recruit heavily.

g. Distance education will continue to place an emphasis on graduate education.

a. New awards through the end of June are expected to be $35M, an increase of 16% over FY03 new awards. We are on target to reach our goal of $50M within the next couple of years.

b. Through the end of May, new proposal submissions stand at $125M, up 7% over FY03.

c. We are partnering with the Shaw Group to submit a $400M/year proposal to manage the Idaho Education National Lab. This would be a 10 year contract.

d. On June 2, we had inaugurations for the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT), which is an $8.8M plus up project. This is a joint project with Boeing, the Air Force, and UMR.

e. The Missouri Transportation Institute has established a search committee for an Executive Director. Two candidates have been identified and a verbal agreement has been obtained with the leading candidate.

3.Undergraduate and Graduate Studies

a. CERTI is planning to start up July 1st. b. 13 UMR faculty members have applied for the new campus-wide Dean's Teaching Scholar Award. c. There has been a significant increase (29%) in the number of OURE Student Research Proposals submitted for the 2004/2005 academic year.

d. The new Residential College, will house a significant number of students. There will be three main areas of emphasis in the College: Leadership, Design and Research, and Entrepreneurship.

4. UMR Global

a. New Homeland Security regulations are impacting all international students. b. We are trying to get the UMR Global structure aligned with the other Universities. There is a proposal before the Curricula committee about creating a school of extended learning. c. Because of the workload at the Writing Center, there will be no more "free editing" of theses and dissertations.

d. Over $400,000 was distributed to the four School/College deans earlier this month for redistribution to their departments. This amount brings the total distribution to the academic units for the year to over $900,000.

5. Information Technology- All projects are on schedule

a. Issues discussed included power stability, information security, E-mail stability, networking and telecommunications, and consolidation of multiple web environments. b. Five task forces chaired by faculty members have been formed to address various IT issues. One committee is focused on the library, which continues to be impacted by increasing journal costs. It appears that journal subscriptions will be reduced by 25%.

c. Another committee is working to improve the operation of PeopleSoft at UMR.

President Floyd responded to questions that were posed to him by members of the Academic Council. Prior to answering questions, President Floyd also provided an update on the legislative session.

A. Legislative Update 1. The UM System has been engaged in thoughtful discussion with the State Legislature, particularly regarding the life sciences area. If the University of Missouri System is to become an economic engine for our state, we need to make sure that we provide academic quality across this spectrum and have a lot of ground that we need to make up very quickly. To facilitate this progress, the proposal to the State Legislature started with a requested commitment from the legislature of approximately $190M. Six projects constituted this request. This request was increased to $350M, but this level of support was considered too aggressive by the Legislature. 2. The addition of Northwest Missouri State University to the UM System was also considered during this legislative term. This issue has not yet been resolved. 3. Funding for the UM System stabilized during the last term. The General Assembly was able to include a modest increase to higher education funding. An increase of $20M was appropriate, of which $12M came to the UM System. The $12M will be distributed as follows: a. $2.7M will be allocated to UMSL to address equity issues. b. $1M will be allocated for the establishment of an endowed chairs program. This will require a matching commitment from private donors. c. $4M will be used to establish a new financial aid program that will require matching funds from the universities.

d. $4M will be allocated to help support Strategic Initiatives. Each campus will make a contribution to meeting the Strategic Goals of the UM System. One of these goals is that by 2010, we would like to have an increase of 10,000 students.

B. Question and Answer Session

Q. Can you comment on the reasons for the addition of Northwest Missouri State University to the UM System and on the financial support of five research institutions within the state? Will the accreditation of the other schools be compromised?

A. The addition of Northwest Missouri State University to the UM System is important since it gives us a presence in the northern part of the state, where we are currently only represented with extension and outreach, so that we can serve all Missourians. The UM System needs to be as efficient as possible with regard to the total educational package that it offers. Instead of a downfall in accreditation for the four campuses, the accreditation process for NWMSU will be improved. With regard to supporting five research institutions, NWMSU will not become a full fledged research university, but will offer selected doctoral programs.

Q. Can the funding level that was historically allocated to the UMRB program be restored.

A. The allocated funding level for this program was reduced, in part, due to the financial crisis that the UM System has experienced the past several years. It is a hope, and expectation, that this will be funded at a higher level in the future.

Q. Where do you see UMR fitting within the UM System and what are, and are not, our roles?

A. UMR is the technological University for the state of Missouri. There will be continued support for this role for UMR and for this institution to play a world class role in this area.

A. CURRICULA- This report was presented by Charles Chusuei

 

1. The committee moved to approve a name change from the School of Mines and Metallurgy to the School of Materials, Energy and Earth Resources. The motion passed.

2. The Curricula committee asked the Academic Council to accept the changes on the DC forms distributed with the agenda. The motion passed.

3. The Curricula committee asked the Academic Council to accept the changes on the CC forms distributed with the agenda. The motion passed.

4. There is a listing of experimental courses that was provided to Academic Council for information purposes.

B.BUDGETARY AFFAIRS- No report given.

C.STUDENT AFFAIRS- No report given.

1. A draft revision of the memorandum has been given to Budgetary Affairs. The action item in now closed.

4. NEW BUSINESS

 

A. ANNOUNCEMENTS-Mike Hilgers

1. There will be a steering committee formed to look at UMR's Strategic Planning Process and coupled budget model. This committee will work with the Budgetary Affairs committee. Mike has solicited and received nominations for this committee via e-mail. All faculty nominated will be invited to serve on this committee.

2.A web site will be established to keep everyone informed of progress in this area.

B. STAFF COUNCIL - A new representative will be elected for the coming academic year.
C. STUDENT COUNCIL- No report given.
D. COUNCIL OF GRADUATE STUDIES- No report given.
E. REFERRALS-Draft memorandum from UMR Global was referred to the Budgetary Affairs committee for comment.

Respectfully submitted,
(electronically submitted, 6/23/04 - 7:20 a.m.)
Robert Schwartz, Secretary