Volume XXXV, Number 7
Minutes of the Academic Council Meeting June 16, 2005 |
XXXV, Number 7. The meeting was called to order a 1:30 p.m. by President Michael Hilgers. Roll call was taken, and absentees noted were: Anne Maglia, Bob Aronston substituting; Charles Chusuei, Maggie Chen, Trent Watts, Michael Meagher, Martin Bohner, Leon Hall substituting; Gerald Cohen, Mark Mullin, Barbara Hale, Shari Dunn-Norman, David Van Aken, Paul Worsey, Gary Mueller, Robert Stone, Neil Book, Roger LaBoube, Tom Petry, Levent Acar, Don Myers, Hal Nystrom, S. N. Balakrishnan, H. S. Tsai, Richard Hall, Paula Lutz, Mariesa Crow, with Larry Gragg substituting; Arlan Dekock, and Debra Robinson with Carl Burns substituting. There was a motion and second to approve the minutes of the April 21, 2005 Academic Council meeting. The Academic Council body voted to accept the minutes. |
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A. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Michael Hilgers |
a. IFC Vice-President of Academic Affairs Steve Lempkeule has been appointed as the interim-chancellor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City which they conduct their chancellor search. IFC worked on modifying its charge by clarifying some of the roles we provide and how we appoint officers. I was elected chair for this next year, and Professor Kosbar was elected secretary as it's UMR's turn to lead the IFC. b. At the last meeting we discussed Executive Order 6a on joint appointments. We want to be sure that the collective rules and regulations reflect our understanding of the role of the non-primary joint departments sharing during the promotion and tenure process. c. UM Systems IT in general was discussed. President Floyd announced that the campus CIO was appointed associate vice president of the system. No money, just a title change. Purpose of this was to look for ways to be more efficient. We have 7 help desks across the system and we need to look to see if there are some ways that we can pull together in order to consolidate and to utilize our resources a little more effectively in this time of budget crises. We have been carrying on a conversation about trying to reularize that non-regular faculty title across the system. We've formed a sub-committee and I am the UMR representative and we have been hammering away on this emotional and challenging issue. I suspect it will be one of the big topics carried forward into this next year. d. A privacy policy is being discussed with regard to electronic information with initial drafts of guidelines that has been discussed with general counsel and its implications the Patrotic Act. e. IFC Retreat is August 4 and 5, and that is where we map out the agenda for next year. f. UMR level - April and May were busy with strategic plan and I shared with groups and received quality advice, which I will incorporate into the plan. g. AC and other key officers are planning a retreat this summer where we will get together and discuss our goals and action items we might tackle in this next year. h. University of Missouri-Kansas City is having political problems. This is disturbing because a group of local businessmen have formed a blue-ribbon task force who are trying to pressure the success of Kansas City from the UM system at the same time they are asking for the removal of President Floyd and disbanning the Board of Curators. I will forward this e-mail so you can be aware of what is going on. i. It has been an honor and priviledge to serve as Academic Council President and represent you throughout the system. |
B. CHANCELLOR'S REPORT - GARY THOMAS
a. We are now at 9.7 million dollars in private gifts and pledges toward the Mechanical Engineering Building. We had a plan to raise 11 million privately, and the remaining 10 millioin of the estimated cost of the building would be bonded. We are still 1.3 million dollars short of the 11 million in the minni-campaign to get that built. This is the largest year in private giving in the history of this institution. We are going to be around 18-20 million dollars, with it being around 19 million which is 2 million dollars more at the peak of our last capital campaign.
b. Curator's Meeting (which was 10 days ago). I thought it was a strange meeting. The Curator's asked that we cut expenses, especially the cost of administration. And, to come up with a plan to cut the cost of administration by 3%/year for 3 years. Cost of administration at UMR is about 20 million in four areas: Enrollment Management, Student Affairs, Administration, and Avancement is about 50% of that 20 million dollars. In Student Affairs, half of that is in Athletics
c. Will have the 1st. Residential college ready to be open for fall, and the building is almost full with the exception of about 3-4 beds.
PROVOST'S REPORT - Y. T. Shah
a. Recap of the handout sent. Enrollment is looking good and looking up. Research is up and will know by how much at the end of the month. Subbmission is obviously up. Happy to report the 1st. time graduation is one of the highest we have had at 64-65%, which is terrific news. This helps the image and enrollment of the university.
b. Computer Replacement - I have asked that Randy to make a report what IT did and what the satisfaction and policy is. Basically, it is 1 desktop/1 faculty every 2 years, which should satisfy the needs of the faculty. But, Randy will talk about that later.
c. We are moving forward with creating the budget model for our performances. Working our way through and as we gel some things, I would like to see it all become open and have the entire campus input into how we are affecting the performance of the various departments on campus.
d. I have two committee reports. Have a passport from of electronic library which was extremely well done. I have accepted the recommendations, and we will move forward with that.
e. Program liability submitted a report as well. They are economics undergraduate and environmental engineering undergraduate. The recommendation is that we need to give them a help and support. I accepted the report for both of these for the fall.
f. Lastly, I would like to thank Mike for a job well done, and I have enjoyed working with him, and I propose a round of applause for him.
2 REPORTS OF STANDING AND SPECIAL COMMITTEES
I have a request that Public Occasions go first. If there are no objections, I'd like to move forward.
a. Public Occasions - R. Kohser. Earlier this year Academic Council approved two calendars for Public Occasions for 05-06, and an Academic year calendar for 06-07. There are a couple of events that require modification for these. The first sheet for public occasions dates for 05-06. With the acquisition of a home football game on October 15, Family Day was moved to that day and when we put the original calendar together, Spring Open House 2 was just translated from the previous year, we didn't pickup a good friday actually with 2-3 weeks later this coming year and they wanted to place it on Good Friday so we've amended that date. So, there are two changes on the top basically for appropriate scheduling. U-Wide has approved a common calendar for all 4 campuses and that has necessitated significant changes in this 06-07. Spring semester - look at the resolution that I have appended on the back, it says Spring Semester will begin on the Monday before Martin Luther Kind Day for UM-Rolla. That is true about 5 years out of every 6 years. In 06-07, Martin Luther King Day occurred early in the month, and we originally opted to start afterward. We have since decided we can live with the earlier start date so we've moved everything up from that previous schedule one week earlier. You notice we are graduating early in May on the 12th, but since the fall semester ends early, the early start of Spring Semester seemed appropriate and we concurred with the common calendar. Back to Fall Semester -- there was a mandate set that all 4 campuses will have an entire week long Thanksgiving break. UMR has traditionally gone with a 3 day Thanksgiving break and a student council free day that puts a 3 day weekend in that long September, October, early November time period. By going to the week long Thanksgiving break which appears in the proposed schedule it appears that we will be foregoing that Student Council free day unless we jump through all of the hoops of an appeal that will go through Academic Council, Chancellor, President, and Board of Curators. That is still open because our public occasions dates are set a year later than the academic calendar, so we could initiate that appeal if we so choose. But, I think right now what I am asking for is approval of the calendars that are in compliance. Academic Council voted by voice and approved.
b. Budgetary Affairs - Robert Schwartz. To update you on the survey that was conducted recently, we are specifically looking at the budget shortfall issue. I will give you a little bit of background information on the survey. Again, we were focussing on looking on which model should be used for the shortfall. Faculty was presented with a variety of questions that they could respond to whether they strongly supported or opposed. The data I will show you today I will be presenting at both of the campuses as well as to the individual school levels, and in particular I will highlight the top five priorities for reduction in the opinion of the faculty. I want to summarize the restuls in terms of the model favored, our priorities, and school priiorities. Bob gave a summary about the survey. We had 113 faculty members responding to the survey, which is a reasonable number, which is about 35%. There were two models proposed with model A with a flat 3.372% cut for each unit including both academic and administrative. Model B was the model suggested by Provost Shaw after discussions with various constituenticies on campus. The results came back as 51% of the respondents favored model A, which was the flat 3.372@ cut with 36% favored model B and 12% not indicating a preference. All this data will be posted on the Academic Council web sit for people to take a look at in further detail. Consensus is to considate and streamline administration. The Committee recommendation is that Academic Council accept the report and it be forwarded to the Chancellor and Provost. Discussion and questions were taken. There was a voice vote taken and passed.
c.Curricula - Motions were distributed electronically, so unless I hear any objections, I'll consider them moved and seconded. Report was read and all were voted on and seconded.
d. ITTC - Frank Blum. This is a continuing referral, and the committee is still working on the referral items.
e. Library and Learning Resources
3 Old Business
a. Revocation of RSO Status - Postponed
b. Formula for Faculty Computer Replacement. Replacing 300 PC's/year. Information on web is updated frequently, and you can check there. Basically, the formula is 1 PC per 1 full time position every 3 years.
Mike Hilgers adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
(electronically submitted, 09/26/2005 )
Kurt Kosbar, Secretary
*Minutes of the Academic Council are considered official notification and documentation of actions approved.