Minutes - 1/20/2000

Call to order:

President Mikkelsen called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

Senators present:

Aschermann, Bargar, Brandt, Cronk, Fowler, Leonard, Mikkelsen, Nelson, Reidy
Roberts, Wagner, Wallner

Senators absent:

Brooks, Greiert, Hamzaee, McLear,

Ex-Officio:

Janet Murphy, president of Missouri Western State College

Guests:

Kathyrne Mueller, Ken Rosenauer

Meeting agenda:

The proposed agenda for today’s meeting was approved as submitted (Fowler/Leonard).

Minutes of the previous meeting:

The minutes of the December 2, 1999 meeting were approved as submitted (Cronk/Wallner).

Report from the college president:

MWSC president Murphy reported that Governor Carnahan has recommended cuts in several state agency core
budgets, such as welfare, social services, and corrections, but not that of Missouri Western. She distributed
Higher Education, FY 2001: Missouri Western State College, Governor’s Recommendation, in which MWSC’s
operating and capital improvements budgets are detailed (see Attachment A). She further reported that rather
than funding mission enhancement for FY 2002, other endeavors including inflation adjustments, possible
faculty salary increases and technology improvements, would be funded. After FY 2002, the concept of mission
enhancement might be revived but called “performance enhancement.” Next, she reported that the budget
recommendations go to the Missouri House on January 25 and then to the Senate on February 1.

Next, she reported on the recent Council on Public Higher Education meeting, for which she distributed copies
of its minutes (see Attachment B). She made special note of the discussion with Dr. James Appleberry in which
he presented the emerging areas of competition in which many two-year schools are being elevated to four-year
status and the development of the “targeted baccalaureate” degree by community colleges. In addition, she
pointed to the Council’s report and discussions concerning general education and charter schools.

Finally, she reported on her recent discussion with the Missouri Commissioner of Higher Education concerning
fees and tuition, indicating that a tuition increase at MWSC is likely.

Report on FFR:

Kathyrne Mueller reported that the North Central Accreditation seven-member team site visits to Missouri
Western will be on February 14, 15, and 16. They have scheduled a meeting with the entire faculty and staff at
2:00 p.m. on February 14 in MC 214-216. The team will conduct a campus-wide meeting for all students on
February 15. In addition to these meetings, the team will meet with Missouri Western’s board members and will
conduct entrance and exit interviews. She encouraged all faculty to familiarize themselves with the college’s
mission before the team’s visit. In addition, she reported that Funding for Results reward proposals and travel
requests are due on January 31 (see college website for details).

Report from the faculty senate executive committee:

President Mikkelsen recommended that all faculty read the Missouri Western self-study report which is available
in the college library, noting that a very good summary of institution strengths and weaknesses appears on pages
69 - 71. He reported that the February 3 senate meeting will include opportunities for discussion of the GESC
proposal and the presidential search issues. Concerning the search committee, he reported that he has had two
meetings with President Murphy and one meeting with Sally Sanders, Director of Human Resources, concerning
committee issues. Search committee faculty representatives will meet on January 21 to discuss issues, and the
first meeting of the full search committee will be at 7:30 a.m. on January 27. The senate executive committee
has discussed criteria for presidential candidates, and at the February 3 senate meeting it will be decided whether
a full faculty meeting to discuss the presidential search would be appropriate. The deadline for receiving
candidates’ applications has been extended to February 10.

Mikkelsen distributed a tentative schedule for senate meetings for the remainder of the term (see Attachment C),
noting that the forum on distance education has been postponed due to other pressing issues. He encouraged all
senate committees to be diligent in submitting reports in a timely manner. He further reported the computer
committee has begun meeting for the purpose of administering the student computer literacy assessment tests.
Finally, he reminded senators that the general studies section of the Policy Guide still needs to be revised,
depending on the outcome of impending state general education provisions.

Report from the calendar committee:

James Bargar submitted the report of the calendar committee, noting that the proposed college calendar basically
follows the model of previous years (see Attachment D). Some discussion followed, principally concerning the
objections by some of the winter commencement being held on a Wednesday. No action was taken on these
objections after it was shown that a weekend winter commencement schedule would result in serious
complications due to dormitory restrictions and the need for students, staff, and faculty to leave the area before
the weekend commencement. The senate received the report with no objections.

Report from the curriculum committee:

Ken Rosenauer submitted a memo concerning recommendations for next year’s curriculum committee,
concerning development of curriculum materials and presentation of a spring workshop and revision of
procedures which would capitalize on current computer technology (see Attachment E). He then presented the
summary document of curriculum proposals (see Attachment F). Some discussion followed, principally
concerning the possible need for an editing committee or staff which would be responsible for making clerical
corrections to curriculum proposals in order to simplify and streamline the essential work of the committee. The
senate received the report with no objections.

Old business:

MOTION: To amend section I.B.3 of the Bylaws of the Faculty Senate so that it reads “3. Be responsible for
coordinating all Faculty Senate elections in a manner that will ensure ballot security, confidentiality, and clarity
of procedures.” (Cronk/Leonard)

After discussion concerning whether this bylaw would provide for adequate restrictions/provisions, the motion
passed unanimously (Leonard/Wallner). Senators agreed that the senate vice-president should annually submit
election procedures for review by the senate.

MOTION: To amend section I.B.3 of the Bylaws of the Faculty Senate so that it reads “3. Be responsible for
coordinating all Faculty Senate elections. An effort should be made to ensure ballot security by numbering and
initialing all official ballots. Confidentiality of faculty votes should be maintained by providing an envelope for
all ballots. Faculty should be informed that they can vote for fewer positions if desired. The count should be
verified by a member of the executive committee not on the ballot before the results of the count are
announced.” (Cronk/Fowler)

Senator Cronk withdrew the motion.

New business:

The following motion was introduced (Wagner/Brandt):

MOTION: The chair of the Faculty Senate’s standing curriculum committee shall receive three (3) credit hours
of release time during the fall semester of the academic year in which they serve as chair of the curriculum
committee.

Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 5:13 p.m. (Leonard/Wagner).


Respectfully submitted,



G. Barry Nelson, secretary