Proposed survey to gauge faculty satisfaction

The Missouri Southern Faculty Senate decided Monday to create an ad hoc committee tasked with determining the procedures for creating a survey of faculty satisfaction.

“We’re looking for a way to assess faculty satisfaction with, basically, everything,” said Scott Cragin, faculty senate parliamentarian.

A few people offered to join the committee during the Monday meeting, but there are still openings.

“We still need volunteers to serve on the ad hoc committee,” said Cheryl Cifelli, Faculty Senate president. “We would like at least one person from each school.”

The goal of the survey, Cragin said, is to “set an agenda” to show what faculty are really concerned about. He mentioned that previous Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs Brad Kleindl posed the question of whether or not a “real vocal” minority of faculty set the agenda for the entire faculty.

After Cragin said he has looked at several different tools for evaluating, Vice President of Academic Affairs AJ Anglin said he did not have a problem with the survey, he only cautioned the ad hoc committee to choose a survey which would be helpful and constructive.

Missouri Southern President Bruce Speck also weighed in, saying, “It is really important for you to work in conjunction with the Board of Governors on this, as the Board of Governors is in charge of this university…it would, I think, not be in your best interest to simply do it and not consult them.”

Cragin’s told the administration was that it would indeed be a constructive survey, and the process of using the survey would be transparent.

In other news from the Aug. 30 Faculty Senate meeting:

There was a discussion of whether Anglin should be allowed to chair the Academic Policies committee. According to senators, Anglin said he did not feel it was necessary for him to serve on a faculty committee as an administrator. Senators talked about the positives to having an academic expert on the Academic Policies committee, while others mentioned that having an administrator on that committee sometimes “inhibited” discussion.

“wThe impression I got is that he felt it was inappropriate to chair that committee and be VPAA,” said Faculty Senate President-Elect Cliff Toliver.

According to Faculty Senate bylaws, Anglin is permitted to appoint a new chairman to that committee.

There was also a discussion of revisions to Southern’s handbook regarding tenure.

“It’s been my experience [that] AJ is very much in favor of tenure. Bruce is not, as you all know,” Cifelli said. “AJ is willing to go to him and fight this battle. What he wants from us is a stronger tenure process.”

A task force committee was created to look at the tenure and promotion process. There was also a committee formed to look at one and three year employment appointments.

Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Darren Fullerton has instigated a plan to gather all University policies and procedures into one location.

“Right now, we have policies scattered all over campus,” Fullerton said.

The first step will be to collect all policies and procedures the University currently has. After that, a task force will decide what needs to be discarded and what should be revised.

Fiscal Year 2010-11 has started well, reported Vice President of Business Affairs Rob Yust. At the moment, tuition revenue for the first month of this year shows nearly a million dollar increase. Auxiliary revenue has increased $348,000, and other Southern July income reports come in at $1.2 million more than last year’s.

The next Faculty Senate meeting is set for Oct. 4.