Minutes, Truman State University Chapter of AAUP
November 20, 2003 9:00 a.m.
University Club

Meetings are open to all University faculty members.

Faculty present: Martha Bartter, Marc Becker, David Gruber, James Harmon, Peter Rolnick,

1) Minutes. The minutes of the October 24 meeting were read and approved.

2) Faculty Senate restructuring. The faculty voted to approve the restructuring of Faculty Senate. We are now waiting for the Board of Governors to approve this change.

3) Faculty Senate Budget Committee. The Faculty Senate will discuss the formation of a new budgetary oversight committee today. The proposal is to make it a subcommittee that is accountable to Faculty Senate, but would include members who are faculty but not necessarily senators.

4) Course load. We need to spell out more carefully how loads are calculated, and these factors might include number of credit hours, contact hours, preps, FTE, field and subject matter, accreditation standards, and comparison to peer institutions. A fundamental problem is that there is no discussion of how this promotes the institution’s liberal arts mission, and in fact may well hinder the quality of instruction. We need to keep in mind that faculty have no control over staffing decisions, and we cannot become engaged in incriminations against each other. We’d like to see more information on how these load decisions are calculated. How should AAUP engage this issue and provide a constructive forum to promote discussion of this matter?

7) Concealed-gun law. The constitutionality of the law is currently being questioned in Missouri’s court system. Discussion of a resolution to “urge the administration and the Board of Governors to adopt the most restrictive regulations possible in light of Missouri' s new concealed weapons law” is being tabled until the next meeting (Reading Day, Wednesday, December 10, at 9 a.m. in the University Club).

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted by Marc Becker, Secretary