Minutes, Truman State University Chapter of AAUP
October 11, 8:00 a.m.
Washington St. Java Co.

Meetings are open to all University faculty members.

Members present: Marc Becker, Carlton DeFosse, Stephanie Fore, Jan Grow, David Gruber, James Harmon, Diane Johnson, Judi Misale, Steve Reschly, Peter Rolnick, Martha Rose, Jan Saffir

1. Introductions

2. Proposed Absence Policy. A lengthy discussion revolved around this proposed policy.

Questions that were raised about the policy included:

• It is vague written–needs clearer wording. What is included?
• Would people join extra-curricular activities that intentionally conflicted with class?
• What is the academic purpose of this policy?
• This is an academic issue; it should be handled by faculty not the dean of student affairs.
• The policy does not allow for appeal of decisions by the dean of students and the head of athletics.
• We need data from the administration to demonstrate that a problem exists that needs to be addressed.

Possible suggestions raised included:

• Cut back evening and Friday classes so there is non-class time for extra-curricular activities.
• Have a time during each day when no classes are scheduled which would allow for these meetings.
• Deal with exceptional cases as they arise rather than implementing such a broad-based policy.

What should be done?

• Back off from micro management. A general policy statement would be better.
• The principle of this statement is good, but it needs to recognize faculty autonomy.
• There are multiple levels of responsibility involved in student absences (institutional, advisor, faculty, students). This policy only deals with faculty, but needs to take into account all of these levels.

The general sense of the meeting was:

• If we have such an Absentee Policy, it needs to be clearer.
• The policy needs to recognize the principle of faculty governance.
• We can’t support the policy as it is currently written.

Jan Saffir and David Gruber will draft a statement from AAUP and send it out to AAUP members for approval.

3. Summer School. Judi Misale called our attention to the ongoing issues related to funding of summer school and suggested that we need to pay close attention to these developments.

4. Meeting times. We set up the following meeting times for the rest of the semester. All meetings will be held at 8 a.m. in the Washington St. Java Co.

Thursday, November 8
Wednesday, December 12
Thursday, January 17
Thursday, February 14
Thursday, March 7
Thursday, April 4
Wednesday, May 8 (reserve meeting)

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted by Marc Becker, Secretary