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