Board of Curators discuss endowments, student issues
The board discussed endowments and intellectual pluralism.
Published Oct. 5, 2007
The UM system's governing board will try to put unused donations back into the system and decide how to address student complaints about academic discrimination.
The meeting began Thursday and continues today.
Board of Curators Chairman Don Walsworth started Thursday's meeting by asking the curators to review the university's goals, which were discussed during the board's July retreat in Marceline, Mo.
"We have three messages we discussed," he said. "A message to the governor and legislature, a message to major donors and a message to the campuses."
Curator David Wasinger said he was optimistic about the curators' work.
"I think this board is doing a great job," he said. "The problems we're having are not as great as we think they are."
He contrasted the issues the board had been facing with those of the University of California system, which he called "dysfunctional."
Members of the board said they want to renew communication and trust with the Missouri legislature and discussed prioritizing goals for the board's consideration.
"If I ask Nikki Krawitz (UM system vice president for Finance and Administration) what amount of dollars would fix our physical facility problems, it would be a lot," interim UM system President Gordon Lamb said.
Walsworth shared the concern about facility issues.
"I think in the future we'll be asked to build a lot more buildings," he said.
Before the board broke into committee meetings, Curator Judith Haggard expressed her hopes for the meeting.
"At orientation, we heard so many great stories about the university, and I'd like to see those sung," she said. "That's one of our goals, to sing those songs."
Academic Affairs discusses open endowments
The Academic and Student Affairs Committee addressed problems that some board members saw with the way endowed chairs are handled in the system.
"This is kind of a pet peeve of mine," Walsworth said. "I had a friend who endowed two chairs and never got either of them."
He said donors were frustrated with the way the empty chairs were filled.
"They're saying 'I gave you X amount of dollars, now put someone in those chairs,'" he said.
Curator John Carnahan said he was interested in creating new chairs, but he was also worried about the way donors will react to the empty positions.
"I think you need to get ready for what the future looks like," he said.
Carnahan said he was concerned that people would start regulating endowments and donating to other universities if the chairs remained vacant.
Steven Graham, interim vice president of Academic Affairs, said finding the right match is important to filling a department chair.
"You don't want someone to disrupt the equilibrium," Graham said.
The meeting addressed several causes for vacant chairs, including lucrative counter-offers by current employers, spousal concerns and research space concerns.
But Krawitz said empty chairs aren't necessarily a bad thing.
"There's some advantage to leaving that chair open," she said.
Krawitz said the accruement of funds from the empty chairs could be used as start-up funds when the chair is filled.
The curators also discussed finding a way to use unspent scholarship money. Lamb said some scholarships were so specific that it was hard to find applicants to fit the requirements.
"I'm working with the chancellors now to look at these specific scholarships and go back to donors, or in some cases to courts, about expanding them," he said.
The committee also discussed the process for new adding new degree programs.
"There's a fairly decent vetting process before it comes here," Graham said.
He said the process had to pass through a variety of levels, including the department, college and provost in order to be considered.
Graham said he supports the idea of emphasis areas within majors, such as a business degree with an emphasis in finance.
"It allows us to bring up a program quickly and fit a market value," he said.
He said the UM system is encouraging units to try emphasis areas before new degree programs.
Curators look to end 'intellectual pluralism'
Graham raised the topic of intellectual pluralism at the end of the committee's business on Thursday. Last year, a bill in the Missouri General Assembly proposed requiring colleges and universities to set guidelines for dealing with students' complaints of discrimination based on personal and political beliefs. The bill, called the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act, failed to pass in the Senate.
The curators recapped the work that had been done since last fall and reported on what was being done now to ensure that intellectual diversity was preserved in the UM system.
"We feel we're doing better," Graham said. "Once again, not perfect in any way."
Graham talked about providing Web sites that were readily accessible to students and making them aware of these at orientation.
"In my sense, it's a healthy dialogue," he said.
Tony Luetkemeyer, the student representative to the Board of Curators, said he supported working toward intellectual pluralism.
"The measure is intended to ensure that students feel free to express their own feelings in class," he said. "Many students are still forming ideas. It's important that students feel comfortable expressing a variety of views in the classroom."
Luetkemeyer said he thought it was a mistake to rely on informing students at orientations such as Summer Welcome.
"The problem there is you're only getting freshman, and you're leaving out upperclassmen," Luetkemeyer said.
He also said the volume of information posed a problem.
"Freshmen are getting bombarded with info," Luetkemeyer said. "I fear it may be lost in translation."
Luetkemeyer said he was suggesting making intellectual plurality a section in syllabi, an idea that was brought to his attention by UM-St. Louis Student Government Association President Bryan Goers.
MU Faculty Council recently approved a similar measure suggesting teachers include information about the concept in their syllabi.
Wasinger said he thought implementing the measures was an important step.
"What I think this tells the legislature is, 'Look, we can mind our own store,'" he said.
Finance meeting looks at new model
At the suggestion of Curator Bo Fraser, the Compensation and Human Resources Committee voted unanimously to amend existing regulations to make lavish or excessive gifts subject to approval the system president or, in the president's absence, the department chair.
Krawitz reported on a new higher education funding model, which guides on the funding of public four-year universities in Missouri. A task force including representatives of each UM campus, and UM system administration developed the model.
The funding would be broken down into three components: base budget, performance funding and strategic investments.
The base budget would fund and support existing programs and services.
According to the report, performance funding would "reward improvement and sustain excellence at each institution."
Strategic funding would help support university goals and policies, including increasing the enrollment of first generation college students, ethnic minorities and students with low income.
The model is still in development.