Faculty Council pushes to close MU in the Evening
The council also voted to let non-tenure faculty join campus committees.
Published Nov. 22, 2009
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Assistant Director of Athletics Joseph Scogin speaks about the scores and standings of MU athletes academically across the Big 12 Conference in front of the Faculty Council on Thursday in Memorial Union. Scogin was the guest speaker of the meeting and addressed any questions the council had about how scores were tallied and how MU athletes compare to other universities.
Faculty Council discussed the possibility of discontinuing MU In the Evening and a motion to include non-tenure faculty members in campus committees at their last meeting of the semester Thursday.
MU In the Evening is a program through which people can earn a general education degree from on-campus evening classes, Executive Council Member Wilson Watt said during the meeting.
Due to a decline in necessity and interest in the program, a motion to close MU In the Evening is being sent to Provost Brian Foster.
“The focal consumer group for the program is gone, that is staff who did not have the necessary level of degree completion they needed to move up,” Watt said. “Almost all of those persons have gone through this or gotten their degree in some other way.”
Watt said the preferred method to receive a general education degree has moved toward online and weekend courses and the degree has also lost value since the program was established.
“This degree has become seen as second grade,” Watt said. “Even our own campus human resources would not accept a degree from MU In the Evening.”
The council also passed a motion allowing eligibility for non-tenure faculty members to join campus committees. Executive Committee Member Bill Wiebold supported the motion.
“I think it’s the right thing,” Wiebold said. “There are some committees that make recommendations that affect this group. It seems they should be represented.”
During the meeting, Chairwoman Leona Rubin informed the faculty of the university’s need for a new faculty athletic representative. Members of Faculty Council have been asked to help interview applicants during the week of Jan. 4 to 15, Rubin said.
“This is a faculty member who does a very important job,” Rubin said. “This is the person who signs off on all kinds of paper work, monitors all compliance issues that go through athletics, so this warrants a full search.”