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MEMORANDUM

August 17, 2012

TO: Harry Tyrer, President, Faculty Council

FROM: Brian Foster, Provost

SUBJECT: Response to Faculty Council performance evaluation

I have carefully studied the responses in the performance evaluation conducted last springby Faculty Council. There is very useful input for me to consider. Clearly there somesignificant challenges which, as I understand the review, focus mainly on two issues: (a)on my engagement with faculty governance, and (b) communication with faculty. Iwould like to address these two issues below, then outline an idea for addressing thecommunication issues.

Governance

Shared governance is a very complex issue. Briefly, it is entirely clear to me that theUniversity is really ALL about academicsacademics considered broadly. Certainly,

the faculty are the central resource for instruction, research, and service, and they controlcurriculum, research, many external service functions (e.g., serving on review panels),and much else. The role of administration is to provide the physical and human resourceinfrastructure that supports the academic enterprise. These resources address physicalfacilities; support for compliance requirements; payroll, benefits, and other HR functions;budget and other aspects of fiscal management; admissions, registration, financial aid,and other student support functions; and much more.

The big question is how to align both the academic and administrative sides of theUniversity so that they maximize MUs effectiveness. On the one hand, we want to besure that the creativity, innovative work, and educational activities are not substantively

compromised by administration. On the other hand, there are practical constraints on theacademic activities from limitations of physical infrastructure, faculty resources, researchinfrastructure such as equipment, library materials, and fine arts studios and performancevenues. These constraints pose excruciating tradeoffs that extend across the entireuniversity. It seems to me that the crux of the governance issues is how to bringmeaningful consultation across the academic/administration boundary and how to

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maximize the level of agreement and of trust in dealing with the constraints and theresulting tradeoffs.

I suggest that Faculty Council devise some kind of forum to further discuss the nature of shared governancee.g., to what extent my understanding of the issues align withfaculty understanding. In addition, we need to consider what shared governance meansoperationally as we address the intersection of academic and broad support functions andaddress the difficult tradeoffs that we face. Id appreciate your input on how to move thisdiscussion forward.

Communication

There have been many efforts to communicate effectively with facultysome of theseefforts from the Provosts area, some from the Chancellor, but with a good deal of overlap with all. For example, the budget forums have been done in a format that assuresthat any interested faculty member can participate; I think there has been remarkabletransparency, and the discussions have been open and helpful to all involved. We haveused a similar model for Mizzou Advantage forums and recent planning discussions.Similarly, the Chancellors annual faculty meeting allows participation by all interestedfaculty and encourages open discussion, and the Chancellor and I meet regularly and (Ithink) openly with the Faculty Council Executive Committee.

That said, it is clear that we are not doing enough. One issue that occurs to me is that thecommunication events that do occur tend to be institution wide, not providing effectivesharing of ideas with the academic unitsi.e., the colleges. Clearly, their successes,needs, and concerns vary greatly, and I do get a sense of these differences from the deans,with whom I meet on a regular basis. But deans and faculty members perspectives onthese issues often differ significantly, and it may be valuable for me to have periodicmeetings with faculty of each college. I outline some preliminary ideas below, but Iwould like to ask for leadership from the College representatives to Faculty Council onhow (and whether) to shape such an effort. The ideas below are meant only to be thebasis for discussion.

My thought was that I spend an afternoon with facultyperhaps split into three or sosessions (just an idea, not something Im fixed on). One might be a formalpresentation to me, outlining the Colleges successes, challenges, and concernsperhapsan hour. That might be followed by a sessionperhaps an hour and a halfwith noagenda, providing the opportunity for any individual faculty member to raise issues foropen discussion. All faculty in the unit would be invited to participate in these sessions.Perhaps a final session of a smaller group of faculty (perhaps the Policy Committee or agroup identified by the Policy Committee) would be valuable insofar as we could address

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issues in more depth than in the larger groups. If we did such a session, I would ask theCollege representatives to Faculty Council and policy committees from each college onhow to identify the participants.

It occurs to me that at least two colleges may be too large to allow effective discussions(i.e., A&S and CAFNR), and the college representatives might consider splitting theseunits into more manageable groupssay three sessions n each of these two colleges. Iwould suggest that the Library be included in this process along with the colleges. Iwould propose doing one college a month, and after the first year doing an assessment tosee if the process has been productive.

Conclusion

I would like to thank all those who participated in the performance evaluation. I look forward to future discussions on the issues Ive outlined above and others that FacultyCouncil may wish to pursue.

BLF:td

cc: Chancellor Brady DeatonMembers of Faculty CouncilJoe Parcell