Faculty Handbook Archives - Presidential Updates

Clif’s Notes for June 25, 2019

June 25, 2019 by Clif Smart

The Board of Governors met last week in West Plains.

The Board discussed and approved changes to the employee handbook and the faculty handbooks in Springfield and West Plains. You can read more about those changes in last week’s Clif’s Note.

The Programs and Planning Committee discussed the Preparing Educators and Administrators for Rural Schools project, a grow-your-own pathway for teaching in the West Plains campus service region.

FY 2020 budget include pay increases, inflationary tuition increase

The Financial and Facilities Committee discussed the fiscal year 2020 operating budget and changes to the fee schedule. The whole board then approved the budget in its regular meeting that afternoon.

This year’s budget includes a 1.9 percent across-the-board pay increase for full-time employees. The budget also includes funding for faculty promotions, the full professorship incentive program, 58 cost-center funded equity pay adjustments, $1.8 million in fringe benefit cost increases, increases in stipends and fee waivers for graduate assistants, increases to the student worker minimum wage, and a scholarship and recruitment fund that will be used to develop and implement enrollment strategies.

The board also approved a 2019-20 tuition and fee waiver. With this waiver, students on the Springfield campus will pay only an inflationary increase in tuition and fees over the past two years.

Board approves 2020 meeting schedule, Tobacco 21 resolution

During the regular meeting the board received a presentation on study away programs on the West Plains campus. The board also received reports from the West Plains Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, and Student Government Association.

The board also approved a meeting schedule for 2020.

The board also discussed and approved a resolution supporting the City of Springfield’s efforts to enact a Tobacco 21 initiative. This initiative prohibits stores from selling tobacco products in the City of Springfield to anyone under the age of 21. City Council first read the Tobacco 21 bill in its meeting last Monday, so the Board of Governor’s resolution on this important health issue for our students and our community is very timely.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019 by Clif Smart

This Friday the Board of Governors will vote on proposed changes to the faculty handbooks on the Springfield and West Plains campuses and changes to the employee handbook that applies to all faculty and staff.

Changes to the employee handbook include:

An expansion of the tuition and fee waiver benefit to apply to an employee’s dependent grandchildren
An expansion of the funeral leave benefit to include additional extended family members
Clarifications regarding university closings and cancellations, 1,000-hour employment, employees’ personal information, resignation and retirement, leave without pay, service award processes, emeritus status, and appeals processes for disciplinary matters.

Changes to the Springfield faculty handbook include:

Allowing a faculty member to request an extension of their tenure probationary period to accommodate medical conditions or important family issues
Clarifications regarding sabbatical and developmental leave and dismissal from the university
Updated language related to sexual harassment

Changes to the West Plains faculty handbook include:

Changes to teaching load/work load provisions that (1) increase the teaching load for full-time ranked faculty in West Plains to 30 credit hours, (2) allow existing faculty to opt in or out of the new teaching load and (3) establish financial incentives for existing faculty that opt in to the new teaching load.
New provisions regarding evaluation of non-ranked faculty
Supplemental language regarding faculty promotion

People are our most important resource at Missouri State. The work we have done this year to provide across-the-board pay increases and expand benefit usage and availability reflects the value the board and our administration places on faculty and staff.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes for June 27, 2017

June 27, 2017 by Clif Smart

Last week our Board of Governors met on the West Plains campus.

Approval of the FY 2018 budget

The board approved our fiscal year 2018 operating budget. The budget includes $8 million less in state appropriations than last year’s budget. To balance the budget, it also includes the cuts that we discussed throughout the spring and additional revenue generated through enrollment growth and an inflationary tuition and fee increase.

The budget does not include an across the board pay raise or funding for discretionary raises based on merit. While it was necessary to forego raises this year due to the state funding reduction, the board indicated that this was not a sustainable strategy long term. The university must find ways to increase compensation to avoid losing its most talented employees.

Making MSU an even better place to work

While the budget does not include an across the board raise or a pool for merit raises, it does include several items that affect compensation:

A $2 million increase in the university’s contribution under the MOSERS pension system
$190,000 for faculty promotions on the Springfield campus and $34,000 on the West Plains campus
$34,000 for the full professor salary incentive program
$270,000 for salary and fringe increases provided to more than 60 employees under the university’s FLSA compliance plan
$46,000 for salary and fringe increases provided to 89 staff members due to inflationary adjustments to the job classification system

The board also approved changes to the faculty and staff handbooks. The faculty handbook now provides for sick leave accrual by faculty and clarifies the situations in which faculty are eligible for paid FMLA leave.

The staff handbook now gives the university additional flexibility to move an employee into an open position when the employee’s current position is eliminated. It also updated telecommuting and compensation provisions to make them consistent with current practices. The staff handbook also modified appeal and grievance provisions to streamline these processes.

Identifying needs in health, technology fields

The board approved the Master of Athletic Training program. The university will now begin to transition its Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training program to a professional level Master of Athletic Training program. In addition to meeting accreditation requirements, this new graduate program will align with the university’s mission and strategic initiatives and meet a critical workforce need throughout the state of Missouri.

The board also discussed the Greater Ozarks Center for Advanced Technology (GOCAT) on the West Plains campus and approved a memorandum of understanding with the city of West Plains and the West Plains R-7 School District to establish the GOCAT. This GOCAT is the result of a joint effort by stakeholders in West Plains to bring advanced technical training and degree and certificate programs to area residents through a combination of seated, blended, online and laboratory courses. I encourage you to visit the GOCAT webpage to learn more.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Clif’s Notes Vol. 3, No. 14

June 25, 2014 by Clif Smart

In this issue of Clif’s Notes, I provide information about free wireless on campus and review the June Board of Governors meeting, which includes the approval of the operating budget for fiscal year 2015 and outlines how we will handle the governor’s withholding.

Free wireless on campus

I wanted to make sure you know that the open-access wireless service for all areas within both the Plaster Student Union and Meyer Library was brought online May 24. Here is the information you will need to access this service:

Wireless network name: MSU Open (This name will appear when you search for available networks with your device.)
Password: Welcome2MSU (This password should not change but possibly once a year.)

The open-access wireless provides full access to the Internet but limited access to Missouri State resources since we want to encourage students, faculty and staff to use their BearPass Logins to access their sensitive information.

There are currently no bandwidth limits on this network. Computer services will re-evaluate as the summer semester continues to see if limits are necessary prior to the fall semester. In the meantime, please let computer services know if you have questions.

We are pleased to offer this service, and I want to thank Jeff Morrissey and the computer services staff for making this a reality.

Board of Governors meeting

Again this year, the Board of Governors had its June meeting Friday in Kansas City. We combined that meeting with a donor event Thursday night and the Missouri State Night at Kauffman Stadium Friday night for alumni and friends. We appreciate Governor Steve Bough assisting with the arrangements in Kansas City.

The Board took several actions at the meeting that I want to summarize for you.

Operating budget for fiscal year 2015

The Board approved the operating budget for fiscal year 2015 which totals about $263 million, up approximately $10 million from the current year. The budget increase will be funded in part by three items:

A 5.2 percent increase in state appropriations based on Missouri State meeting all five of its performance measures
Continued enrollment growth, which continues to be a vital part of increasing revenue
Modest increases in non-resident and graduate tuition and fees

Undergraduate tuition remains steady

Tuition for Missouri undergraduate students will remain at the 2013-14 rate of $204 per credit hour. The University’s commitment to hold Missouri undergraduate tuition the same from 2013-14 to 2014-15 is based upon the governor’s recommended budget and the approved General Assembly’s budget.

Investing in the compensation package

As I have outlined in previous issues, the majority of the increase in the budget will be dedicated to significant investment in the compensation package to faculty and staff for fiscal year 2015. The Board also approved a 1.5 percent pay increase for full time faculty and staff and various compensation initiatives. This continues the Board’s commitment to improve compensation for faculty and staff.

You can read more about the budget in this news release and see the complete budget online.

Plan to deal with withholdings

On Tuesday, Governor Jay Nixon announced that he would sign the operating budget bill but withhold the entire 5 percent increase for higher education. For Missouri State, that means the 5.2 percent, which amounts to about $4 million.

We are very disappointed about the withholdings — especially the extent of the withholdings and the timing on the eve of the new fiscal year. We prepared the fiscal year 2015 operating budget in good faith based on the increase which was recommended by the governor and approved by the Missouri General Assembly. We must now potentially find ways to reduce the budget and options available to us are neither good nor easy.

We expect to know more about the fiscal year 2015 budget following the veto session in mid-September. In the meantime, we will continue to talk with our elected officials about the tax cut bills and the timing of their implementation given the fact that state revenues are at least flat, if not declining.

Initial decisions

I wanted you to know that we have made these initial decisions:

We will proceed as planned with all compensation increases (1.5 percent across-the-board increase, Full Professor Incentive, staff salary initiative, 1.5 percent increase for graduate assistants, etc.) — this is appropriate given that improving compensation for faculty and staff continues to be the No. 1 priority for the Board of Governors and this administration.

Maintaining the compensation means we may have to accept other difficult decisions to balance the budget — for example, we will delay the 1.5% restoration of operating budgets for cost centers and evaluate its viability after the veto session.

We will continue to review and consider options for reducing the budget deficit as we wait for the results from the veto session and fall enrollment numbers. This action again highlights the importance of enrollment growth.

Faculty Handbook revisions

The Board approved the revisions recommended by the Faculty Handbook Committee. You may review those revisions.

I want to thank and congratulate the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee, chaired by Dr. Rich Biagioni, for its good work on this initiative.

Discussion updates

For this month’s Board discussion, we provided updates on the three discussion topics for 2013-14:

Diversity
First generation students, as well as transfer students
Higher Learning Commission and other accreditations

The Board was pleased with the progress we are making in each of these areas.

New student Board member

At the Kansas City meeting, we welcomed our new student Board member, Caleb Doyle. Caleb is a junior from Barnhart, Missouri, majoring in secondary education. He replaces Paige Jenkins who represented the students well during her time on the Board.

The next time the Board meets it will be July 31 for the annual summer retreat. The emphasis of the retreat is to discuss and finalize the goals for 2014-15.

Conclusion

With classes, various academies and camps, along with the construction, the campus is buzzing this summer. I trust that you will not only be productive in your various activities but also take some time to refresh and rejuvenate. It won’t be long before we are preparing to welcome students back for the fall semester.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State University.

—Clif

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This summer you won’t have to travel far to meet someone from Japan, Mali, Ecuador or Saudi Arabia — just downtown to the Jim D. Morris Center. More than 450 students representing 24 countries will take part in programs offered by the English Language Institute (ELI) this summer alone.

“One of our students described the ELI as a mini-United Nations where students from different countries bring their diverse political, religious and cultural views to share with one another in a non-threatening environment. We all learn from each other — and in so doing, we discover what we have in common is far greater than our differences,” said Dr. Jane Robison, executive director of the ELI.

Intensive English program

ELI began in 1996 as an intensive English program for international students planning to study abroad in the United States. According to Robison, ELI enrollment has grown from five students to more than 200 each session, with program participants now including international professors seeking professional development opportunities.

Short-term programs

In addition to its intensive English program, ELI offers a number of short-term programs during the summer:

Isesaki Global Leadership Academy: a 10-day program for 120 high school juniors from Yotsuba school in Isesaki, Japan, Springfield’s Sister City

Language and Culture Program 8: an eight-week English training program for professors and students from Colombia and other countries

Language and Culture Program 4: a four-week English training program for participants from Korea, Global UGRADs, Brazil and Colombia

Global Leadership Academy, a three-week program for international and domestic high school students

Children’s English Program, a two-week on-campus program for five young Chinese children accompanied by six parents

Isesaki Youth Program

“All of these programs are a great opportunity to introduce potential students to our campus, to expose them to the public affairs mission through the program’s objectives and to bring an awareness of the value of having international guests of all ages on our campus and in our community,” said Robison.