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Show . ., THURSDAY, SEPT. 14, 2000 Council approves new titles u N I V E R s I T y SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY· CEDAR CITY , UTAH BY THOMAS BURR SENIOR STAFF WRITER . By unanimous vote Monday, the Deans' Council approved a new policy defining the faculty positions at SUU . Included on the document are terms for faculty and a description of their employment status. Associate Provost Michael D. Richards said the policy is simply to make position titles more clear and will otherwise not affect faculty. The new policy was forwarded to the F acuity Senate for approval. If adopted there, the policy will then go to the President's Council and the Board of Trustees for final endorsement. New titles, which affect academic, library and administration positions, now include: professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, professional-in-residence (artist, executive, politician, etc), lecturecs. visiting and adjunct. The council also continued discussion of revisions to the "Academic Position Descriptions" policy which will update the older version of the document now in place . The revision, which has been ongoing since April , strikes out older copy in the policy and replaces it with amended information. Richards said the revision ·consolidates· the current policy, and "brings it up to date." Also included on the new policy are changes to positions from provost to assistant department chairs. The changes are in respect to responsibilities, evaluations and qualifications for the position. The changes also contain additional positions for associate deans and associate department chairs in authorized colleges. The council members moved to accept the policy as written, but then tabled the motion until the next meeting because the group could not reach a consensus on the procedure of appointing a dean. Discussion of whether the -search committee could recommend track and tenure for a dean impeded the approval. Options for the procedure will be presented at the next meeting for approval. In other business, the council voted unanimously to approve the Faculty Senate's recommendation to remove wording from the teacher evaluation form that they felt tainted the answers from students. As it now reads, the evaluation given to each student in each course at the end of the term , seeks likes, dislikes and suggestions for improvements; wording the Faculty Senate felt might obligate a student to write something negative for the sake of answering all the · questions. The council approved an alternative of asking for comments on the back of the evaluation .. The President's Council and Board of Trustees must now vote on the issue before it will take effect. The council was also shown a preview of an administrative newsletter to be distributed to faculty and staff describing the prioritization process. · The newsletter, which details a time line of events, explains the process and answers frequently asked questions, will be published as information becomes available. Issues. tackled in forum BY KEVIN M. HARING ASSOCIATE EDITOR Students, faculty and administrators had the opportunity to voice their opinions and ask questions during a 45-minute open forum with SUU President Steven D. • Bennion and Vice President of Student Services Sterling Church yesterday afternoon. The session was hosted by SUUSA and mediated by Chief Justice Matt Cannon. Questions ranged from the changes with the department of workforce services to growth at SUU. Church commented on the change with workforce services. . "It was not our desire to cut the program," he said. Church said in the past SUU has paid a set fee for the staffing and space of the center on campus, and that fee and budget had just become too much for the school to afford. The next question dealt with the allocation of funds from student fees. Church again addressed the issue but could not cite specific amounts and breakdown of how each dollar of student fees were spent, as he did not have that information with him. Bennion addressed the next question about what will happen with the old Physical Education Building. Re said it would most likely be used for faculty offices, and the gym area would be used for intramural activities and athletic events in case of inclement weather. He said the pool would probably be filled in and the area used for storage. School accreditation was the next issue. Bennion said this is a process the school goes through about every 10 years, and that the last accreditation review was back in 1993, by the Northwest Commission of Schools and Colleges. He said the school was given an interim review in 1998 where three major concerns were identified. First, SUU was 20 percent below the average level of funding for regional universities similar to SUU. Second, the school had no way of assessing the value of the services and programs offered at SUU. Last was the lack of diversity among the student and faculty population. Bennion addressed each concern saying that the funding problem is helping to be met by the current reprioritization process the school is going through. He added that a process is now available to rate the value of the services and programs at SUU. Bennion said there has been a six percent increase in the diversity of the student population, but noted that there has not been much change in faculty diversity, including retention because of low faculty and staff salaries. Bennion also said that several departments and colleges were seeking their·own, individual accreditation, including the school of business, the department of education and possibly the department of music. Gov. Mike Leavitt had encouraged all Utah colleges and universities to increase enrollment in their engineering and computer science classes, said Bennion. Because SUU does not have a four-year engineering program, one may be added as soon as next fall (A more in-depth article on this subject can be found on page 4). One student asked about post-tenure review and requirements for teachers to remain here at SUU. Bennion noted that the school doesn't have a tenure review but the Deans' Council is looking into it. He said we currently evaluate teachers classes after they have received tenure, but we will need another.way to do evaluations. Bennion said SUU expects faculty to keep "up to speed" in their field by participating in one scholarly activity a year, dispelling the rumor that to become tenured or be part of tenured faculty, they must have a doctoral degree. Lastly, Bennion addressed growth at SUU. "I think we'll grow to 8,000-9,000 students within the next decade,· Bennion commented. He also said we need to build on what we already have. ·we can't be all things to everyone,• he said. I · |