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ROLLA, Mo. – The University of Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Board of Curators today approved amendments to a series of the university’s collected rules and regulations (CRRs) governing faculty issues, including standards of conduct and performance. The unanimous approval by the university’s governing board came during the first day of the Board of Curators’ regular spring meeting at Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ University of Science and Technology in Rolla.

Changes to the collected rules resulted from a review conducted in the past year by the university’s Intercampus Faculty Council (IFC) and the University of Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Academic Officers (UMAO).

“The board was pleased to approve these amendments to the CRRs related to faculty standards of conduct and performance,” said Marcy Graham, Chair of the UM System Board of Curators. “These modifications will bring more clarification to the annual performance review of faculty and post-tenure review process, which will benefit the university significantly.”

Today’s approved amendments include the following items:

Standards of faculty conduct:

• A Faculty Member at the University of Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ assumes an obligation to behave in a manner compatible with the University’s function as an educational institution. These expectations are established in order to protect an environment conducive to research, teaching, learning and service that fosters integrity, personal and professional growth, a community of scholarship, academic success and responsible citizenship. Faculty Members are expected to adhere to community standards in accordance with the University’s mission and expectations.

Standards of faculty performance:

• Changes were made to tie the annual performance review and workload adjustments to the post-tenure review process.
• Clarifies the need for minimum performance standards for teaching, research and service and general principles for an overall satisfactory review.
• Provides flexibility for variable workload adjustments.
• Clarification on the usage of terms referring to tenure and tenure track faculty to replace the term “regular faculty” and eliminate confusion.
• Provides the option of rewarding outstanding performance in addition to taking corrective action for low performance.
• Clarifies the nature and role of the department evaluation committee and eliminates the mediator previously required for the professional development plan.
• Clarifies the timeline for evaluating faculty members returning to the academic departments upon completing full-time administrative appointments.
• Changes the language surrounding satisfactory and unsatisfactory performance appraisals and indicates that unsatisfactory performance in either teaching or research will result in an overall unsatisfactory performance appraisal.

Standards of faculty workload:

• Faculty member’s workload distribution will be recorded on the annual review document with provisions for making appropriate revisions to allow flexibility. Includes a clarification that any multi-year workload assignment will not be considered as assurance that an appointment will be renewed during the period covered by the assignment.
• Clarification on the usage of the term “tenure and tenure track faculty” to replace the term “regular faculty” and eliminate confusion.
• Extension and continuing education activities will represent an extension of teaching and research functions of the institution. Faculty engaged in those pursuits will be evaluated by the same criteria applied to other tenured and tenure track faculty.

“We have expectations of excellence for our great faculty, and these new amendments to our collected rules further clarify those expectations,” said UM System President Mun Choi. “These amendments also reinforce how our leadership supports our faculty and will do everything we can to ensure they succeed in their important mission.”