FACULTY SENATE: NEW CHAIRMAN SEES TENURE AS KEY ISSUE NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR

The Faculty Senate at Southeast Missouri State University needs to address the issue of tenure, the group's newly elected chairman said Thursday.

The senate completed its work Wednesday with the election of new officers. The new chairman, economics professor Terry Sutton, said he expects the senate to consider the tenure issue in the next academic year.

Sutton said he and other faculty members are concerned that tenure decisions are being based more on whether they have published research rather than on classroom teaching.

In addition, he said, there's the issue of administrators being granted tenure without having to meet the requirements and follow the procedures imposed upon faculty members.

Charles Kupchella, the incoming provost, was hired with tenure, something that university officials have said is fairly common in higher education. Kupchella will be tenured in the biology department.

The incoming provost has served as a college dean at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, but previously was a professor and chairman of the biological sciences department at Murray State University in Kentucky.

Sutton said that the granting of tenure means that Kupchella is assured of employment at Southeast even if he is replaced as provost at a later date.

The administration also plans to grant tenure in the case of two dean positions that the university is currently seeking to fill, Sutton said.

A divided senate recently endorsed such exceptions. Sutton, who is completing his third year as a faculty senator, opposed the move.

"They (the administration) have forgotten what tenure is supposed to be at SEMO. They are abusing it in my opinion," said Sutton.

"This is just blatant job security for the administrators," he added.

That's not the purpose of tenure, he said. "Tenure was designed to encourage academic freedom."

Sutton, who has been teaching at Southeast for 21 years, believes the Faculty Senate needs to be "more aggressive" about taking on campus issues.

The senate, he said, used to be more active. He said the Faculty Senate played a role in the successful effort to remove Robert E. Leestamper as university president in 1979.

The purpose of Faculty Senate is to protect faculty rights, Sutton maintained.

Too many meetings proved a waste of time this academic year, he said. "I was really disgusted. I was ready to quit," said Sutton, adding that he walked out of several meetings because little was being accomplished.

"It (the senate) at times has turned into a debate society about the meaning of words," he observed.

Sutton said the senate needs to address more relevant issues, "otherwise it is going to die."

As chairman, Sutton said he hopes "to streamline the meetings and make them more worthwhile to go to."

Attendance at senate meetings has been waning, he said. The senate's recommendation on the recent tenure-exception policy was decided at a meeting attended by less than half of the approximately 30-member body, Sutton said. "So that was kind of disgraceful."

Sutton said he would encourage faculty members to communicate with him about any campus issues or concerns.

"There is an old saying that the wheel that squeaks the most gets the most grease," said Sutton. "So you can argue that what the senate may be doing next year is squeaking a lot."