The Montana Legislature's Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education visited the University of Montana - Missoula on January 8, 1999. Their stated intent was to gather input from portions of the University not normally represented at budget committee meetings in Helena. That is, their goal was to hear from students, faculty, staff, and others at the University outside the ranks of the upper-level administration that normally represent the University at budget hearings. In advance of their visit they forwarded to the President a rough schedule outlining with whom they would like to meet, and a list of general questions they wanted to address in each session. The President in turn asked representatives of the various groups to organize their presentations to the Appropriations Subcommittee.
One of the targeted groups was the faculty, and the Chair of the UM-Missoula Faculty Senate was asked to organize the presentation, with representatives from the various campuses of UM. The specific questions to be addressed are listed below. Presentations were given by Faculty Senate Chair Walton, by Faculty Senate Vice-Chair Ford, by comparable members of the faculty governance units at Montana Tech, Western, and the Helena College of Technology. Additional faculty representatives from UM-Missoula, Tech, and Western were also present, prepared to address the issues outlined by the Appropriations Subcommittee ( list of faculty attendees ).
Specific Questions Addressed to the Faculty
(1) What direction is the University going -- what's right, what's wrong?
(2) What is happening in distance learning -- how is it affecting your responsibilities?
What can you do, and what would it look like if you did? Discuss home-based vs. site-based
distance education. How will the Western Governor's University help education?
(3) For those in schools where cutbacks have occurred, how are your responsibilities
changing? How are you handling responsibility changes? How is morale?
(4) How has the performance assessment program worked for faculty?
(5) What is going on in research? How are products being developed and promoted? What
additional impact could research have on Montana's economy?
The Presentation