Tom Mulinazzi ended his 11-year run as associate dean of the School of Engineering just in time to prepare for a leadership role on Faculty Senate at Kansas University.

He will still teach as a professor of civil and environmental engineering, but his focus is shifting this year from the academic performance of all engineering students to the welfare of all KU faculty.

“It’s an honor to serve the university in this way,” he said.

Mulinazzi’s one-year term as president follows that of Tom Beisecker, associate professor of communication studies.

All KU faculty on campus are members of Faculty Senate, which makes recommendations to KU administration on a range of issues. Thirty-nine faculty serve on the University Council, which includes representatives of students, classified and unclassified employees.

But Faculty Senate is the entity that gives voice to faculty sentiment on academic programs, intellectual property rights, research policy, tenure and salaries.

In the next year, Mulinazzi and Beisecker said the university’s faculty were expected to spend considerable time scrutinizing the effect of a tight 2002-2003 budget. The state’s revenue shortfall left no money for faculty raises.

“And the same thing is probably going to happen next year,” Mulinazzi said.

He said dwindling purchasing power of more than 2,200 KU faculty, due to inflation, would motivate some of the university’s best teachers and researchers to take jobs at other colleges or in private industry.

“The people you don’t want to lose, you lose,” he said.

Budget damage

Beisecker said similar budget woes in other states may limit damage to KU.

“The budget is obviously one of the biggest concerns of the faculty, but there’s been a surprising amount of understanding by the faculty and staff,” Beisecker said.

The university’s plan to raise student tuition rates 25 percent next year has been viewed by KU faculty as a necessary evil, Mulinazzi and Beisecker said.

“That’s going to impact a lot of students,” Mulinazzi said. “We already have a lot of students who work part time. They’ll probably have to work more hours. From that standpoint, they’ll have fewer hours to study, and either have lower grades or a longer tenure at the university.”

Beisecker said part of the new tuition revenue would be set aside to meet students’ need-based financial aid requirements.

In addition, Mulinazzi said, KU’s extra tuition revenue was expected to be spent in ways that improve the academic climate for students. Some cash is to be invested in hiring new faculty, which could lead to expansion of course offerings and make it easier for students to finish degree programs in four years. A portion of the money will be used to buy instructional computers. A chunk will be allocated to raising salaries of graduate teaching assistants.

Mulinazzi said students and faculty would keep an eye on how tuition dollars are spent.

“That increase in tuition is going to be a hot topic next year. They’re (students) going to want accountability,” he said.

Graduate students relations

Beisecker said the university would continue to grapple with development of a policy that guides relationships between faculty and graduate students. Many faculty are involved in private research companies that employ graduate students. Potential problems arise when faculty also serve as their employees’ instructors or thesis advisers.

On one hand, Beisecker said, students need to work professionally with faculty to learn tools of the trade. But there needs to be policy that draws a line between collaboration and exploitation, he said.

“It has happened, but, as far as I know, not on this campus,” he said. “I expect a policy will surface in the fall.”

Mulinazzi said another issue on the minds of KU faculty was development of “certificate” programs.

Over the past five years, there’s been a push to create new programs at U.S. colleges and universities that allow for student certification in specialized fields. For example, employees of a technology company could take 15 credit hours of classes in a niche programming area and be certified as proficient in that specialty. Or an engineer could take a handful of classes and be certified as a welder. Or a nurse could take enough classes to be certified as a midwife.

“It’s not just KU,” Beisecker said. “Most universities are going through the process of establishing certificate programs.”

Typically, these programs are directed at college graduates who need additional training but don’t want to attend graduate school long enough to earn a master’s degree.

And that’s where certificate programs raise questions.

Will courses involving certificate students be academically rigorous? Are certificate students prepared for graduate-level instruction? How involved is the faculty in developing the program? Is the university’s goal to fill an academic need, or is it about generating tuition revenue?

“There is a demand out there, and demand means money,” Mulinazzi said.

Beisecker said Faculty Senate also is expected to grapple this year with a set of policies relating to intellectual property rights.

The goal is a system that fairly shares wealth created by research findings among faculty, the university and other funding investors.