THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 tmn.truman.edu @TrumanMediaNet TrumanMediaNetwork
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Truman works to change LSP
Photo by Nicolas Telep/TMN Edward Rogers teaches his junior interdisciplinary seminar on friendship. The current liberal arts and sciences program has JINS as the only required interdisciplinary course, though other courses are encouraged to discuss how the views of each discipline differ. The current proposal for Faculty Senate suggests instating an additional interdisciplinary seminar for freshmen during their first semester. BY BRENTLY SNEAD Managing Editor Truman State University is working to change its liberal arts and sciences program, a difficult process which started in 2015 and has seen several proposals and disagreements among faculty and administration. The current proposal in Faculty Senate was rewritten during the summer and replaces the current modes with four “perspectives.” The setup will continue an hour requirement within each perspective. There is also the creation of a freshman seminar that would be more interdisciplinary focused. Bridget Thomas, a nonvoting member of the Undergraduate Council and Faculty Senate, has been a part of the LSP reconfiguration from the beginning. Thomas said it began with former University President Troy Paino’s challenge to start brainstorming ideas to recreate the curriculum. After the challenge, action committees developed a list of ideas, and the blueprint teams were created.
University budget runs small surplus after state cuts BY NICOLAS TELEP News Text Editor Truman State University’s student employment budget ran a surplus during the 2016-2017 school year — part of a smaller-than-usual surplus of about half a million dollars in the general budget. The surplus in the student employment budget was anticipated by the school. In part, the surplus was the product of some money for student scholarships coming from the budget. Additionally, some departments did not use all their allocated funds for student employment. Dave Rector, vice president for administration, finance and planning, said the surplus is perfectly normal. He said there is extra money in the budget to account for fluctuations in annual spending, citing the utilities budget as an example. Rector said the University generally runs an overall budget surplus, and the extra money goes into a fund to pay for building renovations and upgrades. “Normally we have a decent surplus, overall,” Rector said. “Most people don’t spend every dime in their budget, and we don’t encourage that.” This year, though, Rector said the surplus was slightly less than it normally is because of state budget cuts. Instead of the usual surplus of approximately $1 million, the surplus was around $562,000. Rector said it is not difficult for students to find work on campus, and he said student employees at Truman are generally paid the Missouri state minimum wage. The exception is a small number of skilled students in special positions. He said some colleges have multi-tiered systems where students who work positions longer make more money, but such a system has not been considered at Truman. “Typically, if students need a job, we’ll find a job for them,” Rector said. Rector said some departments did not use all of the money allocated to them for student employment and cited Baldwin Auditorium as an example. The Auditorium has some money allocated for student employment, but was closed last year, and therefore didn’t need to employ any students. Rector said it made more sense to keep this money in the budget so it did not have to be removed and put in again for this year. VOLUME 109 ISSUE 4 © 2017
Thomas said the blueprint teams were charged with reviewing what the action committees had to offer and consolidate those into a more developed idea. Thomas said after the committees had a basic idea of what they wanted, the proposal moved into the next step. The bill was drafted, and it was presented at a UGC meeting. The most crucial change of the proposal was the addition of two freshman seminars, as well as a shift from dividing the curriculum into qualitative and quantitative modes, instead into four “worlds” in which students could choose courses from. “The idea behind changing it to ‘worlds’ was that courses were not tied to disciplines as much,” Thomas said. “The idea is that the preface shouldn’t dictate whether a student takes the course.” Thomas said the requirements with the worlds setup seemed more manageable because students were only required to take one course per world. She said the idea was students would take classes based on their interests rather than simply fulfilling requirements and checking off boxes.
Thomas said UGC had no serious problems with the bill and voted to move it into the Senate with little hesitation. Since then, though, the bill has been stuck in Faculty Senate to be questioned, revised and questioned again. During the summer, a committee was created to look at the curriculum plan and make adjustments based on the concerns of Faculty Senate and statewide changes. Faculty Senate member Candy Young, who participated in the summer committee, said they looked at the current setup and the proposed setup to find the best of each. Young said they also looked at assessment data to decipher what needs aren’t being met by Truman’s current curriculum. Young said the two places where Truman students are behind competitors are in their amount of writing and critical-thinking skills. Young said the summer committee took this data to create a single seminar for freshmen in which these skills would be emphasized. Though they are confident in the seminar, they’re facing issues developing a staff. See CURRICULUM, page 4
Pursue The Future campaign enters final year BY SPENCER FOUST Staff Writer Truman State University’s five-year “Pursue the Future” capital campaign with a goal of raising $40 million is entering its final year and will officially end June 30, 2018. Since July 1, 2013, the campaign has been encouraging its alumni and friends to invest in Truman students and their ability to leave a positive impact on the world. The campaign has raised about $35.3 million so far. The campaign’s goal is broken down into four categories — scholarships, academic programs and faculty support, the athletics fund and the Truman Fund for Excellence. According to the campaign’s website, campaign. truman.edu, fundraising for scholarships sits at 85 percent of its $25 million goal with $21.1 million and academic programs and faculty support is at 63
percent of its $10 million goal with $6.2 million. Athletics and the Truman Fund each have goals of $2.5 million. Athletics has raised 115 percent with just under $2.9 million, and the “Truman Fund” sits at 157 percent with over $3.9 million. Dave Rector, vice president for administration, finance and planning, said the reason we see some of these goals as being over or under a certain percentage is because the donor chooses what they want to give toward. A music major, for example, might donate toward the scholarship fund and say they want that scholarship to help out another music major, Rector said. He said some of the best donations to the campaign are surprises to the University. “The more money the foundation raises for scholarships or academic programs, then that’s money we don’t have to work into the budget — or rather, it supplements it,” Rector said. See CAMPAIGN, page 4
Submitted Photo University President Sue Thomas speaks during the Mid-Missouri event on April 29 for the Pursue the Future campaign. The campaign is in its final year and has a goal of raising $40 million for the University.