The Journal

Media Credit: Theo Welling Ralph Olliges, associate professor in the multidisiplinary studies department and president of the Faculty Senate, discusses the Global Citizenship Task Force at the faculty assembly in Emerson's Library's first floor conference room Nov. 10.

A gathering of Webster University faculty in the Emerson Library conference room Nov. 10 produced discussions on several issues, including the recently announced forum with faculty, staff and administrators, the ongoing debate about the future of general education requirements and the fate of the legal studies department.

The faculty meeting began with Ralph Olliges, president of the Faculty Senate and associate professor in the multidisciplinary studies department, announcing a forum that will be held at 3 p.m. Nov. 23 in the Winifred Moore Auditorium. The forum is open to faculty and staff members, and will be attended by President Elizabeth Stroble, Board of Trustees President Mark Burkhart and former Board of Trustees President Ed Glotzbach.

Gwyneth Williams, a professor in the history, politics and international relations department, requested that faculty members e-mail questions they want addressed by administrators during the first half of the forum. During the second half of the forum the floor will be opened to all questions.

The forum was announced after faculty and staff representatives expressed concerns over the former WU President Richard Meyers' compensation. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently ranked Meyers as the fourth highest-paid private university president for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

The next item on the agenda was a short presentation on salary and fringe benefits by Debbie Psihountas, associate professor in the business department.

Psihountas shared the results of a faculty survey, which showed that WU students and professors have similar concerns - namely compensation and parking.

Michael Hulsizer, associate professor in the behavioral and social sciences (BSS) department, put a motion before the faculty assembly to remove the legal studies program from the BSS department.

Robin Higgins, director of the legal studies program, in turn put motioned to table the proposal, saying that legal studies faculty did not have enough time to review Hulsizer's proposal. Her motion to table the proposal was narrowly approved, with 36 votes to table and 35 votes to allow the proposal to proceed.

Bruce Umbaugh, chairperson of the Global Citizenship Project task force and associate professor in the philosophy department, gave a presentation to update the faculty on progress the task force had made.

After Umbaugh's presentation, faculty members had a 20-minute debate about the name of the new general education program.

Several faculty members expressed a concern that branding the general education requirements as the Global Citizenship Program was intellectually dishonest since there is no definition of what a global citizen is.

Dan Hellinger, professor in the history, politics and international relations department, defended the choice of the name and said more debate would be needed to resolve the disagreement.

"In this particular case I think that the notion of global citizenship is in fact contested but not empty," Hellinger said. "There is a lot of literature on this and a lot of debate."

A motion to change the name of the Global Citizenship program was overwhelmingly opposed.

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