Between 7th and 14th February, 2022, MU faculty were polled regarding their approval of two Faculty Council resolutions on shared governance at the University of Missouri. The first resolution concerned a three-part recommendation on ways of improving shared governance and transparency at the university; the second asked whether faculty approved of the request that President-Chancellor Choi rescind CRR 320.030F, the policy on salary reductions for tenured faculty.
1,045 faculty submitted responses to the electronic survey, representing 47% of faculty contacted overall. As electronic survey response rates typically fall between 20% and 40%, this response rate was strong for an electronic poll of this kind, and indeed comparable to those of recent campus-wide electronic surveys, such as the 2019 COACHE survey (41%).
Both resolutions were approved by large majorities of faculty who voted: the first by a 94% to 6% margin (912 to 60 votes, with 73 abstentions), and the second by a margin of 88% to 12% (782 to 110 votes, with 112 abstentions). We believe that these results demonstrate how deeply committed MU faculty are to the principles and practices of shared governance.
AAUP-MU will continue to work with campus stakeholders, including Faculty Council and all levels of campus and system administration, to advance shared governance and transparency at the university.