Lincoln University's faculty members are concerned with a definition of their jobs approved two weeks ago by LU's Curators - and are unhappy the curators' language includes fewer people than the faculty's own definition.
At least part of the debate involves many faculty members' decision to have the Missouri National Education Association represent them in contract negotiations with Lincoln administrators, as well as their desire the bargaining group include librarians and Extension program researchers.
Debra Greene, LU's interim vice president for Academic Affairs, noted the school's collective bargaining policy - adopted by the curators in November - said the criteria "determining the membership of the bargaining unit shall be clearly defined in language proposed by the bargaining representatives seeking recognition and approved by the (LU) president."
Greene also pointed to the definition of "academic faculty" the curators approved Feb. 9, which includes those faculty members whose "academic appointment" is at least three-fourths of a full-time teaching load and "who is a member of a department in which a degree program is housed and whose condition of employment is a probationary tenured or tenure-track appointment."
She said President Kevin Rome has made it clear that definition includes "no research faculty, no librarian (and) no department heads."
Two of the Faculty Senate members argued the curators' definition doesn't exclude librarians, Extension researchers or department heads and suggested any contract that treated a department head differently from other teachers could result in a discrimination lawsuit.
Ethan Cordray, from the Inman Page Library staff, and Adrian Andrei, of the Extension program, received standing ovations when they urged their colleagues be included in the faculty definition.
"The professional librarians here at Lincoln are officially faculty members (in) keeping with the usual practice at major colleges and universities throughout the nation.
"We greatly value our faculty status as a recognition that we are full participants in the academic community."
He agreed there are some differences between librarians and "a typical professor teaching in an academic department."
However, he added: "In more important ways, our duties and interests are the same as the newly-defined 'academic faculty.'"
Andrei noted, "between July 2015 and February 2017, the research and Extension faculty brought in about $3.3 million in extra-mural grants and funding and that accounts for 64 percent of the extra-mural grants and funding that the entire university received."
With 28 faculty offering five undergraduate and graduate degree programs and 142 students helping to "conduct research and outreach activities to support Lincoln University's land grant mission," Andrei said, the Extension and research faculty should be recognized for their contributions and included in the general faculty's definition.
The faculty also spent almost half of its 80-minute meeting with Sandy Koetting, LU's chief financial officer, discussing how the school calculates its reserve funds.
Koetting asked to appear at Thursday's meeting after last month's Faculty Senate session was told some teachers had estimated Lincoln has approximately $20 million in reserves.
She told the Faculty Senate she understood how they reached that number, but it "was based on an inaccurate understanding of the term reserve."
The calculation also must account for the school's various liabilities and outstanding bills, she explained.
Ultimately, she said, Lincoln's reserves are only $12.5 million - and that's not much in a year when budgets have been reduced by governors' withholdings, and the proposed budget for the business year that begins July 1 cuts more than $1.3 million from this year's budget.
Koetting acknowledged the number is harder to find because of the way Lincoln presents its financial reports, based on requirements of the national Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
Koetting said Lincoln officials still keep track of each separate fund but must "(collapse) all funds into one column" in the final reports, instead of showing the separate impacts of each fund.