University Professors
MSSU Chapter
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American Association of University Professors MSSU Chapter |
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Welcome! Since the Missouri
Southern chapter of the American Association of University Professors
(AAUP) was founded last spring, we have been asked by faculty, students
and people from the community who we are, what we stand for and why we
have organized our chapter.
Put simply, we are a small but growing association of professional
educators dedicated to preserving the quality and effectiveness of
educational services to our students here at MSSU. Through our
interaction with the administration and other interested parties, we
hope to achieve goals that are important to all of us. We want our institution
to grow both in size and quality.
We believe that offering our students a quality education will
enhance our institution’s reputation, but when size and quality are in
conflict, we believe quality is more important.
Relatively small classes, taught by highly qualified,
approachable faculty, have always been a strength of Missouri Southern
and should remain so. We believe a less
selective institution like Missouri Southern has an obligation to offer
effective developmental classes to those students readily identified as
at-risk, to help make up for deficiencies in their background and
opportunity and to provide them a fair chance for success at the
university level. For that
reason, we believe that reaching and responding to students in course
settings that foster direct, personal interaction with professors should
remain a high priority. We believe in addressing
the special needs of our constituent community, the Four-States area.
Those needs include:
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the chance to
obtain an affordable liberal arts education at a four-year public
institution. We aim to serve
students whose needs cannot fully be met by community colleges or
private undergraduate institutions.
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special
emphasis on today’s global community, striving for exposure to different
world views, cultures, environments, and expectations.
Preserving, developing and substantially funding Missouri
Southern’s International Mission are crucial to meeting this need.
·
resources to
cover a larger proportion of the cost of attending classes and residing
at a four-year university.
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opportunities
for faculty and student travel and educational exchange.
Professors and students should be encouraged to attend
conferences and connect with faculty and students from other regions and
other institutions. This means offering a reasonable number of
sabbaticals each semester and financial support for academically
oriented faculty and student travel.
·
greater
involvement in the community, supplementing local expertise and
experience in dealing with the problems and opportunities our region is
facing. Stephen Schiavo (By the way, if anyone needs it, the way to contact Missouri's Governor Nixon is http://governor.mo.gov/contact/ )
The campus of Missouri Southern State University
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