M Organization | UM - Select Departments | COB Organization | COB Team Approach | COB Affiliate Centers

UM Organization

UM is led by the President and his Cabinet, under the oversight of the Montana Board of Regents.  Names of select UM leaders are:

Board of Regents (BOR) – This body has been vested with full power, responsibility, and authority to supervise, coordinate, manage, and control UM through its membership in the Montana University System.  The BOR is seven members appointed by the Governor for staggered seven-year terms, except for the student member, who has a one-year appointment that can be renewed.  The current student member is MBA student Mariah Williams. The current chair is Paul Tuss.

Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education (OCHE) – This body is the central administrative unit of the Montana University System.  The Commissioner is appointed by the BOR.  The current Commissioner is Clayton Christian.

Key UM Officials:

• President – Royce Engstrom
• Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs – Beverly Edmund
• Vice President for Administration and Finance – Michael Reid
• Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship – Scott Whittenburg
• Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs – Thomas Crady
• Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship and Dean of the Graduate School -- Scott Whitenburg
• Associate Vice President for Integrated Communications and Chief Marketing Officer -- Mario Schulzke
• Associate Provost for Dynamic Learning - Nathan Lindsay
• Associate Provost for Global Century Education - Paul Zagalo-Melo
• Legal Counsel – Lucy France
• Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Director, Title IX Coordinator -- Jessica Weltman
• Chief Information Officer – Matthew Riley
• Registrar - Joe Hickman

UM Governance

 UM employs a shared governance model for curriculum and degree management.  Several important types of groups are involved in this process, as discussed below:

Faculty Senate

The Faculty Senate plays a significant role in institutional governance.  Faculty Senate allocates seats to academic units based on the size of the unit, and the senators are selected by unit vote.  Currently, COB has four elected senators (Beed, Crawford, Stan and Tilleman).  COB senators have developed the practice of emailing Faculty Senate meeting notes to COB faculty.  If you have any issue related to campus governance that you would like COB senators to carry forward, please contact them directly.

UM Committees – UM maintains dozens of committees with faculty representation.  A call for volunteers for many of the committees comes from the Faculty Senate each spring.  Roles range from reviewing curriculum proposals to recommending grant funding to hearing student complaints to planning campus events (you do not need to be a Senator to serve).  Other committees on campus may have membership appointed by upper administration, and this may include faculty.  It is important for COB faculty to engage in campus-wide governance. Junior faculty, who have a lower service expectation, should consult their department chairs as they contemplate campus service.

University Faculty Association (UFA) – UM faculty are unionized through the UFA, with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) governing particulars of employment conditions.  Faculty who are members of the bargaining unit must pay union dues and abide by the CBA, which specifies all faculty evaluation, promotion, and tenure procedures.  The bargaining unit includes “faculty on academic or fiscal year appointment to the rank of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor with appointments that are half-time or greater. In addition, adjunct faculty on term-by-term appointment who are half-time or greater (consistent with UM Policy 101.2; 07/01) for two or more successive semesters, excluding summer, shall be included in the bargaining unit concurrent with the second semester appointment.”  All faculty who are bargaining unit members should read the CBA carefully.

UM -- Select Departments

Various UM departments impact faculty.  These are briefly listed and described below.

Disability Services for Students (DSS) – DSS provides written verification for any student with disability who has a right to request reasonable accommodations for courses.  The most common DSS accommodations include extended test time and use of a quiet room to take the test.  DSS runs a testing center that you may use for testing of DSS students, or you can make your own arrangements with the student.  You are not required to use DSS testing services, which requires the exam to leave your possession.  You should not give any testing accommodations to a student claiming a disability without having proper verification from DSS. 

Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action (EO/AA) – EO/AA works to eliminate barriers which inhibit persons from achieving full potential in education, employment, and other programs and services at UM.  EO/AA handles all discrimination, harassment, hazing, and sexual assault complaints.  If you become aware of a potential EO/AA issue, please contact the office directly.  Faculty are required to periodically complete training for EO/AA related issues. One significant requirement of all UM employees is to report any knowledge of potential sexual assault to EO/AA. This is not optional.

Human Resource Services (HRS) – HRS handles all matters related to employees, including search/hiring, benefits, and payroll.  Each spring, all employees make benefit selections through the “Choices” program.  Faculty with compensation, paycheck, or benefit questions should contact HRS.

Dining Services – Dining Services runs all on-campus food operations, including catering.  Faculty may elect to participate in the “Bear Bucks” program, which is a prepaid meal convenience option.  You deposit money onto your Griz card, then swipe your card at various food locations (primarily on campus).  The meal cost is reduced if you participate in the Bear Bucks program.  The Biz Buzz vendor in the GBB basement and the UM Dining Food Truck accept Bear Bucks, so it is a convenient option for a quick bite to eat without using your personal cash or debit/credit card.

Public Safety / Parking – In addition to providing typical security forces for the campus, Public Safety also administers all parking permits.  The two most common types of parking permits are regular permits and reserved permits.  Regular permits apply to any UM parking spot that is not handicapped, reserved, or “quick stop” and currently cost $225/yr or $116.00/semester.  Regular permit parking is on a space-available basis.  Reserved permits apply to one specific parking space that only you are entitled to park in.  These are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and currently cost $600/yr.  There are additional options for parking related to car pools and “go green” vehicles (e.g., electric/hybrids) that are available at a reduced rate.   UM also has several remote park-and-ride lots that are free.

Campus Recreation – The on-campus recreation center and pool are available to faculty and their spouses for a reasonable fee.  The current membership rate for UM employees and their spouse/partner is $29/month per person.  Campus Recreation offers many fitness classes.  Classes can be included in membership, offered for an additional fee, or open to nonmembers for fees.  Campus Recreation also runs the Outdoor Program with outdoor classes/trips and equipment rentals available for a fee.

UM Foundation  -- The UM Foundation is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for UM, and it is organizationally separate from UM.   Whenever donors give money to UM, it goes through the UM Foundation (e.g., scholarships, faculty fellowships, endowments).  Kate Jennings, a UM Foundation employee, is the Senior Director of Development for COB.  Before soliciting a prospective donor, faculty should meet with Kate.

COB Organization

COB’s organizational chart includes administrators, faculty, staff and advisory boards. The advisory boards were discussed in the previous section.  Roles of administrators, faculty, and staff are addressed below:

Dean– All faculty ultimately report to the COB Dean.  The Dean is the COB CEO and is usually not involved on a daily basis with faculty activities, but rather delegates most of the supervision of faculty to the Department Chairs.  The Department Chairs meet as a group with the Dean every other week; individual chair-dean meetings occur as needed.

Associate Dean (AD) – The Associate Dean’s is the COB COO, primarily responsible for GBB operations and student services.  The AD handles students with academic problems.  She also oversees Career Development and AACSB accreditation.  The Department Chairs do not directly report to the AD, though they work very closely with the AD on many issues.  The Department Chairs meet as a group with the AD every other week; individual chair-AD meetings occur as needed.

Department Chairs – All three Department Chairs are appointed by and report to the Dean.  Chairs are regular faculty members who have taken on certain administrative duties.  Chairs hire adjuncts, may lead tenure-track search committees, and formally evaluate all faculty in their respective Departments.   They serve as their direct supervisor, though the Dean holds final authority over all personnel matters.  Any request or concerns that a faculty member may have should generally be directed to the Chair rather than to the Dean or AD.  For example, neither the Dean nor AD is involved with scheduling of classes.  Chairs assign courses and schedules to faculty, as well as monitor enrollments.  Chairs may hear student concerns about faculty, COB policies, or UM policies.  In COB, Chairs’ terms are open-ended, with the term ending by mutual agreement between the chair, faculty, and the Dean.

Faculty – The faculty design and deliver the curriculum, conduct research, and support COB operations through service.  Faculty have the academic freedom to select pedagogical approaches and student assessment schemes, as long as the course learning objectives are achieved and grades assigned reflect students’ mastery of course content.  Core courses will have a course coordinator to ensure topical coverage is consistent across instructors.  Some courses may have common final exams; if so, a course coordinator spearheads this effort.  Faculty are classified as tenure-track or nontenure-track.  Both types of faculty contribute to the mission of the COB.  Nontenure-track faculty may or may not participate in service activities, such as committees or student advising.  

Staff – The staff support the faculty, students, and administrators.  A later section of this handbook outlines “who does what” related to this support. Department Assistants are the primary support provider and coordinator for all faculty.  In general, all requests for assistance should be directed to your Department Assistant.  The exceptions are room reservations (Room Scheduler), technology requests (Tech Team), HR questions (Fiscal Manager or HRS), or spending requests (department chair).

COB Team Approach

The team approach is applied to meeting COB’s mission and carrying out COB governance.  This manifests in a variety of teams, committees, and support mechanisms, as discussed below.  

COB Administrative Team (Admin Team) – The Admin Team meets twice a month and includes department chairs, graduate program directors, Student Services Director, Fiscal Manager, IT Director, Entertainment Management Director, Executive Education Director, BBER Director, MWTC Director, Dean’s Executive Assistant, Associate Dean, and the Dean.  

COB Committees --  COB maintains several standing committees, as well as other committees that are created and sunset periodically, depending on changing COB needs.  COB committees carry out very important work in achieving the COB mission, and all tenure-track and tenured faculty are expected to meaningfully participate in this work.  All COB committees report to the Dean, who delegates committee assignments to the Associate Dean.  Certain committees have a specific composition to provide the appropriate expertise or balance within the committee.  Each spring, faculty are asked to submit their top 3-4 preferred committees for next academic year’s committee assignments, though it is infeasible to meet everybody’s preferences.  It is the responsibility of the committee chairs to call meetings, set agendas, and move the committees’ work forward.  Departments also create committees, as needed, and these committees report to the Department Chair.  See all current committees and their charges, responsibilities, and composition.  See the committee assignments for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Tech Team– The IT Director leads a team of students and others to provide on-call support for all office and classroom IT issues.  The Tech Team is located in the second floor computer lab.  You may contact the Tech Team one of four ways:  (a) call the Help Desk at ext. 4282, (b) submit a request through the desktop program, (c) visit the Help Desk in person, or (d) email itsupport@business.umt.edu.   Jeff Meese, Instructional Media Technician, oversees the off-campus MBA program video conferencing technology.  Issues specific to that technology should be directed to him.

Graduate Assistants (GA) – GAs work 20 hours per week (total hours combined for all assigned faculty) and come from both the MBA and MAcct programs.  Tenured and tenure-track faculty will receive an email 4 -6 weeks prior to each semester asking if a GA is requested, how many hours are needed, and what special skills are desired. The number of hours that can be expected per GA request varies based on each semester’s GA demand.  Approximately 1 -2 weeks prior to semester start, each faculty that requested a GA will receive their GA name, contact information and how many hours a week are allocated to them.  GAs are a shared and scarce resource, with each typically assigned to 3-4 faculty per term.  Due to the number of faculty using GA support, requests for specific GAs may not be feasibly met.  Faculty assigned a GA are responsible for providing enough work for the allocated hours for their GA each week.   In addition to (or in lieu of) an assigned GA, faculty can submit short-term assistance requests to the “GA Pool.”  GAs are assigned to the pool, and other GAs with slack time pick up pool projects.   The policy on GA use is discussed in the Policy section of this handbook.

Faculty Mentors – New tenure-track faculty are assigned one or more tenured faculty as mentors in their department to use as a resource for teaching and research guidance.  Though formally assigned, it is an informal program.  The mentor relationship is what the mentor and mentee make it.  Faculty should seek out mentors in dealing with student issues, course content, pedagogy choices, research decisions, and department expectations.

Master Teachers – Adjunct faculty are assigned a tenure-track or tenured faculty member as their master teacher.  The master teacher guides the adjunct on course content, writing exams, student issues, grading decisions, and effective pedagogy.  The master teacher is typically experienced in teaching the adjunct faculty’s assigned courses.  The master teacher model helps ensure consistency of content across course sections.

COB Affiliate Centers

Several campus centers are affiliated with COB and/or located in the Gallagher Business Building.  All campus centers are required to be reviewed periodically, which is done by the Faculty Senate.  COB-affiliated centers are:

Bureau of Business & Economic Research (BBER) – The BBER is a research center that produces economic and industry data and forecasts.  The BBER frequently contracts with government, nonprofit, and for-profit entities to research specific economic questions or to collect data on a wide range of information, from inflation rates to county demographics to industry economic impacts.  The BBER is located on the second floor of GBB.

Small Business Institute (SBI) – The SBI is a public/private program that assists companies in western Montana through student-run consulting engagements, under the guidance of a faculty member.  The clients pay a small fee to participate in the program.

Montana World Trade Center (MWTC) – The MWTC is one of nearly 300 World Trade Centers, but it was the first to be located on a university campus.  The MWTC leads overseas and reverse trade missions, educates businesses on global trade issues, participates in global trade policy discussions at the national and state level, and provides opportunities for students to intern in the center.  It is located on the second floor of GBB.

Montana Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs (MADE) – MADE is an affiliated program of UM and COB.  MADE membership is comprised of Montana entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs with ties to the region, individuals who have assisted entrepreneurs, such as angel investors, investment bankers and venture capitalists, and COB faculty.  COB and MADE collaborate to implement a year-long educational platform that guides aspiring entrepreneurs as they develop their business ideas, identify the knowledge and tools needed to build a viable business, and network with successful entrepreneurs.  MADE sponsors three educational programs and related events that enhance student access to entrepreneurship throughout the academic year:  an entrepreneurship seminar series offered for academic credit, the PIIA, and the John Ruffatto Business Start-Up Challenge (see Faculty Opportunities in the “Program” section of this handbook for information on these latter two).