*Floyd considers Gilliland's future*

By LYNN FRANEY The Kansas City Star

Dozens of University of Missouri-Kansas City professors told university President Elson Floyd on Tuesday that Martha Gilliland is not the chancellor they want leading the campus in the future.

In an interview after the closed-door meeting, Floyd said universities needed to offer a trusting environment in which professors and the chancellor communicated openly and worked together.

Unlike employees in a corporate setting, university faculties traditionally have had a vocal share in decision-making. A university leader needs to have faculty support, Floyd said.

He said, though, that he had not made any decision on whether UMKC's faculty upheaval - evidenced in votes of "no confidence" in Gilliland from six faculty groups last week - would result in the campus getting a new chancellor.

He said he would reflect on the matter over the Thanksgiving break and return to Kansas City on Monday to meet with people in the community.

Floyd's day was filled with closed-door meetings with several groups: about 300 UMKC staff members, four student leaders and the deans who lead UMKC's individual schools.

His meeting with professors made clear to him that he should make a decision on UMKC's leadership sooner, rather than later, he said, but he added that he wouldn't make a hasty decision.

"I'm doing my due diligence," he said.

Gilliland has led UMKC for 4½ years, arriving in Kansas City in April 2000 from a short stint as provost, or second-in-command, at Tulane University in New Orleans. She soon set about attempting a major "transformation" of the UMKC culture, hiring a friend on a pricey contract to lead workshops intended to help UMKC employees dream a better future.

That prompted negative reactions among some professors, who fretted that all the focus on transformation was taking energy and time from their academic duties and from trying to raise their reputations in their own subject areas.

In subsequent years, other professors also have begun to disagree with Gilliland's leadership, some because of changes in budget practices that they said took money away from academics and others because of Gilliland's interactions with their own schools.

For example, Gilliland continued to pursue moving the law school downtown, even though professors had stated strongly that they did not want to leave the main campus southeast of the Country Club Plaza.

And education professors, who plan to hold their own vote next week on whether they have confidence in Gilliland's leadership, said they felt slighted when Gilliland launched a new Institute of Urban Education without discussing it in depth with them, and then said publicly that the "School of Education will not continue to exist in its current form."

Jakob Waterborg, an associate professor who leads UMKC's Faculty Senate, said that before Tuesday's meeting he thought professors at UMKC were about equally divided between support for Gilliland and rejection of her leadership.

But after hearing so many professors say they do not envision a good future for UMKC with Gilliland in the chancellor's chair, he said he now knows how broad the disapproval is.

The faculty's mood is "definitively negative," he said.

Even one of Gilliland's strongest supporters, Professor Ray Coveney, said after Tuesday's meeting that "it does not look good" for Gilliland.

He told Floyd he thought Gilliland, who earns $250,000 a year leading the 12,000-student campus, was a good chancellor. In an interview after the meeting, Coveney said he was disappointed in his colleagues, who he said were acting "irrationally fearful" of central administrators.

Gilliland's only comment Tuesday came in a written statement: "I believe it is important for President Floyd to hear from the many voices that make up this university. The academy is the place for dialogue about issues. As always, we are committed to addressing concerns and moving forward in support of our students, our faculty, our staff and our community."

Geoff Gerling, who leads the UMKC Student Government Association, would not discuss what happened in the meeting Floyd held with him and three other student leaders. He said Gilliland had been open to hearing from students about issues important to them.

Kelly Limpic, who leads the UMKC Staff Council, told The Kansas City Star in an e-mail message: "Today's meeting was not about assessing Chancellor Gilliland. Rather, it was an opportunity to talk about where UMKC is going, and what kind of leadership is needed to get us there. Many staff members spoke their opinions, regardless of where they stood on the issues."

To reach Lynn Franey, higher education reporter, call

(816) 234-4927 or send e-mail to lfraney@kcstar.com.