UNIVERSITY of MISSOURI

OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR

March 13, 2012

J. Wilson Watt, Chair, Campus Committee on Faculty Responsibility Associate Professor, School of Social Work
712 Clark Hall

Columbia, MO 65211
Dear Professor Watt:

Thank you for your letter of March 12, 2012, communicating the decision of the Campus Committee on FacultyResponsibility (CCFR) to reaffirm your earlier findings in the matter of Professor Thomas Gregory Engel. I affirm your decision and accept it as the final disposition of the case. I want to thank you and the Committee for your exemplary work in this matter.

I appreciate the concerns you express regarding the appropriate standard of proof in faculty irresponsibility cases such as this. Allow me to clarify my position on this issue. We are bound to comply with the Collected Rules and Regulations of the University of Missouri. Since the Collected Rules do not specify an evidentiary standard under CRR 300.010, the general rule that such administrative proceedings are governed by a preponderance of the evidence standard must apply. Where the CCFR finds that the violation is so significant as to warrant a recommendation of dismissal, the accused faculty member is afforded the protection of a separate proceeding under CRR 300.060 (Procedures in Case of Dismissal for Cause). In such proceedings the Faculty Committee on Tenure must "be convinced by the evidence in the record considered as a whole," before recommending dismissal (CRR 300.060.B.9).
Since there is a wide range of factual situations that may constitute faculty irresponsibility and a wide range of remedial actions that may be recommended by the CCFR as a result of a finding of faculty irresponsibility under CRR 300.010, a preponderance of the evidence standard is, in my view, appropriate. A more stringent evidentiary standard in significantly less serious cases of faculty irresponsibility warranting less severe recommended remedial action would impede the ability of the Faculty through the Campus Committee on Faculty Responsibility to monitor its own members and respond appropriately.
I recognize that under our current faculty bylaws, there is the possibility that the Campus Committee on Faculty Responsibility might, based on its fact findings, be inclined to recommend remedial action short of dismissal that could be considered a severe sanction. I have encouraged Faculty Council, through my letter of February 29, 2012 to Professor Joe Parcell (attached), to consider a modification to our current bylaws that would retain the preponderance of evidence standard for the initial fact determinations called for under CRR 300.010.L, but add provisions similar to those under CRR

105 Jesse Hall Columbia, MO 65211 Phone:573-882-3387 Fax:573-882-9907 Web: chanceUor.missouri.edu

Association ofAmerican Universities Member since 1908

300.060, ensuring that before imposition of a severe sanction the violation be established by clear and convincing evidence. Such a modification would afford those faculty members facing severe sanction, as a result of faculty irresponsibility proceedings, protections similar to those afforded faculty members facing dismissal for cause.
The fact that severe sanctions or dismissal are remedies recommended by the accuser(s) in a faculty

irresponsibility proceeding and therefore possible ultimate outcomes, does not dictate that a higher evidentiary standard must apply, particularly where mechanisms are in place to provide a separate process before such severe sanctions are imposed.

Again, I appreciate the time and effort that you and the Campus Committee on Faculty Responsibility have given to this matter in service to the life of the university.
Sincerely yours,

&#*j] J,tesT
Brady V. Deaton
Chancellor
BJD^d
attachment

Provost Brian Foster

Professor Joe Parcell

Gennady Barabtarlo
Professor, Russian and German Studies

L. Marvin Overby
Professor, Political Science
Deborah M. Pearsall

Stephen P. Ferris
Professor, Finance
Nat T. Messer

Professor, Anthropology
Reid J. Smeda

Professor, Veterinary Medicine

Associate Professor, Plant Sciences