Promotion and Tenure an important step in academic career

Fourteen faculty members took center stage Sept. 10, to be celebrated by their fellows for achieving promotion and tenure. Among the crowd of well-wishers were colleagues and friends, children and spouses, and one proud couple from Montreal.

“The moment Candace (Schlein) called to tell us she had been granted tenure, I said to my wife, ‘We’re going,’ ” said Joe Schlein, who with wife Neile made the trip from Canada to celebrate with their daughter and son-in-law, Jim Chiu.

Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer began the ceremony by thanking the group for making student learning meaningful and applicable.

“Your success is crucial to the success of your School and to our success as an institution. Your achievements, as acknowledged by the granting of promotion and tenure, are shared with this university and our greater community,” she said.

The promotion and tenure process at UMKC involves a lengthy and rigorous review of academic performance in teaching, scholarship and service. Each of the academics recognized at the celebration has demonstrated to their peers and to the administration that they have met high standards for sustained contributions and outstanding performance.

Among those honored were a professor whose sensitivity to the needs of his students coping with family and work led him to offer more online options; an historian who published not only the expected monographs, but also published in Italian, French, and German for good measure; an instructor whose research may bring permanent change to Missouri’s child-welfare workforce; and a teacher whose writing has become the handbook for music therapists working with older adults.

Presenters, most of them deans or department chairs, praised the awardees for doing the kind of work that attracts students, community collaboration and research dollars. And Chancellor Leo E. Morton brought the program to a thoughtful close, saying, “Honorees, we are gratified by your achievements as instructors, scholars and contributors. You are extraordinary.”

At the end of the program, recipients stayed behind to mingle with coworkers, family and friends at a reception.

Those recently appointed are listed below:

Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
Melita Belgrave, Conservatory of Music and Dance
presented by:  Charles Robinson, Professor

 Ceki Halmen, School of Computing and Engineering
presented by: Mark McClernon, Chair

Brent Never, Henry W. Bloch School of Management
presented by:  David O. Renz, Chair

 Robert Prue, College of Arts and Sciences
presented by:  Tom Sandreczki, Interim Chair

Candace Schlein, School of Education
presented by:  Clare Bell, Chair

Ronald Tice, Conservatory of Music and Dance
presented by:  Paula Weber, Chair

Massimiliano Vitiello, College of Arts and Sciences
presented by: John Herron, Chair

Greg Vonnahme, College of Arts and Sciences
presented by:  Mona Lyne, Chair

Tenured as Asssociate Professor
Timothy Lynch, School of Law
presented by Ellen Suni, Dean

 Promotion to Professor
Rosalyn Bertram, College of Arts and Sciences
presented by:  Tom Sandreczki, Interim Chair

Diane Petrella, Conservatory of Music and Dance
presented by:  Peter Witte, Dean

Melanie Simmer-Beck, School of Dentistry
presented by:  Marsha Pyle, Dean

Deborah Smith, College of Arts and Sciences
presented by:  Linda Breytspraak, Olson Professor

Gerald Wyckoff, School of Biological Sciences
presented by:  Sean Yu, Chair