JOPLIN, Mo. — Missouri Southern State University faculty members suggested continued frustration with the university’s administration in the results of a recent faculty survey.

Of the 204 full-time faculty members at the time, 138 responded to the survey, for a response rate of 68 percent.

The faculty in the survey indicated a dim view of the efforts of President Bruce Speck, the university’s Board of Governors and, to a somewhat lesser degree, A.J. Anglin, vice president for academic affairs.

The faculty senate in 2010 delivered a “no confidence” vote against Speck.



WORK TO DO

Sixty-eight percent of those responding disagreed with the statement that Speck values the faculty. Sixty-three percent disagreed with the statement when applied to the board. Forty-nine percent said Anglin didn’t value faculty.

Last year, 60 percent said Speck didn’t value the faculty.

There were similarly low scores regarding communication. Seventy-two percent disagreed that the president communicates effectively. The percentage who disagreed with the statement was 66 percent for the board and 56 percent for Anglin.

Large majorities of respondents also suggested that the president and the board don’t seek faculty input on decisions.

On those and other statements, only small percentages said they agreed. Other choices were “neutral” and “don’t know.”

“I think we have some work to do,” said board Chairwoman Sherry Buchanan. “I think we need to keep looking at ways for the board to better communicate with the faculty.”

She said she is disappointed that the programs put in place previously haven’t shown positive results. Those include “shared governance,” an effort to include everyone on campus in decisions.

“I am disappointed,” Buchanan said. “We try to be as transparent as we can be. The faculty is represented at every board meeting. We rely on them to transmit the concerns of the faculty.”

Speck wrote in an email response to a Globe request for an interview that his busy schedule before graduation and President Barack Obama’s campus visit next week hadn’t allowed him time to review the survey results. He said he wouldn’t be looking at the survey until probably two weeks after the MSSU graduation on Saturday and that he couldn’t accommodate an interview until some time after that.

Anglin didn’t agree to an interview, saying he is stepping down from his administration position to take a teaching position. When the announcement was made earlier this month, both he and Speck said Anglin had helped repair relations between Speck and the faculty, which was in contrast to the survey results.



COMMUNICATION

Linda Hand, the new faculty senate president, said she met with Speck on Thursday and that he had committed to better communication with faculty members. Hand said communication remains a problem on campus — from the top down and from the bottom up.

“I don’t think our communication is quite at the place it needs to be,” Hand said.

She said she wasn’t prepared to make any judgments about other survey results critical of the administration or the board. She said she didn’t want the survey to appear to be a tool for the faculty to punish the president or the board.

“That’s not what it’s about at all,” she said. “We want people to have a way to express their opinions without being punished.”

She said the response rate is notable.

“That so many people would answer is amazing,” Hand said. “It’s not just a few people who think things can be improved.”

She said she sees the faculty survey as a way of identifying things upon which the faculty senate can improve. She said she hopes the board and the administration can make use of the results. It also can be used as a measure of progress. Last year was the first year of the survey.

“This is not a two-year project,” she said. “It’s an ongoing thing that we will continue doing.”



COMPENSATION

As the board today considers a budget with no across-the-board pay increases for the fifth straight year, the survey indicates faculty members aren’t happy about their level of pay. Nearly 78 percent disagreed with the statement: “Faculty compensation is as good as or better than the compensation at other comparable universities.” The percentage who agreed with the statement was nearly 6 percent.

Seventy-four percent disagreed with a statement that faculty pay was adequately matched with performance. Nearly 9 percent responded that they agree.

Another statement, “The compensation at MSSU allows us to attract and retain highly qualified faculty,” received an 87 percent disagreement response. A little over 4 percent said they agreed.

On last year’s survey, about 75 percent said they disagreed with the statement.



EMPHASIS

Nearly 49 percent responded that they were seriously considering leaving the university in the next three years. About 28 percent disagreed, including 18 percent who strongly disagreed. Hand said it’s difficult to interpret that information.

“It’s sad,” she said

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they were satisfied with their career progress. Nearly 29 percent disagreed.

A majority of respondents said MSSU has an excellent regional reputation for community service, the faculty and the international mission. The library also ranked well.

The faculty gave its own deans and department heads high marks in the results.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said the university places far too much emphasis on athletics, while 42 percent said too little or far too little emphasis is placed on undergraduate education, and 45 percent said too little or far too little emphasis is placed on graduate education.

“Our goal is undergraduate education,” Hand said, explaining her own answer. “That’s what we’re good at and what we should be emphasizing.”

Hand said she hopes next year’s survey results are different.

“I hope it gets better,” she said. “I hope these survey results are much better next year.”





A tool

SHERRY BUCHANAN, chairwoman of the Missouri Southern Board of Governors, said the faculty survey will be one of several tools the board will use when it evaluates President Bruce Speck’s job performance next month.