by Joe Harris
Senior Editor

Five faculty members resigned from the Barnes College of Nursing effective Aug. 31, including a full tenured professor, a tenured associate professor, an interim associate dean, an associate tenure track professor, and a non-regular faculty member.

Dr. Maryellen McSweeney, a full tenured professor, resigned and accepted a position at St. Louis University. Other resignations included Dr. Jan Atala, tenured associate professor, Dr. Virginia Drake, interim Associate Dean, Dr. Patricia Freed, an associate professor on tenure track, and Kay Gaehle, a non-regular doctoral candidate.

Also not returning to their former positions are Dr. Shirley Moore, Dr. Wayne Paris, and Marianne Fox.

Dr. Jerry D. Durham, dean of the college, said that the quality of education will not suffer because of the recent departures and that several replacements have been hired. New faculty members include Dr. Anne Fish and Dr. Pat Jamerson. Also Dr. Margaret Ulione has been promoted from a non-regular to a tenure track position.

Fish has been named an associate professor. It is a tenure track position, and Fish brings with her a $350,000 grant to study hypertension and high blood pressure in women.

"Associate and full professors are considered senior-level appointments, and those individuals are expected to provide a higher level of leadership and to be appointed to that rank you have to have the credentials," Durham said. "In our case you have to have a track record of good teaching as well as funded research."

Jamerson has been named an assistant professor, also a tenure track position. Both Fish and Jamerson have doctorates in nursing.

Durham said Ulione has been named to a tenure track position at the conclusion of a nation-wide search. Until now she was a non-regular faculty member.

"She competed for the position," Durham said. "We had national searches for these positions, so she was one the applicants and was employed on the basis of that search."

Durham said that as a non-regular faculty member, Ulione took the initiative to receive a grant from the Lowe Foundation to study safety with children. Durham said that Ulione's degree is from the University of Maryland and that it is one of the best nursing schools in the country, and her funded research helped distinguish her in the search.

Durham said that UM-St. Louis Chancellor Blanche Touhill has already approved more appointments for the college and that national searches will be launched in the hope of finding more faculty.

"Recruitment for the type of faculty we are looking for, which are registered nurses who have doctorates and who have a track record in research, is very competitive," Durham said.

Durham said that fewer than one percent of all the nurses in this country have doctorates, therefore making it a very competitive market.

The college received $200,000 from the University of Missouri System for mission enhancement. Durham said mission enhancement is a program designed to provide new dollars for programs aimed to achieve a university's mission statement.

"What we are aiming for on this campus is to be a more research type university," Durham said. "So the Chancellor believes, and I agree with her, that the college of nursing has a high potential to generate more funded research."

Durham said that he would like to see more money allocated to the college to allow for more hiring of faculty with a research background. He said that the college of nursing is being restructured "to be a more balanced academic unit with a better balance between research and teaching."

Durham said that in the next five years he expects the college will have 50 percent regular faculty and 50 percent non-regular faculty. The regular faculty will primarily conduct research while the non-regular faculty will primarily teach.