April 2011

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
April 8, 2011

Attendance: Peg Bacon, Gayanne Scott, Morgan Shepherd, Peggy Beranek, Katie Kaukinen, Amanda Sinclair, Andrew Czaplewski, Bob Durham, Rebecca Webb, Sheri Trumpfheller, Pam Carter, Suzanne Cook, Catherine Kelly, Tom Huber, Julaine Field, Michele Companion, Christina Martinez, Barbara Prinari, Eddie Portillos, Mary Beth Chambers, Bob Hirschfeld, Ron Fitz

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve the minutes from March 11, 2011 meeting by Bob Durham
Seconded by Michele Companion
Motion passed unanimously

Reports of Visitors:

Peg Bacon:
The main theme of the recent Chancellor’s Budget Forums held during the last week of March is one of “cautious optimism.”  We are in a much better position than we have been in the last couple of years.  Remember that Commencement takes place on Friday, May 20 at 10:00am at the World Arena and faculty’s participation is highly recommended as it is very meaningful to the students.  Mountain Lion Research Day, which was held last Friday, April 1, was very successful with 70 posters from faculty and students representing all the colleges.  Katie Kaukinen, Greg Plett and Andy Subudhi all gave talks at the event also.  General Education Taskforce is moving along with their current studies of curriculums at other campuses.  The co-chairs are Christina Jimenez, Tom Gruen and Jeff Ferguson.  They should probably have a report ready to present to Faculty Assembly in the fall.  The College of Education Dean Search is also moving along with four candidates coming to campus.  Next year is Tom Christensen’s last year as Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, so the search process for his replacement will be underway soon.  It is important to note on grading sheets if student never attended class or last day of attendance for Financial Aid purposes.  This will probably be activated in the system for fall grading sheets.

Gayanne Scott:
The financial theme of “cautious optimism” is a good description of the current budget condition, with an emphasis on optimism.  We are making progress out of the negative numbers.  The current legislature is holding Higher Ed at $519 million, which means $146 million to CU.  We were planning on a $70 million cut, but our cut should now be about $13 million.  We were also planning on receiving only $8 million for UCCS, but we should now be able to receive almost double that amount.  To keep things in perspective with Higher Ed versus K-12 cuts, it is important to remember that Higher Ed has been taking a $900 cut per student for the last three years, while K-12 was continuing to receive mandatory increases and is just now taking a $370 cut per student.  PERA employees will still be paying about 2.5% out of pocket for probably one more year.  We have grown our marginal revenues bigger than we thought and should be able to plan for some modest investments this year after three years of cuts.  The legislature is still in session for one more month and there will be discussions at upcoming Regents meetings regarding the budget.  A 7% tuition increase is planned, whereas CSU is planning an increase of 20%.

Officer Reports:

President’s Report
Report attached

Vice-President’s Report
Faculty Assembly election results for 2011-12 were announced; due to a tie for the 4th LAS representative, there will be a run-off election for LAS eligible faculty participation only which will run from Monday, April 11 to Friday, April 15.

Past President’s Report
No report

Reports from Standing Committees:

EPUS Report:
Report attached (also see New Business)

Personnel & Benefits:
Same health insurance packages will be offered but employee’s cost has not yet been determined; continued discussion regarding CU Net not having access to Denver hospital

Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget:
No decisions made yet; looking at different models

Minority Affairs Committee:
No report – did not meet this month

Women’s Committee:
FAWC workshop on Promotion & Tenure will be held on May 4, 12pm – 2pm in UC 122

Non-Tenure Track Faculty:
Report attached

Academic Computing:
No one present – no report

Library:
No one present – no report

Intercollegiate Athletics:
No one present – no report

Sustainability:
Faculty discussion of use of all-campus read book (No Impact Man) is scheduled for Friday, April 29 at the Heller Center; actions are taking place to reduce electricity usage on campus, especially in the labs

PRIDE:
No one present – no report

OLD BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

Discussion Item
The Educational Policy and University Standards Committee of the Faculty Representative Assembly recommends approval of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Student Academic Ethics Code and Student Academic Ethics Policy.

The discussion was led by Robert Hirschfeld and Mary Beth Chambers from EPUS.  It was determined that some items of clarification were needed.  There appears to be some ambiguity about whether the intent is clear to preserve course level sanctions issued by faculty.  Peg Bacon suggested that our legal counsel, Jenny Watson, review the documents for possible clarification of the dean’s actions, if necessary.  Since the Faculty Assembly vote will approve these documents and since there is still concern with clarification of actual wording in the documents, it was recommended to table the motion until May by Pam Carter and seconded by Michele Companion.  The assembly then voted on tabling the motion and it passed unanimously with 13 votes in favor and no votes opposed.  In the course of the discussion, it was also mentioned that David Moon is working on an electronic tracking of violations that go into process.

MOTIONS

None

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Amanda Sinclair
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:14 p.m.