April 2013

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
April 12, 2013

Attendance: Brian Burnett, Mary Coussons-Read, Andrea Hutchins, Katie Kaukinen, Tom Napierkowski, Bob Durham, Tom Zwirlein, Morgan Shepherd, Pam Carter, Rebecca Webb, Christine Robinson, Suzanne Cook, Andrea Wenker, Anna Kosloski, Barbara Frye, Christina Martinez, Edgar Cota-Torres, Sheri Trumpfheller, Dorothea Olkowski
Special Observers: Jiangsu Province President Fellows (5)

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve the minutes from March 8, 2013 meeting by Bob Durham
Seconded by Morgan Shepherd
Motion passed with 16 approved and 1 abstention

Reports of Visitors:

Brian Burnett, Senior Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance:
The CU Board of Regents on Tuesday, April 9 approved a 3.1% compensation pool for faculty and exempt professionals and a resident undergraduate tuition increase of 6% (non-resident will go up from 3 to 4%). This is right in line with our strategic plan. The state budget will be awarding $3 million for merit aid for students. We will also receive $4.7 million from the state in capital construction funds for the new VAPA building on North Nevada. This is the first state money investment. The Small Business Development Center is moving to new office and training space on Garden of the Gods Road in order to make way for the new campus office building. We will be working this summer and fall with Personnel & Benefits regarding faculty pay structure and adjustments for equity.

Mary Coussons-Read, Provost:
We are seriously looking into how we are compensating faculty for compression and merit and uncompensated merit. The community college bill was not passed by the legislature, but we want to make sure we continue to support our community college partners in working together with a collaborative effort. There are many exciting developments occurring which need faculty involvement and Academic Affairs is working on academic and research programs, particularly concerning the Lane Center on North Nevada, which is quickly escalating in construction. We will be working with an external consultant regarding Academic Affairs, particularly with the budget structure, over the summer. President Benson will have a Town Hall meeting on Monday, April 15 at 2pm in Berger Hall and everyone is encouraged to attend.

Dan Montez, Office of Policy and Efficiency / CU System:
It has been 5 years since President Benson started the taskforce on efficiency and we wanted to update you on its progress. We have also distributed some assessment surveys to gauge perceptions of its progress. We met with President Benson a few weeks ago and we are now attending meetings around the campuses so that we can find out how the system administration can better help you. Our APS scorecard has gone down from 210 policies in 2008 to 138 in March 2009 to 85 in January 2013. We only roll out policies two times a year - January and July. Since it was difficult to find policies, we developed a new policy website with links to Federal and State laws. We want to know what the impact is to the end-user. Justification sheets are attached to the policies along with the identities of who initiated each policy. The taskforce on efficiency is a very broad group with faculty and staff representatives from each campus. The assessment survey indicates general overall improvement and we will continue to take survey responses to gauge continued progress. We do need campus input and we need to streamline processes.

Jennifer Hane, University Advancement Special Events Director:
Convocation will be changing its program for 2013 to better engage the students. It will be held from 3pm - 3:30pm, which is quite a bit shorter. The Chancellor will give the keynote address and will talk about the transition from high school to college. There will be some alumni input and participation. Students will write their goals on cards and then stick them on giant UCCS letters. Following the Convocation ceremony, students will exit the Gallogly Events Center and proceed along the pedestrian spine toward the West Lawn for ice cream. Faculty and staff will form a spirit tunnel along the pedestrian spine to welcome new students to campus. There will be a PLAYFAIR team building event afterwards at the Rec Center. We want to encourage and communicate to faculty about the importance of their participation in the event.

Officer Reports:

President's Report

Vice-President's Report
Election results 

Past President's Report
System Faculty Council has been reviewing goals and action plans

Reports from Standing Committees:

EPUS Report

Personnel & Benefits:
No report; will meet on May 7

University Budget Advisory Committee

Faculty Minority Affairs Committee

Women's Committee

Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Academic Computing:
No one present - no report

Library:
No one present

Intercollegiate Athletics:
No one present - no report

Sustainability

PRIDE:
No one present - no report

Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
No one present - no report

OLD BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

Motions:

1. Committee on Women's Issues Amendment - The Committee on Women's Issues of the Faculty Representative Assembly moves that Section VI.A.2.b of the bylaws be amended to read: "Women's Committee." (Previous language: "Committee on Women's Issues")
   (Motion passed unanimously)
    
2. Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget Amendment - The Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget of the Faculty Representative Assembly moves that Section VI.A.1.c of the bylaws be amended to read: "Budget Advisory Committee." (Previous language: "Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget")
   (Motion passed unanimously)

Discussion:

Discussion topic on Course Forgiveness proposed policy. This would be at the undergraduate level; the graduate level has this policy already. Greg Augspurger, the Director of the Student Success Center, spoke to the assembly and made several points concerning this proposed policy: 1) we do not accept course forgiveness from other institutions, 2) no other CU campuses do this - no support from UIS, 3) laborious to implement due to various circumstances, 4) does it apply to all courses? - not nursing, 5) possible financial aid ramifications. It was determined that faculty forums should be scheduled to discuss all aspects of this proposed policy before an all-faculty vote is taken.

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Bob Durham
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:06 p.m.