December 2018
December 2018
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
December 7, 2018
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Suzanne Scott, Susan Taylor, Melissa Benton, Maja Krakowiak, Norah Mazel, Andrea Hutchins, Margaret Harris, Deborah Kenny, Kathy Prue-Owens, Kaitlyn DeGhetto, Martin Key, Kathleen Tomlin, Andrea Bingham, Ji Hyun Oh, Pam Carter, Jugal Kalita, Darshika Perera, Michelle Dorne, Suzanne Cook, Solveig Olsen, David Havlick, Leilani Feliciano, Claire Rau, Christine Robinson-Coon, Justin Tucker, Kristi McCann, Wendy Haggren, David Weiss, Eric Billmeyer, Susan Vandagriff, Michael Landon-Murray, Roger Martinez, Monica Yoo, Tabatha Farney, Scott van Ness, Elizabeth Daniels, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from November 9, 2018 meeting by Andrea Hutchins
Seconded by Maja Krakowiak
Motion passed with 30 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Giving Tuesday continues to be successful and contributions continue to go up every year along with participation. The new Bridge Forward scholarship helps middle-income students who don’t qualify for low-income aid. The Reach Your Peak scholarships help the low-income students and the Chancellor’s Leadership Class is a merit-based scholarship program. We want to create scholarships to help these students stay in school and not drop out. Mental health issues are still high and we are getting help from outside sources as well as starting to look at prevention. Megan Bell, Executive Director of Community Learning and Assessment, received the CU system’s Excellence in Leadership Program Award during the annual ELP luncheon on November 30, 2018. Commencement is next Friday and 142 faculty have signed up to attend. The students are excited. Mark Hawkins, our 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Speaker who will deliver the Commencement address, is the President and Chief Financial Officer for Salesforce and a 1986 MBA graduate. Please see the recent e-mail I sent regarding the Strategic Plan 2030 Discovery Phase Update, which contains update information on the progress of this important process. UCCS is recognized as one of the best places to work in El Paso County, moving up from third to second position in the Gazette’s annual workplace rankings. Cybersecurity state funding is moving the program forward. The 3000-square-foot building site for UCCS Downtown Presence has also been moving forward and Norwood will keep expanding this site for classroom space. There is nothing new yet on the CU Presidential search.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
We do have a membership with EAB (Education Advisory Board) on higher ed. Their website contains a lot of research topics and information. You just need to follow the prompts on setting up an account in order to gain access to various reports. The two Dean searches (Engineering and Beth-El) are progressing well, and the Interim Dean position for LAS will be decided next week. Announcements will probably be sent out soon. Even though the Regents have passed Article V, it cannot be implemented until the APS’s are updated. July 1 is the target date for completion of that process. Current RPT criteria will be grandfathered for faculty hires before July 1, 2019. Spring semester is when work will begin on campus policies and all college RPT criteria. We will need to get some discussions set during Spring semester within college departments. Non-tenure track faculty titles will probably change somewhat, but that will be noted in an APS and not Article V.
Suzanne Scott, Budget Office Director:
We are starting to work on the fiscal year 20 budgets and we now have more direction, however, we are looking at three planning scenarios only. Each scenario depends on how much money we get from the state and tuition rate increase cap. Our resident undergraduate population accounts for approximately 75% of our tuition revenue. Non-resident tuition increases our available money. The current ICR policy has not been revised or updated since 2006. Jessi Smith, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, is leading the efforts to review this and possibly change the distributions. This will eventually come to Faculty Assembly for further review.
Susan Taylor, Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning:
The campus-wide Enrollment Strategy Committee and its four subcommittees recently provided updates on their work in the last year and recommendations they have made to the Chancellor’s Cabinet during the Chancellor’s Town Hall on retention and graduation held November 14. The group identified 52 existing retention efforts across campus. The subcommittee also looked at the university’s approach to students as they’re admitted, why students leave and why students take fewer than 15 credit hours each semester, which is the recommended course load for a four-year completion timeline. The full presentation is available, along with the Student Survey Report.
Officer Reports:
President-Elect’s Report
Not present - no report
Past President’s Report
No report
Reports from Standing Committees:
EPUS:
No report
Personnel & Benefits:
They are reviewing past uncompensated merit models.
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee:
Not present - no report
Women’s Committee:
The CU Women Succeeding Symposium will be held February 22, 2019 at CU Boulder.
Teaching with Technology:
No report – did not meet; 24/7 IT support is coming soon.
PRIDE:
Not present – no report
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
- International Office on Travel Education Abroad is collecting information from faculty regarding classes involving both travel abroad and domestic travel. Please contact Michelle Dorne or Michael Larkin for more information.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves to appoint Rebecca Laroche as a UCCS representative to the CU System Privilege and Tenure Committee, to serve a term from 2018-2021.
(Motion passed with 31 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions)
Discussion 1:
Potential changes to the UCCS Faculty Assembly Constitution and Bylaws.
Background: UCCS is the only campus that uses the titles of President, President-Elect and Past President for its officers. Faculty Council and the other campuses refer to the officers as Chair and Vice Chair. The Executive Committee would like to begin a discussion on the process of amending our Faculty Assembly Constitution and Bylaws to bring UCCS into alignment with the other campuses, and to alter any language that must be changed to account for recent revisions to Article and Policy V of CU Regent Law.
Voting approval at the February 2019 meeting would be needed to combine this proposal with the election voting for faculty representatives. In order to amend the Faculty Assembly Constitution, it is required to attain approval by two-thirds vote of the entire Faculty Assembly. The representatives were asked to talk about this in their colleges.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Norah Mazel
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:38 p.m.