December 2020
December 2020
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
December 11, 2020
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Chuck Litchfield, David Weiss, David Moon, Minette Church, Norah Mazel, Lynn Gates, Margaret Harris, Deborah Kenny, Kathy Prue-Owens, Monique French, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Andrea Bingham, Monica Yoo, Diane Stutey, John Lindsey, Darshika Perera, Jena McCollum, Suzanne Cook, Leilani Feliciano, Roger Martinez, Emily Mooney, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Lei Zhang, Matthew Jabaily, Michael Landon-Murray, Thomas Aicher, Glen Whitehead, Laura Eurich, Larry Eames, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from November 13, 2020 meeting by Norah Mazel
Seconded by Karin Larkin
Motion passed with 25 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
We are planning for the start of Spring semester and Spring Break. We met with El Paso County Health officials and they were pretty adamant about asking for a remote start. They are expecting a spike next week, then another mid-January. CU Boulder will be remote for four weeks before coming back to campus. Our Spring semester plan is to start remotely for five weeks, then beginning February 22, we will have a class delivery similar to Fall semester. Vaccines will take time to get through. The Cabinet should have a final decision on Tuesday regarding our plan, but please feel free to send e-mail opinions. We will allow students to come at the start in January for housing and the second batch will come in February. They will pay the regular amount for housing in January and February arrivals will be pro-rated. Since we will be primarily remote for five weeks to start, that could make it difficult for lab classes. What are the Spring Break options? We could not have one and end the semester early or have a couple of days spaced out here and there. Research will continue and the campus remains open following CDC requirements. VAPA productions could be impacted, but by the end of the semester, conditions could improve for them. SGA seems fine with going remote – meeting with them in these discussions has been important. Health and safety for all our students, staff and faculty comes first. We are working with the CU President and Board of Regents regarding the furloughs, but ultimately the campus has the main decision. Spring census will be very important in looking at revenues. A 5-10% drop in enrollment will provide a possibility to stop the furloughs; more than a 10% drop will not allow us to stop them. Currently we are 14% down in Spring enrollment. In meeting with FMAC, it was recommended to delay the search for a new Associate Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion by a semester. The situation continues to evolve in the online initiative. Political changes in the Board of Regents could have implications. We have three new regents, with the majority shifting to the Democrats. Finally, congratulations to all the campus winners – a full listing can be found in this Communique article.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
Winterim will be primarily remote and Spring semester will start remotely. Next Fall semester should be more flexible with vaccines more prevalent, but we will still be using all the teaching modalities. The committee on Instructor Promotions will be meeting next week and will be looking to consider promotions on a normal timeline. We have issued a statement to faculty on merit evaluations and trying to get away from over-reliance on FCQs. Differentiated workloads need to be finalized ahead of time. We need flexibility in ratings and not workload. The deans will be working with the faculty on these things. We will be replacing the name of NTTF (Non-tenure Track Faculty) with IRC (Instructional, Research, Clinical) faculty. Keep in mind that we can’t be back to “normal” until 70% of the population is vaccinated or has antibodies for herd immunity, so this will still take some time to deal with overall.
Chuck Litchfield, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance:
Regarding the budget update, we are beginning the scenario building process for the 5-year outlook. The governor’s budget is important as it restores the one-time cut of 58% in state funding back to pre-Covid level. There is also a 3% increase to tuition in the governor’s budget, but the regents may not go with it. The second part involves looking at Fall enrollment. Our campus had the largest increase in number of applications in the state on Free App Day, which is promising. We also have had the largest graduation classes going out. Fall shouldn’t have a large increase, as it looks now. We are down 13% on Spring enrollment now; -5% down is still in line with expectation compared to pre-Covid last year. We need to watch our drop rate compared to Fall and look for trends. Efforts to push students to stick with it are very helpful. There is not really any federal relief for higher ed. There is some for child care and a bi-partisan proposal of $82 million for education, but that doesn’t seem to include higher ed. The state will be issuing vaccines in three phases once they have been approved and made available. We cannot mandate that people get the vaccine.
Officer Reports:
President-Elect’s Report
(see Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget)
Past President’s Report
No report
Reports from Standing Committees:
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
PRIDE:
Working on improving gender marking options in HR system; will hold some special presentations with Inside Out
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Sustainability:
Not present – no report
Committee on Disability:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves to amend the Faculty Assembly Bylaws to create a new Regular Standing Committee. The new committee would be named the Committee on Research (COR) and would be charged with providing leadership for the implementation of strategic planning for campus research initiatives.
(Motion passed with 25 in favor, 1 opposed and 2 abstentions)
Motion 2:
The Committee on Research moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly accept the bylaws of the Committee on Research (COR) as a standing committee of Faculty Assembly.
(Motion passed with 23 in favor, 0 opposed and 5 abstentions)
Motion 3:
The Educational Policy and University Standards Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses UCCS Policy 200-013: Establishment and Review of Centers and Institutes.
(Motion passed with 24 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstentions)
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Minette Church
Seconded by Jena McCollum
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:36 p.m.