December 2022
December 2022
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
December 9, 2022
Attendance: Karin Larkin, Robin Kempf, Kathy Prue Owens, Venkat Reddy, Martin Key, Elizabeth Daniels, Lynn Gates, Elisa Thompson, Kristi McCann, Minette Church, Matthew Jabaily, Melissa Benton, Emily Mooney, Aaron Corcoran, Monica Yoo, Suman Lakkakula, Erica Allgood, Erica Allgood, Jian Ma, Jessi Smith, Craig Bubeck, David Weiss, David Anderson, Laura Austin-Eurich, Cortny Stark, Solveig Olsen, Assma Sawani, Darshika G. Perera, Curtis Turner, Norah Mazel, Farida Khan, Haleh Abghari, Christina Jimenez, David Moon, Lei Zhang, Jena Mccollum, Larry Eames, Gordon Stringer, Esther Lamidi, Tom Christensen, Dylan Harris, Emily Skop, Kate Quintana, Adham Atyabi, Karl Spiecker, Nancy Marchand-Martella, Susan Taylor, Joanne Delgado
CALL TO ORDER / APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Motion to approve the minutes from November 11, 2022 meeting by David Moon
Seconded by Kristi McCann
Motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention
REPORTS OF VISITORS:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
The Chancellor briefly discussed the town hall and the support and unity from the campus regarding the tragedy with Club Q. A Giving Tuesday event was held at the brewery of the CU Alumni who heroically subdued the assailant. He announced the new Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, Angela Bender, who will begin her tenure on February 1, 2023. The search for Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance (VCAF) is still underway. The Chancellor thanked Karl Spiecker for his leadership as Interim VCAF, echoed his commitment to his role and hasn’t slowed down even with this nearing departure. Carlos Garcia, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, will be Acting CFO after Karl’s departure. He also congratulated Suzanne Scott, who was recently promoted to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget & Planning.
He also discussed the states announcement on the paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program impacts from inflation by 4-5% the state will be collecting funding from the Colorado Universities (CU) to offset. The Chancellor asked to examine expenses with every 1% of merit pool equals to $1 million dollars in expenses. The Governor proposed a 5% merit increase, which adds $5 million dollars, although grants and construction quickly add up. The Chancellor recommends focusing on enrollment and faculty retention. Formulating a stronger enrollment strategy will attract more international students, not just at a campus level, and promote collaborative efforts among all departments.
Lastly, the Chancellor addressed the recent impacts to initiative funding and the need to shift focus for resolutions. The Cabinet will be having a meeting soon to discuss the offsets and support other initiatives. The issues will address the needs of the campus with collaborative efforts, increasing resources, and creating more entrepreneurship opportunities. The Chancellor encourages campus-wide support and unity with overcoming these difficult times.
Karl Spiecker, Interim VC for Administration and Finance:
Karl addressed the Governor’s initiative on 5% raise, that will only benefit other government agencies, except for higher education. In the early 90s, higher education privatized, and the state allowed higher education institutions to exempt themselves in state procurement rules and allow institutions to raise their own tuitions decisions, resulting in unfunded mandates. Last year, The Governor’s Proposal approved 13 ½ % and this year’s proposal is 7%, which doesn’t include new initiatives for higher education and new mandatory costs and budget will be allocated towards other prioritized issues. Top three issues to be aware of: 1.) timeline for legislature to make decisions, will be in late March early April. When thinking of operating budget for next year, thinking of revenue resources will be vital. 2.) the Board of Regents will approve tuition rates. 3.) the Budget Allocation Model is intended to incentives and enrollment; however, projections are difficult when student enrollment is sporadic. In the final stages in energy performance projects, identifying projects will infuse funding to the campus infrastructure. Karl thanked everyone for the support and guidance he received while serving as Interim Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance.
Nancy Marchand-Martella, Provost:
The Provost provided positive news regarding the faculty revitalization plan; the campus has identified a source to fund the 37 grant rewards. Funding will be redirected that were originally set aside for other COVID-19 related projects to fund grants. The Provost emphasized the importance of the faculty revitalization plan and faculty’s work and will be working towards redirecting the funding grants quickly with the help from the Provost’ HR Kyle Gruenhagen who will be working with the college financial administrators and will be housed within the colleges. Once the speed types are established, the Provost’s office will transfer funding grants to the individual colleges. Any questions regarding the speed types, contact your college financial administrators. The Provost hopes this update will provide everyone with relief and understand the value of all faculty members is vital to this campus.
Update: The Budget Redesign Task Force continues to hold weekly meetings, addressing pain points in the BAM model and issues relating to the model, and will be working on a survey. The Task Force will be meeting with CFOs from CU Boulder and CU Denver next year for an overview of their incentive-based models. Their feedback is important when identifying what works for others and how to address what did and didn’t work—this will be instrumental with applying those methods to CU Colorado Springs. A Website will be up and running soon, with weekly notes, supplemental documents, governance structures in efforts to promote campus-wide transparency. The Task Force is focused on getting it right for the campus, everyone can voice their opinions and concerns.
OFFICER REPORTS:
President’s Report:
- Welcome Dr. José Cantu, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment! He will be joining our meeting in February to introduce himself and update us on all things enrollments.
- Farewell and thank you to Karl Spiecker, Interim Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance who has charted us through budget shoals this fall and gave us a clear report on the state of things, especially anticipating things at the state level, in our November meeting. Karl will be handing off to an interim VCAF to be announced by end of this week.
FA Discussion and Q&A and votes this Friday:
- Covid Task Force will report on what steps to ameliorate the impacts Covid on faculty campus has accomplished so far, and what recommendations have not been undertaken along with future steps the task force recommends.
- Motions for vote:
- (still tabled) Motion 1: vote on the Faculty Governance policy (200-15) revision
- Motion 2: The Educational Policy and University Standards (EPUS) Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly approve revisions to Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure policy (200-001) (see November minutes for Tom Christensen’s report on this. See agenda attachment from Karin Larkin)
- Motion 3: The Faculty Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly charge a new Grievance Committee to write bylaws to become a Standing Committee (see November minutes for report on this)
Searches and Hires:
- New Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources - Angela Bender, will start on February 1st, 2023. Thank you to Michelle Brown (LAS-ENG) who served on that search committee.
- Campus leadership is in the process of negotiating with an AVC Facilities candidate (as of Monday)
- Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance “rolling search” - December the search firm will be identifying the candidates. They will bring the candidates list to the search committee first week of January, second week they will interview the qualified candidates, third week the cabinet interviews them, then based on the outcome we will have candidates come to campus last week of Jan or 1st week of Feb. Stay tuned!
- Two faculty have needed to roll off the search committee, and Kelli Klebe (Chair) will be putting out asks for replacements, with preference for people who are serving or have served on UBAC, and someone who was on the original budget steering committee.
Policy:
- Thank you, David Weiss, for the campus policy progress and updates (see David’s email 12/1 for detail)
Campus/budget News:
- The Chancellor has selected members for a Budget Redesign Task Force that he has given our Provost to Chair. We suggested names (THANK YOU to all who were willing), and Rhonda Glazier (KFL) is the faculty representative. Rhonda also Chairs the Faculty Council Finance Committee. THANK YOU to Rhonda for serving in this important capacity!
- Faculty from UBAC (University Budget Advisory Committee/Faculty Assembly Budget Committee) are not represented on this task force, but the Provost reports that the task force currently plans to put UBAC front and center in the budget process to come.
- The Provost and Task Force have already met, will meet weekly, and are committed to putting all the meeting information/minutes on the budget website for maximum transparency. She is also working on the best way to push out information to faculty, weekly.
- The charge is to revise/re-create a new model (not revise the existing one) with a March deadline.
- We will continue with the existing model through this fiscal year.
- The new redesigned model will not likely take effect until FY 24/25
- Last spring it was reported to FA that money for IRC promotions was set aside in the budget for this year. It seems that that is no longer the case. We anticipate the promotion processes for eligible IRC will start in Spring of this year for implementation in FY 23/34, so money will need to be in the budget for that year.
- We are gathering information from colleges on their timelines and plans (and challenges) to implement IRC promotions. I know that the finance office is also collecting this information.
- The system has frozen or is pulling back some or all system funding from last year. The impacts on this campus seem to be more acute than those on other system campuses, so far.
- I am told that there will be more robust information about the situation from the system side in the Thursday edition of CUConnections, so be sure to check on that. https://connections.cu.edu/
- Among the positions on hold is that of our new Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs, Pat McGuire 😞, who was to start in January. Sorry, Pat! Which in turn means the position for Faculty Relations in Faculty Affairs is on hold. Which in turn impacts the architecture of any future campus grievance policy we are in the process of creating. Which arguably makes the creation of a Faculty Assembly Grievance Committee all the more important.
Teaching:
- Equitable Access Proposal - Larry Lee (Exec Director Auxiliary Services) and Paul Deniston (Director of Retail Services) are working with members of FACT (FA Committee on Teaching), Deans, and Provost to see whether their proposal to make teaching materials more affordable could work across disciplines and colleges. (See FACT report.)
Research:
- The biggest news is that system is pulling back some system funds which we were using for DEI faculty development grants, which is impacting everyone from the Graduate School to DEI Faculty Development Grants – what exactly system is doing and the nature of the impacts are still being sorted out.
- If you have committed or spent money from grants based in these funds this fall, please notify your Dean and the Provost immediately.
Service:
- Thank you to all! I’ve been gratified by how people have been stepping up when asked, and want to recognize and acknowledge the extraordinary service load imposed this year by our:
- current “catch-up” schedule of policy revision committees
- budget revision task force
- new merit review schedule (upcoming), and
- high turnover/need for faculty on search committees.
News from system:
- APS 5060 – Faculty Appointments – one of the major changes is addition of a new “title series” under the section on instructors.
- Retain “Instructor Title” series = Instructor, Senior Instructor, Principal Instructor
- New “Teaching Professor” series = Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, Teaching Professor
- A PhD will be required for the latter.
- I have submitted feedback from the FA IRC Committee as well as the FA Exec Committee to system EPUS, raising several concerns and questions about this. Generally, it seems to be policy written to suit Boulder but not at all a good fit for UCCS where it might create several sorts of problems for IRC and could potentially be a step to undermine tenure and tenure lines, which would affect TT faculty as well. Stay tuned.
- APS 1020 – Tenure Accountability – this seems primarily to be about justifying tenure to outside groups and the public. FA Exec Committee confirmed a few questions I had and submitted to system EPUS:
- Why remove the definition and history of tenure from the preamble
- Why remove the suggestion for exit interviews
- Whether the limitation of grievances to “procedural error” would potentially include the results of grievances around identification of unconscious bias in peer reviews.
Committee report highlights (from November 😬):
- Sustainability report – cost of battery and electronics recycling is not in their budget anymore. The bins around campus to do so have been collected. It will save campus and units money if we commit to more use of recyclable batteries. (Also, don’t bring them from home - there will be a small charge in future to pick up standard recyclable batteries in such.
- Disability Comm report – they would welcome more members. This committee is advisory, so can be faculty or staff. If you are interested or know of people who might be. Mtgs 2nd Monday/mo. 3pm via Teams. Contact Heather Albenesi (halbanes@uccs.edu) or Katie McCabe (kmccabe2@uccs.edu)
Again, thanks for reading, those of you who got to this point! I wish you all a fabulous and restorative winter break. Soon. After we all get through the next week.
Report of the President-Elect
No Report
Report of the Past-President
Check for comments
REPORTS FROM STANDING COMMITTEES:
Educational Policy and University Standards (EPUS)
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Equity and Inclusion Committee
Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee
- Congratulations the awardees of the FAWC mini grants. We look forward to hearing about your work!
- Monica Furey “Women Facing Life Transitions”
- Sara Hagedorn “The Role of Women in Renaissance Era Art at Uffizi Gallery”
- Malikah Marrus “Women Jews of Color”
- Rachel Weiskittle “Interaction of Female Gender with Predictors of Older Adult Suicidality”
IRC Faculty
No new updates to report.
Faculty Assembly Committee on Teaching
David Weiss led this discussion.
PRIDE
No new updates to report.
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities
No new updates to report.
Committee on Research
No new updates to report.
Intercollegiate Athletics
No new updates to report.
Committee on Disability
No new updates to report.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Motion 1: vote on the Faculty Governance policy (200-15) revision (Tabled)
- The Faculty Assembly council has brought this up to system for Faculty Assembly governance that funding can’t come from campuses. Still tabled but conversations are ongoing regarding the budget.
NEW BUSINESS:
Information item : Compass Curriculum Survey
Philip Haisley reported on the Compass Curriculum Survey, in which requests for faculty feedback. Compass is responsible for assessing generally patient learning outcomes. Feedback from faculty is essential with moving forward with changes. Minor changes to CANVA will allow for better accessibility to core Student resources .
Discussion Item: Report from Covid Taskforce :
Open for discussion: New PRT proposal policy allows for review for fixing a lot of issues since APS 1022 was changed. Although redone in 2020, this doesn’t align with APS 22 language. Some departments might need to go back and revise their RPT criteria to update them with the new APS 1022 from 2020. Report on Crest Campus Awards.
Motion to approve the RPT Policy Revision:
Motion passed with 21 in favor, 0 opposed and 5 abstentions
Motion 3: “The Faculty Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly charge a new Grievance Committee to write bylaws to become a Standing Committee”:
Motion to approve the Grievance Committee Bylaws Charge:
Motion passed with 23 in favor, 1 opposed and 0 abstention
ADJOURNMENT:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Minette Church
Seconded by David Moon
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:54pm