FAC100804

Faculty Representative Assembly Meeting

October 8, 2004

Attendance:

Jenenne Nelson, Kelli Klebe, Don Morley, Charlie Shub, Radha Pyati, Robert Wonnett,Pam Shockley, Livia Gilstrap, Charlie Wang, Bob Durham, Tom Gruen, SooYoung So, Christopher Hill, Ron Fitz, Rogers Redding, Rick Petersen, Chuck Simmons, Tom Huber, Ann Hickey, Kee Warner, Valerie Brodar, Lesley Ginsberg, Tamra Wilson, Patricia Keilbach, Don Klingner, Tom Zwirlein, Sue Byerley

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve the minutes from September, 2004 by Charlie Shub

Seconded by Don Morley.

Motion passed unanimously.

Reports of Visitors:

Chancellor Pam Shockley:

UCCS is taking the lead institution role in working with the Air Force Space Command in the expansion of career opportunities in graduate programs in space and science. It is estimated there are 12 thousand people in the military and 30 to 60 thousand civilians who will need these degrees in the next several years. These people will be highly qualified students and some of them fully funded graduate students.

There was a press release before the CCHE meeting October 7 that has a number of people concerned about requirements in performance contracts. We intend to follow negotiations and will be involved.

We do not have updated budget information. It will be about 4 weeks before we will get additional estimates from Boulder.

The inauguration of the Geropsychology was October 7 with a reception and kick off.

The Planning Commission and Urban Renewal authority have voted to create an urban renewal zone on North Nevada. City Council will vote on it Nov. 9. Already about 15 developers have already looked at the universities master plan. It the proposal passes in City Council the University will move to redo our master plan and become involved in the redevelopment process.

Vice Chancellor Rogers Redding Inventing the Future update: We are continuing to meet and are moving toward making recommendations. Other Academic Affairs related teams that are meeting include the College of Business and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Other colleges may be forming their own teams.

The academic review committee is being chaired by Rita Hug this year. There are four departments being reviewed this year—Chemistry, Biology, Philosophy, and Physics.

The College of Education was scheduled for a review in October by NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) but the visit has been postponed until January 05.

Robert Wonnett:

Attended an Academic Freedom hearing called by Senator Andrews. There have been complaints about comments made by faculty at several Colorado colleges and universities. The Chancellor’s web site has Welcome statement with a comment by her on academic freedom, a statement by the Board of Regents on academic freedom, and a link to the Memorandum of Understanding on Academic Freedom. Other campuses have formed committees to look at review procedures, but UCCS is using existing documentation at this time. It might be more of an issue to develop further policies to clarify procedures in the future.

Inventing The Future Project

Officer Reports:

(system wide)

Review attached President’s Report:

Vice President’s Report:

No report

Past President’s Report:

No report

Reports From Standing Committees:

EPUS:

No report:

Finance:

has been meeting primarily as a piece of UBAC, and maybe later in the year we will meet on our own. Generally we meet about salary and salary compression and related issues. UBAC is setting their agenda for the year and there have been a couple of UBAC meetings so far. The issue of the flat spot in the tuition is going to be investigated to see how much of an impact it will have in increasing revenues and also to look at what sort of drop-off we would have with students who could attend. UBAC is serving as a focal point for the inventing the future discussion.  We are putting up links on the web site to other organizations on campus as well as other campuses, the CU system Faculty Council and to President Hoffman’s web site.

Personnel and Benefits:

First meeting is next week

Minority Affairs:

Last year there was a search for Vice Chancellor of Academic Diversity, no hire was made. The top applicant we were not able to hire. This year’s top priority is to fill this position. Another focus is recruitment and retention of minority faculty. We did workshops with Chairs of search committees last year to provide support for on going searches.

Academic Computing:

There is some concern about how information is being used from the SIS system. All students are being issued a student ID number the Social Security numbers are being phased out. Paper usage is costing a lot of money. We are looking into ways to have students pay for printing. The University web page will be changing soon when the new logo is unveiled and a new template is designed. The University is looking to buy a Web Content Management program which will simplify maintenance of web content. A Web Policy committee has been formed.

Library:

The council met on September 9 and October 7 to review the budget information for FY04-05. The library had 30,000 in cuts for the past 2 fiscal years.

Research Counsel:

Old Business

The Counsel for Teaching Excellence has been formed to develop a set if initiatives to promote and support teaching on campus and faculty development. They will also try to develop activities workshops with the Teaching and Learning. The committee consists of a representative from each college, but GSPA.

New Business

Valerie Brodar attended a panel on Free Speech/Hate speech and she was asked to bring this issue up in FAC as it is a very serious issue on our campus. The question of whether or not we should conduct a workshop or have a class on this issue was raised. The library is organizing monthly panel some discussions on semi-controversial topics. The library forum could be an alternative to mandatory class or workshops to address race, gender, or sexuality with the students. Robert Wonnett wants to work with faculty on the campus culture issue.

Motions:

None

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting

Motion passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 2:00 pm.