February 2014
February 2014
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
February 14, 2014
Attendance: Mary Coussons-Read, Gayanne Scott, Mandi Elder, Michele Companion, Andrea Hutchins, Monique Dooley, Craig Elder, Tom Zwirlein, Vicki Brownrigg, Peggy Beranek, Morgan Shepherd, Barbara Frye, Monica Yoo, Pam Carter, Rebecca Webb, Valerie Brodar, Suzanne Cook, Lisa Hines, Cerian Gibbes, Sonja Tanner, Norah Mazel, Anna Kosloski, Christina Martinez, Jeff Montez de Oca, Minette Church
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from December 13, 2013 meeting by Andrea Hutchins
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed with 20 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Mary Coussons-Read, Provost:
The Provost thanked everyone for their time commitment in volunteering for the program prioritization process. We are just at the beginning of the process and will be looking at this information in order to start an interesting discussion as an institution and find out what we’re learning from this process. What have we learned from prioritization and where can we go from here? We would like to start having faculty retreats again and need faculty input. Issues about faculty workload and faculty development for both tenure track and non-tenure track faculty have emerged through this process. What faculty resource material is available and other questions are also surfacing. The Non-tenure Track Taskforce has been working diligently with Legal and Finance to see what flexibility we have to offer as many multi-year contracts as possible for non-tenure track faculty. How can we maximize the institution’s capacity to offer more contracts and still be fiscally responsible? We can offer 30% total across the campuses and we don’t want to have a climate where we don’t offer enough to make them desirable. There will be an open forum coming up to discuss this issue. We want to thank Kelli Klebe as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Faculty Development for her efforts to bring the CCTSI (Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute) to our campus for health and wellness initiatives crossing other disciplines. We have a lot of opportunities to get involved. There will be an open forum on Prioritization on April 21st before the report to the Board of Regents in April. There are 9 prioritization teams: 6 teams of faculty and staff reviewing the degree programs and 3 teams of faculty and staff reviewing the non-degree programs. They are doing their ratings individually and then those will be uploaded for the team to review and discuss and then be re-tallied. There will be a 3-week period for writing the report. We all are gathering lots of information to use in various ways.
Gayanne Scott, Executive Director of Resource Management:
Higher ed is expected to get $100 million, with $3.5 million going to UCCS and about $1.3 million to Financial Aid that we weren’t expecting. Construction updates: 1) The new parking garage is about 17 weeks behind schedule mainly due to weather delays. This will cause parking issues due to the construction of the new residence hall because Alpine Village must open August 2015. 2) The new parking lot east of campus between the Campus Services Building and University Hall should be ready by August. 3) The Academic Office Building is on schedule. 4) The Lane Center Community Open House is set for Saturday, February 22. 5) The VAPA building planning is continuing. The Regents will be here on campus for the Board of Regents meeting on Wednesday, February 19 and Thursday, February 20. There is a 3% compensation pool on the table for faculty and staff. We have a 5% enrollment target for next year, which should be easily doable with retention alone if we hold it at the same rate as this year. We are in the process of hiring a consultant for the City for Champions project. There is a lot of support from the community for the UCCS project, which could be the first one started.
Pam Shockley-Zalabak, Chancellor:
We are looking at funding for next year for the budget presentation to the Regents next week, which is in Senate Bill 1. It is usually not a separate bill and normally goes into the Long Bill as appropriations for higher ed. We still have less real dollars, but in general it looks good. The Regents will not approve any more than a 3.5% tuition increase and we wanted 4%. A 5% growth target is needed. Pikes Peak Community College is down, so this could impact our transfers in the future. The Lane Center clinics are holding several open forums for faculty and staff on CU health insurance programs to explain their services, which may soon be available to them. Unfortunately the Lane Center ribbon cutting and tours are limited by size capacity, however, there is a community open house on Saturday, February 22. The VAPA center building is gaining traction with $13.3 million coming from the state. We will also need to raise money because it is a very expensive building. It will have 5 venues to include educational space, classrooms, and community performance space. Fundraising is in design and going well. We want to move quickly because of the constant rise in costs. We would like to go to ground-breaking one year from Fall. We are getting $16.8 million for the City for Champions building, which will be a Sports Medicine and Performance Center and will tie in well with the Lane Center and general movement in human health and wellness. We are waiting on a resolution signature with the state so that we can become four separate projects.
David Weiss, Compass Curriculum Director:
David gave an update and overview of the Compass Curriculum (new Gen Ed) program, which will start Fall 2014. The Gateway Experience (formerly Freshman Seminar) will now be required and has been revamped to introduce students to UCCS, the Compass goals, academic skill preparation and oral communication. The Capstone Experience is already a common program component, but more Advanced Core courses are needed as well as more Writing Intensive courses. Courses are submitted through the Compass Curriculum website located on the Provost’s website and are reviewed by a curriculum committee on the first Wednesday of the month in the Fall and Spring.
Jim Spice, Executive Director of Parking and Transportation:
Jim presented a new parking design that he has already presented to the other campus governance groups. It includes a new color-coded permit system and a re-numbering of all the parking lots. The parking spots behind Dwire Hall and the surrounding parking area will be for faculty and staff only. This plan was discussed by the assembly.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report
There will be a special Faculty Assembly meeting with Regent Griego on Tuesday, February 18, from 11am – 12pm. Please RSVP to Monique if you plan to attend.
Vice-President’s Report
Past President’s Report:
No report
Reports from Standing Committees:
EPUS
Personnel & Benefits
Budget Advisory Committee
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Women’s Committee:
They are working on a workshop in April and faculty surveys. They are also increasing communication with FMAC to avoid overlapping in projects and events.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Academic Computing:
Not present – no report
Library:
Not present - no report
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Sustainability
PRIDE:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
OLD BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motions:
- 1. Resolution presented by the Faculty Executive Committee to the Faculty Representative Assembly for action
- Whereas: Scheduling conflicts between fall finals and UCCS fall commencement have been problematic for two years;
- Whereas: A request to change the date of Spring commencement ceremonies has been made by the System Administration;
- Whereas: The World Arena venue for commencement is scheduled out for 10 years and has very limited availability to reschedule commencement on a more accommodating day;
- Whereas: The campus does not have the capacity to accommodate the large number of graduating seniors with fall [(and spring) – added by friendly amendment] finals at an alternate time;
- Whereas: The faculty desire to have both semester finals treated equivalently;
- Whereas: A better solution that does not impact faculty, staff and students, or that could be implemented quickly has not been identified;
- Be it resolved:
The Faculty Representative Assembly recommends that the University of Colorado Colorado Springs develop a 4-day finals schedule for both fall and spring semesters, to begin Fall 2014.
- (Motion passed unanimously with 22 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstentions)
Note: Due to schedule conflicts, President Benson requested that UCCS move its Commencement date this Spring. It was determined by the Faculty Assembly Executive Committee that the UCCS Spring Graduation ceremony would not be moved to a different date this year.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Jeff Montez de Oca
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.