February 2017
February 2017
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
February 10, 2017
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Terry Schwartz, Susan Szpyrka, Leonard Dinegar, Sentwali Bakari, Steve Linhart, Amanda Allee, Barbara Prinari, Maja Krakowiak, Monique French, Norah Mazel, Andrea Hutchins, Tom Zwirlein, Rhonda Glazier, Jay Dawes, Kerry Peterson, Jill Bradley-Geist, Matt Metzger, Joe Wehrman, Lori Notestine, Pam Carter, Jugal Kalita, Michelle Dorne, Suzanne Cook, Stephen Carter, David Havlick, Leilani Feliciano, Michael Landon-Murray, Monica Yoo, Jeff Montez de Oca, Christine Robinson, Dave Anderson
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from December 9, 2016 meeting by Maja Krakowiak
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed with 15 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention
Reports of Visitors:
Susan Szpyrka, Sr. Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance:
We started a fairly ambitious process for policy review and revision, and are now bringing in faculty and staff input at the beginning. We had a very aggressive schedule to get all policies reviewed every three years. Since we have 28 policies to review, and some are very old, we changed to a 5-year cycle. We will prioritize the policies to review, which will also be affected by direction of the CU system. For example, due to current events, it has become important to have a drone policy in place right away. Megan Bell, our new Director of Assessment, Policy and Efficiency, is heading up the policy review process and she will also have a staff member to assist her. The very important HLC Accreditation process that we undertook in the Fall interrupted our progress on policies, but now we are able to resume our attention to this essential project. We are starting the search for a new campus Police Chief - please send any nominations in to Barbara Prinari. The Board of Regents meeting is scheduled for next Thursday and Friday (2/16 - 2/17/17) at CU Boulder. Compensation, tuition and fees are going to the board and they will vote on them in March or April. There are three different funding scenarios we're working with and we are requesting a 2.5% merit pool for all employee groups. There is about a 6% increase in health, life and dental costs to the campus - we don't know what the increase in cost will be for the employees yet. Tuition and fees combined have a 3.43% proposed increase; last year it was 4.6% because we had a large increase in fees last year compared to a smaller increase in fees this year. There is a decline in international students this year and we are working to assess and recoup from that situation.
Venkat Reddy, Interim Chancellor (eff. 2/16/17):
Chancellor Shockley (retiring 2/15/17) is not available to attend the meeting today because she is on a call with the governor and he wanted to take this opportunity to introduce himself as the new Interim Chancellor starting next Thursday, 2/16/17, and he's looking forward to working with Faculty Assembly.
Terry Schwartz, Interim Provost:
During the Annual Budget Review process held in December, she did make a couple requests for Faculty Assembly: 1) to increase their operating budget and, 2) to increase the stipends for the President and President-Elect. The transition process with Tom Christensen, our new Provost-Elect, is going well and he will become the Provost officially on July 1, 2017.
Leonard Dinegar, CU Senior Vice President & Chief of Staff / Chair of UCCS Chancellor Search Committee:
A handout of the Draft Position Description for the UCCS Chancellor dated 2/10/17 was distributed to the assembly members for review and discussion. As Chair of the Chancellor Search Committee, he outlined the current status and projected plan of the search. The search committee has been determined and of the fifteen committee members, there are four faculty members plus a dean on it: Jugal Kalita, EAS Professor; Minette Church, LAS Associate Professor; Jeff Scholes, LAS Assistant Professor; Bob Camley, LAS Distinguished Professor; and Martin Garnar, KFL Dean. There are also two CU Regents on the committee: Stephen Ludwig and Kyle Hybl, as well as some staff, students and community members. This will be a national search and a search firm, DHR International, has been brought in to aid in the search process. The committee will be looking at internal and external candidates with a strong academic background. The plan is to have someone hired by summer, if they get a good qualified pool. They would like to have all the campus meetings completed by the end of April, with the second week of April as the target date to schedule airport interviews for about 6 - 8 candidates. The search committee welcomes and seeks input from all the campus groups in this process and some meetings have been set up for that purpose. The meeting dedicated to faculty input is scheduled for Wednesday, 2/15/17, 2:45pm - 3:30pm in UC 302. You may also contact Sr. VP Dinegar at leonard.dinegar@cu.edu.
Amanda Allee, Assistant Dean of Students:
Clyde's Cupboard, a donation center for canned food and non-perishable items for struggling students, has been successful overall since it was originated by students a few years ago. There have been about 560 students who have used this service since it began. However, there are peaks and valleys during the year of when it is well-stocked and we want to increase the campus awareness of the consistent need for supplies all year round. We are creating an advisory board for Clyde's Cupboard to include faculty participation and we are also exploring the possibility of project expansion to include faculty and staff recipients as well. Your donations, participation on the board, comments and questions are welcome - please contact Amanda at aallee@uccs.edu.
Officer Reports:
Vice-President's Report:
Need more nominations, including self-nominations, for Faculty Assembly next year - please submit by 3/6/17; nominations for the Faculty Assembly Service Award are due by 3/1/17
Past President's Report:
No report; working with system EPUS on policies
Reports from Standing Committees:
EPUS:
Will send out e-mails regularly on policies being reviewed
Personnel & Benefits:
Correction - CUPA information is not available on the IR website
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Women's Committee:
No report, not met yet
Library:
Not present - no report
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present - no report
PRIDE:
Not present - no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present - no report; bylaws are being reviewed by Legal
Reports from Representatives:
Miscellaneous items:
1. Please recruit faculty in your colleges for nomination to next year's Faculty Assembly.
2. Suzanne Cook is the AAUP liaison and they have the biggest chapter in the state; they are looking at multi-year contracts and Senior Instructors
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
None
NEW BUSINESS:
Motion:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves to approve Mary Coussons-Read as a UCCS campus representative to fill Tom Christensen's position on the CU System Privilege and Tenure Committee.
(Motion passed with 21 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention)
Note: Tom Christensen will be assuming the position of Provost at UCCS, and therefore, can no longer serve as a faculty representative on the P&T Committee.
Discussion Item 1:
Faculty input to the Chancellor Search Committee - several comments were given to Senior VP and Search Committee Chair Leonard Dinegar in a discussion held during his report, which he will incorporate into the draft position description for the Chancellor as well as share those comments with the Search Committee. The campus faculty input meeting with Senior VP Dinegar and the search firm members will be held on Wednesday, 2/15/17, at 2:45pm in UC 302.
Discussion Item 2:
Feedback on new seating arrangement at Commencement - overall good comments were received; it was more opened up to see students better; better recognition of faculty; general approval
Discussion Item 3:
FCQ Revisions - data analysis is being done; now doing online administration of FCQs; going online in Fall 100%; online courses have issue with timing of FCQs and grade posting; questions - 1) what instrument are we using? 2) if we want to do our own, apart from Boulder, would this be something faculty wants and will participate in?
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Maja Krakowiak
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:10 p.m.