February 2018
February 2018
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
February 9, 2018
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Michael Lightner, Maja Krakowiak, Melissa Benton, Barbara Prinari, Norah Mazel, Andrea Hutchins, Pam Carter, Eileen Gerrard-Gough, Margaret Hunt, Kaitlyn DeGhetto, Martin Key, Matt Metzger, Patty Witkowsky, Jugal Kalita, Les Tekamp, Leah Chandler Mills, David Diamond, David Havlick, Andrew Lac, Sarah Treschl, Kristi McCann, Wendy Haggren, Nicole Huber, Kathrin Spendier, Joel Tonyan, Michael Landon-Murray, Monica Yoo, Scott van Ness, Elizabeth Daniels, Samantha Adrian
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from December 8, 2017 meeting by Barbara Prinari
Seconded by Andrea Hutchins
Motion passed with 22 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
The ENT Center Opening Gala that was held this past Saturday, February 3rd was a spectacular event and was sold out at over 750 people. The event, along with this introduction of the new ENT Center for the Arts building, was highly received by the Colorado Springs community and is a shining example of the UCCS campus. Aisha Ahmad-Post, the Director of the ENT Center for the Arts, is doing an amazing job of bringing New York City style here to Colorado Springs. You need to make sure that you visit the ENT Center. In addition, Centura Penrose are partners with us in the development of the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center, which is slated for construction start in July 2018 with completion by December 2019. Our new Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, Chuck Litchfield, will start March 1, 2018 and the new Dean of the College of Business, Steve Ferris, will begin July 1, 2018. The Annual Budget Reviews went well. The new baseball stadium, Mountain Lion Park, will open with an inaugural game on March 2. Our campus is getting so large that we will need to have new terminology in describing campus locations as West campus and East campus. The TRW building is now the Cybersecurity building, as indicated by our partnership and signed agreement with Cisco Systems Inc. The online resolution has been passed by the regents and Harper Johnson is functioning in a supportive role in that initiative. The Diversity and Inclusion Summit on April 3 will focus on themes of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Students should be able to be exposed to all sides of an issue. Office space continues to be a hot topic and we are looking at developing a new strategic plan that will attempt to keep financial and facilities plans in alignment and in balance.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
We are in the process of moving people from buildings again as new buildings open. We are already talking about the need to build a new academic office building for more offices. As Venkat stated, the Diversity Summit will focus on Freedom of Speech. The second part of the online resolution was passed at the Board of Regents meeting yesterday. It calls for infusion of money into online education and also to be put into the infrastructure of online services. CU Denver and CU Colorado Springs will be working on 3 undergrad and 3 grad programs each, either existing or new. The resources will help all of our programs.
Michael Lightner, Vice President for Academic Affairs:
Updates on the Article 5 Regent Law process: there were about 50 individual inputs from many comments; 8 governance institutions were also inputting – some had the same themes with different resolutions. By next Wednesday, we are trying to assemble the commonalities and then send it on to the wording experts to put it together for the next draft; then it goes to the Regent Governance Committee meeting. We want to finish by the end of the calendar year because two regents will be cycling out of service and we want to keep them on during this process. We want to release the second draft of Article 5 by two weeks from Monday, and by this Monday, we want to release the first draft of Article 7, which is the student piece that deals with academic freedom.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report:
The Chancellor is considering moving the MLK holiday to the December holiday period and possibly moving the Tuesday Labor Day holiday to the Thanksgiving holiday period to extend those holiday breaks.
President-Elect’s Report:
FRA elections are receiving a good response; nominees are needed for COB, COE and EAS.
Past President’s Report:
Research Committee report should be available at the next meeting.
Reports from Standing Committees:
Personnel & Benefits:
No report – have not met yet
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Intercollegiate Athletics:
No report
PRIDE:
Motions included in New Business
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1
The Educational Policy and University Standards Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses UCCS policy 100-019: Protection of Children / Minors on Campus.
(Motion passed with 25 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention)
Background for Motion 1: This policy mainly deals with ancillary services holding camps on campus, etc., and with children left in our care.
Motion 2:
The PRIDE Committee moves to amend the Faculty Assembly Bylaws to change PRIDE from a Regular Standing Advisory Committee to a Regular Standing Committee.
(Motion passed with 23 in favor, 2 opposed and 1 abstention)
Motion 3:
The PRIDE Committee moves to amend the Faculty Assembly Bylaws to create a new Regular Standing Advisory Committee. The new advisory committee would be named the PRIDE Advisory Committee and would be charged with: the advancement of and advocacy for issues related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and ally (LGBTQA) community of the university through increasing the visibility of LGBTQA groups as a presence and resource within UCCS and the wider community; ensuring the inclusivity of LGBTQA issues within UCCS policies and procedures; supporting the education of UCCS faculty, staff, and students specific to LGBTQA issues in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and research; and supporting and advocating for UCCS LGBTQA faculty, staff and students. The PRIDE Advisory Committee would operate in coordination with and in an advisory capacity to the PRIDE Committee.
(Motion passed with 25 in favor, 1 opposed and 2 abstentions)
Motion 4:
The PRIDE Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly approves their bylaws.
(Motion passed with 26 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstentions)
Motion 5:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves to amend the Faculty Assembly Bylaws to create a new Regular Standing Advisory Committee. The new committee would be named the Faculty Assembly Committee on Disability (FACD) and would be charged with: advancing the access, diversity, and inclusiveness of the university through disability-related programming, policy recommendations, curriculum, scholarly and creative work, and supporting efforts particularly for faculty with disabilities.
(Motion passed with 28 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention)
Motion 6:
The Faculty Assembly Committee on Disability moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly approves their bylaws.
(Motion passed with 26 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstentions)
Discussion 1:
Update on the progress of the FCQ Task Force – David Moon discussed the steps forward of this task force, whose charge was to come up with a set of questions that were broadly applicable. They’ve done two surveys – one of students and one of faculty. The surveys indicated a strong desire by faculty to have questions be more useful developmentally in terms of improving their teaching practices. Additionally, a major concern expressed by both faculty and students was about all types of biases. The Deans have requested to have an overall question, but not necessarily the same overall question. The intent of the Discussion Draft FCQ Questions is to focus on student learning. Scaling was a big issue. The task force would like to finish up soon and put this out to faculty for their review by April.
Discussion 2:
The draft of Regent Law Article and Policy 5, and Justification Document are now available. Please review them – they are anxious to get faculty feedback.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Nicole Huber
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:05 p.m.