March 2023
March 2023
UCCS Faculty Representative Assembly Meeting
Friday March 10, 2023
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Carlos Garcia, Nancy Marchand-Martella, Monica Yoo, David Moon, Melissa Benton, Matthew Jabaily, Kristi McCann, Lynn Gates, Cortny Stark, Jian (James) Ma, Kate Quintana, Robin Kempf, Dylan Harris, Aaron Corcoran, Elisa Thompson, Lei Zhang, Larry Eames, Claire Rau, Erica Allgood, Esther Lamidi, Gordon Stringer, Craig Bubeck, Haleh Abghari, Farida Khan, Suzanne Cook, Laura Eurich, Kathy Prue-Owens, Darshika Perera, David Weiss, Susan Taylor, Suman Lakkakula, Heather Albanesi, Adham Atyabi, Solveig Olsen, Norah Mazel, Matthew Beckwith, Jim Spice
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from December 2022 meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Laura Eurich
Motion passed with 21 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions
Motion to approve the minutes from February 2023 meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Kathy Peroni
Motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Thanks for having me here today. Let me start off with some exciting news. Yesterday we had the opportunity to listen to our Distinguished Professor Paul Harvey and the creative work he's doing. We have a VCAF candidate on campus today, I hope you will take some time to view their presentation and provide feedback. And we had a cyber security across the federal government event on campus last week. We had people from around the country here from the CIA, FBI, and other agencies. They wanted to learn from us as well as share their disciplines with us. It was exciting to have the recognition and exchange. We are projecting enrollments to be down .9% in the fall but are hoping for stronger enrollment.
The Regent’s University Affairs Meeting is on April 18th. I hope that you as a governance body will give me some feedback on where you stand for that meeting.
The School of Public Affairs has been approved to officially change their name to College of Public Service or COPS. It’s exciting to see how they have grown.
Cabinet has been focusing on enrollment and retention strategies. This is important because this is where 70% of our money comes from. Cabinet has also been working on the budget cutting process. Working on how to be strategic and involve engagement with various stakeholders including working with UBAC. Working on ways to engage the rest of the campus and be strategic in making these difficult decisions so we don’t cut mission critical components. Thanks to the Provost on the budget redesign process.
Question from FA: Regarding enrollment management, where do we stand on the “enrollment cliff?” Answer: There is already a drop in enrollment but it is a relative thing. We are working to be proactive on addressing this cliff by working with community colleges and high schools to recruit students. Will invite the new VC of Enrollment Management to talk to FRA. Developing our enrollment strategy and need to look at it more wholistically.
Carlos Garcia, Interim VC for Administration and Finance:
Enrollment update: fall applications up 4.6%, Freshmen up 5%, transfer and grad students are flat. Our Fall admits are up by 3.2%, Transfers are up by 11.7% and graduate students are up by the .8%. So even though we have a declining applications of treatments, we have an actually increased. We'll see how those translate to actual students showing up on. Also, our housing applications are up. They're starting to slow down. One of the reasons they're up is that we announced it earlier this and people got their applications in as compared to the year before. So we're not necessarily comparing apples to apples, but we do know that we have more out of state applications, and they are less likely to cancel their housing applications.
Now, I’ll focus on the budget situation. Last time I presented at this group, I mentioned what our kind of our three cuts campus wide would look like. And that was before we knew what our cybersecurity funding would look like. So our cyber security funding is good for one more year, so that won't expire in 2023 like we thought was going to actually expire 2024. So that removed about $2,000,000 from our cut situation. So and I think I recall I mentioned that we have 3 scenarios. One that was part of the governor's budget proposal. One, by the JVC, and another one that was what the higher education board presents on what was needed to sustain higher education. So on scenario A, instead of it being $5.4 billion of a cut for next year, it's $3.48. Under Scenario B, instead of being %5.6, it's $3.66 million. And scenario C, instead of being $4.8 million the cut is $2.87 million. So things got a little better. So now will meet with the Deans to provide them a little more information on how they would propose to achieve the other cuts. Initially we started with kind of the old fashioned way of distributing the cut.
We need to cut 3% of the budget so we've come up with a formula for using the budget 2023 numbers. Then we said well, let's look at what the actuals were for 2022 and then distributed that way. So we better an option that way. And then we said well, what if we included enrollments as a metric on how to distribute cuts. So we have a category that included enrollment. And then we said, what if we take an average of the three. So we included that. And then so we also said, well, what if we weighted enrollment more than we waited the actual budget usage or the budget allocation. Then we ran that by 50 percent, 50% of 70%, another 70% weight enrollment. And we took that same enrollment number did it 2020 and 60%. So now we're looking at another scenario where we, as a Chancellor mentioned that we will also be including well, what is your retention and graduation rates because you may get a lot of points for bringing students in. If you're graduating that many, maybe you shouldn't get that much. So we're looking at a variety of different ways of doing this. We have not completed that process yet. So there will be more to come on that piece. So what questions do you have for me?
When you're talking about the enrollments of undergraduate and the graduate, what level are you looking at that? Is that like at the college level, are out of the department at the college level?
The level of the colleges but that doesn’t work on the support units. So we came up with the formula on the colleges. And then we took in the support units, the administrative units. Right now doing the old fashioned way with across the board, but will then need to work with Deans to get more strategic and make sure we aren’t cutting units that might not generate a lot of revenue but are critical for the running of the university.
Chancellor noted that this is a different scenario than we have had in the past when we could rely on reserves, which we don’t currently have. So we will have to take more drastic action. Chancellor stated they are working with Deans to discuss what the consequence of taking a specific action would be, looking to align with our mission, and evaluating impacts. Note that CU Denver is looking at $12 million, ours is less at about 3.8%. Discussed the cut of the golf management program as a proactive move to save money in a college/program.
Question : Are you looking at numbers in enrollments re you looking at numbers of enrollments or falls and rises increases service? For Las, the numbers are so large compared to the other colleges, how do you take that into account?
Chancellor answered: LAS produces 60% of the enrollment and is a big college. So relatively speaking the budget cut will look big from the absolute dollar amount, but from percentage may not be that vast. So that's something we need to look at. I mean like I said, I'm not happy about any of this. This is going to be hard, but there are lots of factors that also influence in this and so we're putting a lot of things together to figure this out and that's the reason to ask the Deans for their thoughts, really engaging them in the process and saying, hey, how are we going to deal with this together? So this is going to be cabinet and deans to looking very closely with advice from UBAC. So we're going to do this as best as possible. There is really nothing to hide.
Nancy Marchand-Martella, Provost:
Let me give you an update on various searches that are happening right now. We are reviewing applications now for the College of Business Dean with campus interviews between April 24th and May 11th. George Reed is the search chair. We have a great search committee and looks like we've got lots of great applicants. So good news there.
We have the Graduate School Dean opening, of course. Kelly Klebe is going back to faculty and we are advertising now. The priority date is April 2nd. Interviews will occur during the same time frame as the College of Business team so again April 24th to May 11th. We hope to have both deans, the College of Business Dean and the Graduate School Dean, hired by hopefully August 1st. And we would love to have some overlap between Kelli Klebe and the new Graduate School Dean, because Kelli has been amazing and we'd love to have some overlap there.
We have a faculty affairs coordinator at position in our office and academic affairs that was for the faculty records position. We've expanded that to be a Faculty Affairs Coordinator. So it's a staff position. We are advertising now and we hope you have someone hired by April 17th. So more to come on that, but that person would help faculty assembly. That person would do continue work in the area of new faculty orientation, the RPT process faculty records. So we are super excited in our office because right now Sylvia Cano is actually my admin and doing the full faculty records position. And as you can imagine that is.
Faculty relations position advertisement is currently being refined after Provost sent to the Executive Committee for input. Provost is taking all input offered by Faculty Assembly Executive Committee including our preference that the position report to the Provost’s office and then secondarily report to HR. So the position will report to Faculty Affairs and have a dotted line to HR to allow HR input and be able to ask questions of. And so that would be a dotted line to HR. But the solid line to Academic Affairs and the RTF processes happening now. We hope to have somebody in by summer. The search committee will be made up of faculty of all ranks to provide more input. This person would then be again housing the Provost office and then would help manage faculty concerns.
IR down to one person, Jenny Russell. She lost the rest of the folks who worked in IR. So if you did have a request, just bear with Jenny. We are hiring 2 brand new data analyst. If you do, have request for IR data please do ask Jenny because we are getting help from Harper’s group and enrollment management until we get these two folks tired. We are going to hire a data analyst as a third position. We do have funding for that and that will be to do nothing but help on the budget redesign. This is super exciting for us and so we hope to have that person start sometime in the summer. And of course, you all know that the new budget will roll out on July 1 and we'll do our new budget model along with the incremental model so you can actually see the differences between the two models.
Next week I start reviewing the RPT materials. Budget Redesign meeting at 12:30. Next week we have red team meetings of various groups to help poke holes in this model. Upcoming meetings regarding new budget models include: Dean Council March 15th, UBAC March 16th, Financial Administrators March 21, Staff Association April 5th, and Faculty Assembly Executive Committee April 7th. Those are Red team meetings so ask the tough questions and let's make sure that this budget model is something that we're all happy with. Town Hall on April 17th, save the date reminder that was sent out about that and that's where we will show the model and we will pour numbers to show you how to the model works. Charlie Keeler has been instrumental in making visuals to help see when you pour something in, how does the money work through the model
We are working on a Chairs Policy agreement. We don't have anything in place for chairs’ policies and procedures. We've got some good documents already, so I feel good about that. Dean Vidler, with help from Pat McGuire is working on develop a chair training program and we will start that in the fall for folks who are going to become new department chairs. They can learn about effective leadership and have mentoring.
And as far as the budget redesign, again great things are happening. We've gotten some great feedback on the conceptual model. Now we're just trying to determine percentages, right. So right now we're working on it being incremental about 70%. We will also have a university retention pool that will be incentive base. So it is a true hybrid model. It has elements of the incremental model and it has elements of the incentive based budget model. It also has a special pool that allows us to take cuts from or we can incentivize from that additional pool if we are doing well. But right now it's a work in progress.
Question: will the model be transparent. Answer: yes, it includes incentives pool, strategic investment pool, and money set aside off the top. Deans and support units have predictability and transparency.
Question: what is off the top. Answer: So we've got off the top, we've got it's about 34 million utilities deferred maintenance, debt service, student aid, ICA promotion raises, contingency, strategic goal and pro forma obligation. That's what we have right now coming off the top, which would then give an eligible amount of money that then would be poured in.
Question: for the incentive based portion, how would the Dean get the information that certain departments say have needs or doing well was to credit hours? In other words, the petition the department with file and then would be up to the Dean to make that decision based on the amount of money in college. Answer: It will be based on actual metrics and that's why I really want this data analyst in there to really help drill into specifics here. Because I think it's important to drill into college. I think it's also important to look at department growth and drill into specifics there. It will fall to various EC's or depending on how things are structured and working with the Deans about what metrics there are ultimately, and then how does that money flow through based on credit hours. Again, I'm just going to throw a couple out here. I don't know if they're going to be these, but maybe research dollars, number of pH, D's, monies that that donors provide, but they're actual metrics that you can measure. So we can lay them all out and then make determinations. What about support? Unit support units are going to have to have metrics. And so every support unit on this campus is going to have to have metrics. That's how this money will be distributed.
Question: Will promotion and raises come from the campus level/colleges or off the top? Answer: We've got promotion and raises as off the top.
Question: Is there an idea at the moment what might fall into the strategic pool? Is it about new programs or something else? Answer: Performa is for new programs, so anything to do with strategic pool. But the PROFORMAS is money that's set for specific programs and that basically is bridge funding. We will provide bridge funding until you get your sea legs to be able to fund it yourself, so it's not continuation of that funding forever. Remember, there is a an anonymous link on the Provost website, so if you have any ideas about this or questions, comments, submit them to that link.
Officer Reports:
Report of the President — Minette Church See Attached
Report of the President-Elect — Monica Yoo—We'll be looking for people to fill slots on system as well as different faculty assembly committees. Also if you are interested in either running as a College Representative or Faculty Assembly officer… or running again, please let Monica know. Look for a call in relation to open positions coming soon.
Report of the Past-President – David Moon— The next UBAC meeting is about two things:
- How the cuts will be distributed? We hope to hear not just about the automatic cuts but also about what the “values and mission critical functions” are going to be and what we will preserve.
- And in that same hour and a half meeting, we're going to also give input on the budget redesign. If you have anything you want to ask, send it to cmoon@uccs.edu so we can make a strategy on how to incorporate all the feedback in a short period of time. We will meet ahead of that meeting, so don’t procrastinate in sending in questions/feedback. We will probably meet on Tuesday 3/14.
Committee Reports
Educational Policy and University Standards—No Report due to change in meeting schedule
Personnel & Benefits—No Report
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget—No Report
Faculty Equity and Inclusion Committee—See Attached
Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee—See Attached
IRC Faculty—See Attached
Faculty Assembly Committee on Teaching—See Attached
PRIDE—No Report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities—No Report
Committee on Research—See Attached
Intercollegiate Athletics—No Report
Sustainability—See Attached
Committee on Disability—See Attached
Representative Reports—No Report
Unfinished Business
No Unfinished Business
New Business
- Information item:—Amy Silva-Smith—See attached presentation
Motion to support this initiative by Faculty Assembly: moved by Cortny Stark seconded by Robin Kempf, 26 votes in favor, opposed 3 opposed support motion passes. More information coming.
- Information item: (1:15-1:30)—Matthew Beckwith and Jim Spice—See attached presentation
- Motion 1: The EPUS Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses UCCS Campus Policy 200-22 IRC Multi-Year Contracts
Approve 28, Oppose 0, Abstain 0
- Motion 2: The EPUS Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses UCCS Campus Policy 200-16 revisions to Post Tenure Review
Approve 23, Oppose 0, Abstain 2
- Motion 3: The EPUS Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses UCCS Campus Policy 200-02 revisions to Academic Year Dates
Approve 26, Oppose 1, Abstain 0
- Motion 4: (1:45-2:00) “The Faculty Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorses the Academic Calendar revision”
Approve 21, Oppose 2, Abstain 4
Announcements:
Need someone to write up the minutes for March, April, and the May faculty assembly meetings. There is a small stipend involved. So if you're interested, please let Minette Church, Monica Yoo, or Karin Larkin know you are interested.
We have the Faculty Assembly Leadership and Engagement award call currently out. This is the former Service Award and it is due today. Send in your nominations. Please note that the Provost has increased, the award… thank you, Nancy. The monetary award for this has increased to equal that of teaching and research, and also it comes with a free campus designated parking spot.
There will be a new Task Force forming around the issue of Micro Credentials that will need broad faculty input. Kelli Klebe will be putting together that charge to include looking at policies and guidelines around micro credentialling on campus as well as badges and certificates. We need solid faculty representation so stay tuned.
Finally, the search for the new Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance is still underway. This is a rolling search, a candidate is on campus today so if you have a chance, join one of the sessions for faculty, the links for those are in your email sent today. We also have a renewed search for the associate Vice Chancellor of Planning and Facilities going on and we are currently putting together a search for the faculty relations position and that's the one that would be working on campus grievances.
Adjourned 1:52 pm
NEXT MEETING Dwire 114 April 14, 2023 12:00-2:00