May 2019
May 2019
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
May 10, 2019
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Chuck Litchfield, Melissa Benton, Maja Krakowiak, Andrea Hutchins, Margaret Harris, Ji Hyun Oh, Pam Carter, Darshika Perera, Michelle Dorne, Suzanne Cook, David Havlick, Leilani Feliciano, Christine Robinson Coon, Justin Tucker, Kristi McCann, Wendy Haggren, David Weiss, Susan Vandagriff, Michael Landon-Murray, Monica Yoo, Scott van Ness, Elizabeth Daniels, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from April 12, 2019 meeting by Maja Krakowiak
Seconded by Monica Yoo
Motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Congratulations to all the new faculty promotions for this year that we just celebrated with a nice reception this week. We’ve had several meetings with our new president, Mark Kennedy, already – he’s met with me 1-on-1 for breakfast, he’s had lunch with the Cabinet, and has met with all four chancellors. It is important that we introduce and acclimate President Kennedy to our campus, as he will be visiting all 4 campuses. It is also important to bring the regents together (the board voted 5-4 to confirm Kennedy). The President and Board of Regents need to work together in order to work closely with the legislature and donors to obtain funding, along with working with all the Chancellors in our strategic initiatives. We will be sure to protect our interests and educate our new president as he learns the CU system. It is now time to move on and keep our focus on our mission. We want to make sure our voices are heard and we will extend an invitation to bring him in so that he can see what we do. Please be sure to speak up and let me know your concerns. Thank you all for what you’re doing and have a nice summer.
Chuck Litchfield, Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance:
Enrollment and retention are two very big focus points. Half of our base budget comes from resident tuition. The state and Board of Regents voted to not raise resident tuition next year, so in order to compensate, we need to increase enrollment. However, a rapid growth in enrollment leads to difficulty for existing students. So, we have a set goal for enrollment to keep it somewhat flat to work on retention and enrollment to find out the effects on the current student body. On the open enrollment day we had in October, we received over 2500 applications and we got way behind in processing. When that bump in the road smoothed out, we did not really experience any increase overall. The surrounding public schools reported May 1 as “Commitment to College” day. The Fall class is not going to grow, but they are tracking ahead in SCH. Retention is core to our mission. We want to make each class more successful and make more of an effort to get out-of-state and international students. Efforts have also been made to reach further out to potential UCCS students, with a 2-year lead time. We should attract the best students, but we also value all Colorado college-ready students.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
We have been working on continuing the multi-year contracts for Instructors and are now waiting for the CU system to revise the APS so that it filters to us. We are trying to streamline the renewal process and we hope to see a draft sometime this summer. Thank you for your Faculty Assembly service this year. Update on the Regents’ civics issue – there will be a report to the University Affairs Committee later this month. We have seven different civics proposals from our faculty; all are good ideas. We have seven doctoral programs approved by HLC – we have reached the threshold now where they don’t need to approve them anymore; we only need to inform them, so that is a sign of good progress. We are waiting on system-wide policies in draft form. Faculty shouldn’t feel pressured to do summer service work. We will have approximately 1500 graduates for Commencement next Friday, and we expect 70% to attend. We hope you will also be there to celebrate with the students.
Megann Murphy, President of the Staff Association:
Introduced herself and pointed out the value of faculty and staff engaging together since they have many common interests, e.g., the presidential search. She mentioned some accomplishments over the year, such as paid parental leave for faculty and staff, winter break closure for a full week during the holidays, and development of faculty and staff mental wellness programs. She emphasized the importance of unifying faculty and staff voices and participating in combined social events too.
Officer Reports:
President-Elect’s Report
Not present – no report
Past President’s Report
Faculty Council is looking at shared governance and its operation.
Reports from Standing Committees:
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget:
Not present – no report
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
PRIDE:
No report - did not meet
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Committee on Disability:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
The Library will be sending out a general survey to all faculty and staff and would like to encourage your participation. The campus climate survey got bumped up to system level and then stalled out.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1:
The Educational Policy and University Standards Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorse the revisions to UCCS Policy 300-006: Disclosure and Management of Conflicts of Interest or Commitment. (The former title of this policy was Conflict of Interest and Nepotism).
(Motion passed with 17 in favor, 1 opposed and 1 abstention)
Motion 2:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorse the recommendation report of the Teaching Evaluation Task Force.
(Motion passed with 17 in favor, 1 opposed and 1 abstention)
Discussion 1: Follow-up on Summer Service Survey
This involves requests for service when faculty are not on contract and the pressure felt that they must do it to protect their job. The survey was done last year and given to the Provost, who shared the results with the Deans. Please make sure faculty don’t feel pressured in any way and check to be sure it’s OK. Michael Landon-Murray will do a summary report and Melissa will send the summary to the FRA representatives.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Christine Robinson Coon
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:50 p.m.