May 2021
May 2021
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
May 7, 2021
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Chuck Litchfield, Karen Markel, David Weiss, David Moon, Minette Church, Andrea Hutchins, Lynn Gates, Joe Craig, Margaret Harris, Deborah Kenny, Kathy Prue-Owens, Monique French, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Andrea Bingham, Monica Yoo, Diane Stutey, John Lindsey, Darshika Perera, Suzanne Cook, David Havlick, Claire Rau, Christine Robinson Coon, Emily Mooney, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Matthew Jabaily, Michael Landon-Murray, Thomas Aicher, Glen Whitehead, Stephen Suh, Laura Eurich, Scott van Ness, Larry Eames, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from April 9, 2021 meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Diane Stutey
Motion passed with 26 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Chancellor Reddy thanked David Weiss for his role during this difficult year and for all his hard work with campus leadership and governance groups. He mentioned that he is also looking forward to working with David Moon in his role as Faculty Assembly President for next year. Venkat just finished a meeting with the trustees before this meeting; both Don Warrick and Al Schoffstall each have worked 50 years at UCCS! Stephany Rose and the EDI Taskforce have completed the task of distributing the president’s initiative money and she will notify the campus about it next week. The search for the CDO will start next month. Return to campus guidelines were just sent out for Fall semester. The Future of Work taskforce is a long-term project. There will be no Town Halls for June or July and they will resume in August. We will send out updates during the summer. A reminder that faculty and exempt staff will receive a payment equal to 2% of half of their salary or 1% of their full salary in July. This is a one-time deal increase in pay. We’re looking forward to in-person meetings next time. Virtual Commencement will be held on Friday, May 14, and the following Monday is the Walk on the Plaza for graduating students (550 students have signed up so far). Please come and cheer them on. Regalia is optional since it is taking place outside. The Provost search has been extended to Fall. Today is the last day for full professors to apply for Interim Provost, starting July 1. David Moon will be replacing David Weiss on the Provost Search Committee.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
Spring semester is still following mask requirements and social distance restrictions. We will see how summer goes – it could still be like spring. We will continue to monitor the situation into Fall. One big question that arises is if faculty can ask students if they are vaccinated. Vaccines are considered private health information, so we cannot ask. In this meeting, you all will be voting on creating a third tier of promotion for instructional faculty and then we will move forward. We may need to phase-in promotions and we’ll need college department criteria. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you this year. We realize there are still many questions about pandemic procedures at this point, i.e., will there be a mask mandate for in-person classes; will students be allowed to exempt out; what about quarantine procedures, etc. Stephanie Hanenberg has that information and will be informing us as needed.
Chuck Litchfield, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance:
Thank you for your service through this tough year and working with us. We are reviewing an attestation vehicle for determining who has been vaccinated. It will be given to all faculty, staff and students to voluntarily admit to vaccination and they will have the ability to request exemption (we are working on that language with Legal). What will accommodations look like? Will it need to follow disability rules? We are checking with all resources on this. Can we identify certain groups? Can we report out on general campus population? If we get to herd immunity, then we can operate as such. The campus requires everyone to be vaccinated before returning to campus. We are trying to keep faculty out of policing and taking their own health into their own hands. With the system shift in its compensation cycle calendar to January 1 – December 31, more questions arise now about when reviews are done and the timing of those.
Karen Markel, Dean of the College of Business:
Dean Markel gave an update on the Online Initiative to the representatives of Faculty Assembly and shared an online presentation. One slide illustrated the ODE services they can provide to lead the generation process to broaden our reach to bring students to campus and then support them. On another slide, Dean Markel pointed out that UCCS is using the Enhanced column to bring in significantly larger numbers of students. At the Standard level, there is more program redundancy across the campuses, but at the Enhanced level, there are more restrictions between campuses. ODE and all 4 campuses have signed the Services Agreement with still more details to work out. Intellectual property is owned by the campuses, not ODE.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report:
Faculty survey results
Past President’s Report
Not present - no report
Reports from Standing Committees:
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
PRIDE:
No report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly move to endorse the draft of the Disability Access and Accommodation Policy 300-021 as presented by the Disability Advisory Committee.
(Motion passed with 30 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention)
Motion 2:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly move to endorse the draft of the Instructional Faculty Promotion Policy as presented by the Instructional, Research, and Clinical Faculty Committee.
(Motion passed with 27 in favor, 2 opposed and 0 abstentions)
Motion 3:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly move to endorse the draft document UCCS Faculty Guidelines around Return to Campus in Fall 2021 as presented by the Faculty Assembly Executive Committee with input from the Budget Advisory Committee, PRIDE, Educational Policy and University Standards, Personnel and Benefits, and the Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee.
(Motion passed with 23 in favor, 3 opposed and 1 abstention)
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Minette Church
Seconded by Claire Rau
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:04 p.m.