May 2024

UCCS Faculty Representative Assembly Meeting

Friday May 3, 2024

Attendance:  Monica Yoo (President), Joel Tonyan (President Elect), Minette Church (Past President), Norah Mazel (Secretary), Jennifer Sobanet, Nancy Marchand-Martella, Kathy Kaoudis, Clay Garner, Angela Bender, Kaley Espindola, Lindsay Coppa, Nick Fuselier, Mandi Elder, James Ma, David Moon, Laura Austin-Eurich, Karin Larkin, David Weiss, Suzanne Cook, Dylan Harris, Les Tekamp, Matt Jabaily, Susan Taylor, Sara Hagedorn, Andrew Subudhi, Assma Sawani, Bianca Headen, Brigitta de Pree, Camilla Troudt, Claire Rau, Colin Mahoney, David Anderson, Fernando Feliu-Moggi, Gabriela Martinez Mercier, Haleh Abghari, Hillary Fouts, Jena McCollum, Jennifer Zohn, Jessi Smith, Jon Caudill, Julie Torres, Kristi McCann, Kyle Gruenhagen, Kylie Rogalla, Margaret Harris, Raphael Sassower, Robin Kempt, Rosely Conz, Todd Endres, Zhe Li

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve April 2024 Minutes

            Moved by: Joel Tonyan

            Seconded by: Minett Church

            Motion passes 

Reports of Visitors:

Jennifer Sobanet, Chancellor 

• Happy end of the semester! 
• Thank you, Monica, for your leadership this year and looking forward to working with Joel next year. Congrats to David Havlick for being elected as President Elect.
• Thank you for your willingness to be open and have tough conversations but also come together to help shape the future of UCCS. There will be really fun, innovative things that we will do together. There were also be the difficult things that we will need to figure out together including our on going budget situation. 
• Question: How will FASFA delay affect us?
  • Jennifer Sobanet: This is happening across the country. We are all feeling the same impact. Students are holding back on making decisions. SCH is not up in the summer but is for the Fall. Jevita Rogers and her team have been very responsive and prepared for this. Done a phenomenal job keeping up with the changes of FASFA. It is not going to be making issues specifically for us, it will continue to affect every institutions.
  • Susan Taylor: Student are enrolling later. Might consider giving students more time to sign up for classes. This will just be for the summer enrollment period. New student enrollment may stagger a bit over the summer. 

  • Jennifer Sobanet: Comparisons may be off because students will be taking longer to decide but there is no indication that there will be any issues

     

Nancy Marchand-Martella, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs 

• We have two individuals for the interim dean position is CPS. Jon Caudill and David Moon. Sent out a survey to the college to gather feedback. Please do fill out if you are in CSP. Closes noon on Monday and will be considered about who will be chosen.
• Joe Wehrman has been appointed as Interim Dean for COE 
• We have had a conversation about a possible college merger between CPS & COE. With two interims deans currently in place, we have an opportunity to consider this merger. There are a lot of questions that will be asked through an anonymous link, in person, and online. We will be looking at developing a task-force headed by chairs of each college and made up of both faculty and staff. This task-force’s charge will be to envision what a merger would look like and provide three proposals to cabinet. At least one of these proposals from the task force will focus on this merger and then the taskforce can provide other options as well. The proposed timeline is for the taskforce to work through the fall semester. Then leadership position/s can start the search process starting in Spring 2025 based on what is decided. The taskforce will present to shared governance and will be given resources and whatever is needed for them to be able to make the case. Small stipends will be offered to the members of the taskforce. There will be savings of about $300,000 for one dean position. Faculty are a part of this the entire way along with the staff. 
  • Question: So is the $300,00 of savings the reason that we are considering this? 
    • That is something that is considered but we want to look at strategy as well. Look at accommodating colleges on campus and re-envisioning how colleges are structured on campus. 
  • Question: Will they cut departments if they are similar?
    • There are no plans for getting rid of any departments. We know that there is a lot of worry with the thought of this merger and we want the taskforce to consider these concerns in their evaluation.
  • Question: Shared Governance will continue. How can shared governance specifically be involved in decision making? There are a lot of fears of losing staff position with this move.
    • Nancy – Now that we have two interim deans in the two smallest colleges, it made sense to look at this. This is not just budget/admin efficiencies. I really, truly think it is an opportunity to look at strategy and to come through as a stronger college/s. It is hard to say about staff when looking at things. I do not currently know the needs but we will be including faculty and staff in this task force. We will be sure to get updates on the task force to FA. We do need to bring in students at some point and even community members to give feedback. I keep coming back to strategy. I think we will come out of this even stronger. Bringing these two areas of service professions to be the second largest college. Again, I do not know what this looks like and I’m excited to learn more with the taskforce.
  • Question: Transparency – starting the conversation earlier, is more chaotic and causes more anxiety. Acknowledge that we are having these conversations, people may be freaking out, but there was a time when we wouldn’t even have these conversations. We appreciate that you are  starting these conversations now. 
    • Nancy – Grand way that two colleges will be able to merge and create something new. Personally excited about that
  • Comment: FA is important and we want to know what is happening
  • Question: Doesn’t seem strategic to stop a search that far into the search. Why was it done so late?
    • Sometimes opportunities arise and we have to look at new ways to do things. 
  • Question: Things come up that can supersede governance. Where can we make sure that things won’t supersede the process?
    • Nancy – Staying on the right side of things and sometimes things happen and we have to make a decision. Primary driver is salary savings and administrative bloat is something that continues to come up. This will save money for the campus. I will be as open as possible as we go through this. Faculty and staff will be heavily involved in this process.
• Faculty Affairs Position: We will be looking at developing a JD at a .5% time. We have one-time money for this and will use some for an ombuds mediator. Increase Mary Cousins Read. 
• Grievance Committee: Have a meeting to discuss with system legal and should be set up sometime soon.
• Question: 12 student minimum for classes. This will kill some classes
  • We have a lot to talk about as we go through budget cuts. Over $2M out of AA. Worked with Deans to come up with cut plans. Deans saw each other’s cut plan. We will have to have these difficult conversations. Enrollment is not as high as we would like and one of the things we need to look at is classes. We will be looking at this more in Fall. This will involve a lot of conversations. Colleges are doing different things to meet these cuts. 
  • Monica: Ask reps about what they do. 
  • Nancy: might be helpful for a campus minimum – this will not be a flip of switch 
• Question: Have an opportunity with new Deans about conversations about FA & CREST has been working on equity and service load. Certain colleges have different policies when it comes to workloads. There are equity issue across campus when it comes to workloads. 
  • Nancy: We are looking at this and we are aware. This is something that we can consider and would like to know what the pressure points are. Enrollment, service loads. Would like to start in my 3^rd year as Provost  looking at where we can start making positive changes. Title changes, workload, PRR, Grievance policy. Focused on getting these policies out. They are how we run our campus. 
• Question: What is the retirement timeline and when will we know if those positions will be filled? 
  • Nancy: Colleges will request to Provost to get those lines back. I’m an advocate of those who have full loads, we should look at replacing with IRC/TT depending on what is asked for. Working with every dean to make this decision. Deans are making cases on their staff needs. Typically around what will be lost and what is the impact. Then I will make a decision on the pool. I want to be strategic. Some colleges have requests for new needs and might be needed based on our students’ need. 

Kathy Kaoudis, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance

• Monday the governor signed the Long bill which give almost 3x the amount that the governor requested for higher education funding. This is a 9% increase at UCCS for our state funding. Tuition rates will be going up which is always a mixed blessing. Resident is up 3%, non-resident is up by 4%. This is still under the inflation rate. Cyber was funded for 3 more years at $2.5M. It funds $560,000 in student scholarships in addition to some staff/faculty lines. One controlled maintenance request was funded that will modernize 5 more elevators on campus. Our new AVC Mark Ferguson and auxiliary is working with state architect at our structural integrity of our buildings. Report is coming out next week. Most buildings are ok but there are a few that are not. Help with deferred maintenance schedule. Will budget with these and prioritize. 
• Tuition Assistance Benefit increased from 9 credits to 12 credits. Get rid of the 7-day requirement so you can sign up with everyone else. You can also now share these credits in a single semester with other delegates. This starts in Fall. 
• Working hard to change tuition tables. Lots of feedback about our crazy tuition tables. We will share at UBAC and would love feedback. The new tuition table will pay the same price per credit hour. Looking at a differential credit hour for each college. Now looking at a college wide feed that would allow us to keep up with inflation. Want to finalize to take to regents in June. This would mean no fees on individual courses. We want to get feedback about this so please do let us know.
• Re-org this week: People have been concerned with positions under the VCAF. We have added/changed 4 total positions. We have 1 position in investment grad audit (old equipment). 2 were existing positions. 1 was a sponsored projects accounting position. Funded from VCAF reserves. Position to run polies and EA work for the EVC of the accounting team. 
• Please do join UBAC.

Clay Garner, Deputy Chief and Director of Police Operations

• Thanks for having me
• Update – last week we completed our EOC trainings with cabinet and partners to go over critical incidents on campus, our communication, and connection with other jurisdictions on campus. We are currently in state 1 of our camera implementation project. We have 15 additional cameras up. Looking at 60 that will hopefully be up by the end of the summer. Looking at software that will alert our office if they see weapons. Implemented UCCS Safe app. Have thousands of subscribers. Great app that helps with health/safely and training for free. Summer is focused on property damage deterrent. Looking at starting the accreditation process for our policies and practices. Compares what we currently do with national standards. Lengthy process but worth it in the long run. 
  • Question: Will you be planning on visiting classes to discuss trainings? 
    • We did over 200 hours of programs last year and hoping to beat that this year. We will come to anyone who requests it to touch on those topics. 
    • Susan: GPS will also be incorporated into the training into the fall classes. 
• Cameras – broader in parking lots and getting a broader view of the entire campus. Looking to get as much coverage with as few of our cameras as possible. Maintenance is really high on these cameras. 

Kaley Espindola & Angela Bender, Human Resources

• HR PowerPoint Slides
• Have some inquiries with grievance procedures. Bianca is our newest Employee Relations Specialist that can address these.  
• Data has been challenging but we have had 96 total grievance inquiries. 38 faculty – interpersonal, 31 staff – interpersonal, 12 faculty – other, 15 staff – other. There has been a big uptick in interpersonal conflicts. A lot has happened this past year which has led to heightened emotions and stress for faculty and staff.
• Code of Conduct/Workplace Bullying Policy
  • Engage respectfully/professionalism with co-workers. 
  • When does it become Workplace Bullying? Our APS 5059 policy. Lots do not qualify for this policy but there are other processes. This process will likely go to review in the near future. 
• HR Inquiry Process

1. Talk with your supervisor
2. HR will come in and gather any and all pieces. 
   1. May include:
      1. Interview with reporting
      2. Interview with employee accused
      3. Review prior reports regarding either employee
      4. Interviews with other witnesses
      5. Review other relevant evidence
3. Informal resolutions
   1. Help them understand where they may have mis-stepped
4. If something has been violated, HR will provide recommendations to the supervisor to make sure that appropriate actions are taken. We will work with legal to make sure that
   1. Can be a note in your file, corrective action, terminations
   2. Can reassign workplaces, withhold privileges, leave without pay
5. Resolution: trusting that appropriate action has been taken. Can be hard to accept this. Should see a change in that person’s behavior. You have positive intent moving forward. 

• Zero Retaliation Policy
  • Zero tolerance for retaliation. It can be obvious or can be more micro. Any retaliation concerns should be reported directly to HR. 
• Resources:
  • Mary Coussons-Read
  • HR
  • Mediation through CSEAP
  • Counseling through SCEAP
  • Real Help Hotline
• Future Projects:
  • Professional Rights and Responsibility (PRR)
  • Formal Grievance policy and procedure
  • Possible contracted Ombuds
  • Continued development of Faculty Relations position
• Question: How do our number of cases relate to other institutions our size
  • We don’t know about this but we will look into it

Suzanne Cook, Grievance Policy Committee

• We are close we think. We have worked with system legal and she helped simplify the policy. Covers most grievance. Think we need to add in grievances with administration and grievance with academic freedom. We want to include lecturers in this and so we will include lecturers. Faculty relations manager is a resource. External mediator is in question based on funding. Making clear that the FA Grievance Committee reports to the FA President and then goes to the Provost from there. Biggest obstacle is that Provost believes strongly that the committee only review grievances. We feel stronger that we should get rid of that with the FA grievance committee get training and review these. The other is appointed by Deans. We are very close and hope to bring to FA in the fall. 
• Back to Erica and the Provost to discuss. Jeffery Montez de Oca is also going to meet with the Provost to discuss. 

Reports of Officers:

Report of the President – Monica Yoo

• Concealed Carry Ban – The legislation that is currently being considered about safe spaces, does not pertain to parking lots. While there may be a concealed carry ban, it would not pertain to parking lots.
• Statement on Matters of Public Concern: It doesn’t mean it has to go through FA. It can be any shared governance body, including your department. It has to be very specific in regards to that. It would be “faculty of ____”. It would also be helpful to state how many people voted for that resolution. Can be posted on a website that is specific to that governing body. It cannot be on the main page of the department, can be linked, but must be on a page related to faculty and belongs to the shared governance body.
• Thank you everyone for serving on FA committee this year and your work in general. Want to thank IRC committee on APS 5060. Thank you to the grievance committee. All of the policy committees and David Weise for helping move us along in the process. 

Report of the President-Elect – Joel Tonyan

• Close the loop on Election: Thank everyone who ran and who voted. Excited to work with the new president elect and everyone that will be on the executive committee. Working with Lindsay over the summer to update the website.
• Wanted to talk about initiatives for next year
  • Talking about COE & CPS and class sizes
  • Working with David Weise about implementing Microsoft planner for policy development and tracking. 
  • I would like to revisit our constitution. Need to get IRC faculty updated and that will require a task force and a big vote. 
  • Website: to make resolutions/motions more visible. 
  • Outside meeting just to invite faculty to talk about what else they are thinking about what we might want to consider
• Have a wonderful summer! Looking forward to working with you all in the fall! 

Report of the Past-President – Minette Church

• This is my last meeting as the president. Thank you to everyone. This is important work. I have learned a ton in the last 3 years. Thank you to the team as we have worked together for the past 3 years.

Committee Reports

• Committee on Educational Policy and University Standards
• Committee on Personnel & Benefits
• Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Disability
• Committee on Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities
• Committee on Research
• Educational Policy & University Standards Committee
• Faculty Assembly Committee on Teaching
• Faculty Assembly Grievance Committee
• Faculty Assembly Women's Committee
• Faculty Equity & Inclusion Committee
• Instructional, Research, & Clinical Faculty Committee
• Intercollegiate Athletics
• PRIDE
• Sustainability Council Proposal

Representative Reports

• No Reports

Unfinished Business

No unfinished business

New Business

1. Discussion: Service Equity Task Force Findings (Nick Fuselier and Mandi Elder, Faculty Fellows) 

• Service Equity Task Force Findings PowerPoint
• Purpose: We are looking to gain insight into the culture of service on campus
• Nationwide – faculty have different workload in regards to service. Women and underrepresented faculty have inequitable workloads. We want to identify service issues specific to UCCS. 
• We created an advisory team with members from across campus. Filled out a survey & held focus groups. Looking to create tools to help transparency of service on campus. 
• Survey Results:
  • Lots of data came out. Full report available at the end of the month
  • 130 faculty participants. Based on our demographics, women were overrepresented and people of color were underrepresented. This means that our results may be skewed. 
  • There is a significant difference in different field groups
  • Significant difference in IRC and TT/T faculty groups
  • Not any compensation with extra service. 
  • There is agreement and disagreement about their expectations for service. 
    • It is concerning that there is such a difference in similar areas
  • Cultural issue that there is hidden consequences for not doing service. 
    • TT felt more that there were consequences for not doing service
    • TT felt pressured based on their identity
  • Academic Caregiving
    • Significant difference between colleges
  • Watermark Use
    • Reports what is necessary – only quantifiable service
    • Academic caregiving is not reported
    • Time and renumeration doe not respond
• Focus Groups Results:
  • To imagine what might be possible for the future
  • 24 participants in 6 focus groups
  • Showed tools that already excited with faculty service. Workshoped about what might be changed for UCCS
  • Tools will be available with the full report
  • Notable takeaways
    • Lake of transparency/clarity
      • What would that look like?
    • Proceed with caution when tracking/report/evaluating faculty service work
    • Should grapple with institutional barriers in equity in service work (workloads for example)
• Recommendations: 
  • We have created 5 tools for areas. These will not solve equity problems but can reduce the burdens that come up with service. Harm reduction tools. Effort o contextually customize tools
    • Faculty Service Audit
    • Faculty on-campus committee service expectations rubric
    • Committee expectations
  • How can we capture academic/institutional caregiving. How can existing tools be better leveraged to capture service work. 

1. Question:  How was that rubric come up with
   1. In the focus groups, we started with tools from a report that had something similar, in our focus groups, we found that so many things are not captured. These may not be the exact expectation in each area but does give a place to start. 
2. Question: Is this also a conversation about the kind of service that faculty want to do and compared to what admin wants faculty to do.

Motion to Adjourn

Les Tekamp motioned to end the meeting; Laura Elrich seconded; passed.  

Next meeting: Friday, May 3, 2024, 12:00-2:00 pm in Hyflex Format; Dwire 114 or MS Teams