May 2012
May 2012
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
May 11, 2012
Attendance: Peg Bacon, Brian Burnett, Katie Kaukinen, Andrea Hutchins, Mandi Elder, Don Morley, Bob Durham, Jeff Spicher, Monique Dooley, Morgan Shepherd, Pam Carter, Rebecca Webb, Michele Companion, Suzanne Cook, Beth Kumar, Christina Martinez, Edgar Cota-Torres, Mary Bethe Neely, Janet Sauer, Janel Owens, David Moon, Ron Fitz
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from April 13, 2012 meeting by Andrea Hutchins
Seconded by Morgan Shepherd
Motion passed unanimously
Reports of Visitors:
Peg Bacon:
Since this is the last Faculty Assembly meeting of the academic year and the last one attended due to retirement on July 1, appreciation was expressed for all the hard work of faculty governance. The Promotion & Tenure Reception, held in honor of those faculty members receiving tenure and/or promotions this academic year, will be held at Provost Bacon's home tonight. The search for the new Dean of the Graduate School has been completed. This is an internal .5 position, which will be filled by Kelli Klebe and her start date is July 1, 2012. The Provost search is on hiatus for the summer and will resume in the fall since many faculty are not on campus during the summer and their input is critical. David Moon will be serving as Interim Provost starting July 1, 2012. Reminder that Commencement will be held next Friday, May 18 at 10:00am at the World Arena and all faculty are encouraged to attend. The annual status report on the RTP process, which the Provost is required to give at the last Faculty Assembly meeting of the academic year, indicates that the new criteria recently put into place has worked well. The dossiers submitted to the VCRC this semester were in good shape; however, the VCRC has requested that some department chair training be arranged.
Brian Burnett:
The Regents met last month and discussed salary issues at other CU campuses, not UCCS. We were successful in getting a 2% salary pool for faculty and exempt professionals (promotions are outside that amount). Since we were not able to get the 3% salary pool we were strongly advocating, we took the tuition increase down from 6% to 5%. We do have monies for investments because we need to make those investments as we grow. Classified staff will not be getting a non-base building salary increase this time, however, the 2.5% PERA swap that classified staff were paying for the last two years will be switched back to the state and no longer paid by employees, resulting in that 2.5% going back to their net pay. Insurance plans will cost less this upcoming year for all employees. There have been some questions raised concerning parental leave and alignment issues with Boulder's policy and the system APS. We are researching these issues and investigating it further. It seems that Boulder's policy is ambiguous and not clear. It is important to note that our campus was the first one to extend tuition waivers for faculty/staff spouses and dependents; other campuses are just beginning to offer these. There is a groundbreaking ceremony on June 21 at 9:00am for the Lane Center for Academic Health Sciences on North Nevada and all are invited. It appears that the ballot wording for the leasing of Memorial Health System to the University of Colorado Hospital will go to City Council in early June to prepare for a special mail-in August vote. This fall, planning will begin for a new office building. The location will be where the old SBDC building now stands and the opening is planned for August 2014. We are also working on developing more parking areas, including more space at 4 Diamonds.
David Moon:
The General Education Faculty Retreat was held on Friday, April 20, and was well-attended by many faculty. The PowerPoint presentation can be found on the Provost website. All faculty are encouraged to continue to give feedback and input to the proposed revisions to Gen Ed. The Gen Ed Taskforce chairs and committee will keep working during the summer and will begin to look at the mechanics and resources for the proposed Gen Ed revisions. It will be the task of Phase Three to do the actual job of implementation. The taskforce has made good progress this year and has found that these proposed Gen Ed revisions are worth implementing.
Jarod Gray, SGA President:
It is important to strengthen the relationship between faculty and students. The SGA Grade Forgiveness Referendum was discussed and drafted in the SGA meetings this year and was voted on by the students with a 92% favorable vote. The next step is to present this to Faculty Assembly for consideration. It was determined that this referendum would be given to EPUS for review in the fall.
Jason Votruba, Bookstore Manager:
The timeliness of book adoptions is a serious concern with normally only a less than10% response from faculty. This year the response level was much better due to the contest and prize offer to encourage participation. It is important and necessary for the bookstore to have class books available for students at affordable prices and on time. Please stress the importance of this issue with the faculty in your departments and colleges. Some new computerized book ordering systems are being considered for implementation to make this process easier.
Officer Reports:
Vice-President's Report
Please let us know your committee member status so that we know when it is necessary to fill open spots.
Past President's Report
Not present - no report
Reports from Standing Committees:
Not present - report attached
University Budget Advisory Committee:
No report
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Women's Committee:
Results of the Faculty Research Survey will be distributed in the fall; the committee is working on their revised bylaws
Academic Computing:
No report
Library:
No one present - no report
Intercollegiate Athletics:
No one present - no report
PRIDE:
No one present - no report
OLD BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Bob Durham asked for a motion to suspend the rules in order to present the classified staff recognition motion stated below in Motion #1. This motion passed unanimously.
MOTIONS
- Resolved: The members of the Representative Faculty Assembly believe that, since classified staff, who is not allowed to receive any raises or bonuses this year by order of the state system, deserve the complete support and appreciation from all faculty for their continuing outstanding contributions to this campus.
(passed unanimously with no oppositions and no abstentions)
(Katie will send out separate notice to campus)
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Mandi Elder
Seconded by Jeff Spicher
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:28 p.m.