November 2018
November 2018
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
November 9, 2018
Attendance: Tom Christensen, Suzanne Scott, Lisa Bartholme, Beau Kelly, Melissa Benton, Mary Coussons-Read, Maja Krakowiak, Norah Mazel, Andrea Hutchins, Margaret Harris, Deborah Kenny, Martin Key, Kathleen Tomlin, Ji Hyun Oh, Pam Carter, Jugal Kalita, Michelle Dorne, Suzanne Cook, Leah Chandler Mills, David Havlick, Leilani Feliciano, Claire Rau, Christine Robinson-Coon, Justin Tucker, Kristi McCann, Wendy Haggren, David Weiss, Susan Vandagriff, Michael Landon-Murray, Roger Martinez, Tabatha Farney, Carlos Duarte, Scott van Ness, Elizabeth Daniels, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from October 12, 2018 meeting by Maja Krakowiak
Seconded by Pam Carter
Motion passed unanimously with 29 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Tom Christensen, Provost:
(Since Chancellor Reddy was attending the Board of Regents meeting, Provost Christensen presented Chancellor Reddy’s report along with his to the assembly).
Chancellor Reddy’s Report:
The Regents are here at UCCS this time for their meeting. It is the last meeting for both Regent Kyle Hybl and Regent Steve Ludwig, as they are term limited and will be going off the Board of Regents. The two newly elected regents who will be replacing them on the board are Chance Hill and Lesley Smith. Sierra Brown, UCCS SGA President, was added to the CU Presidential Search Advisory Committee by regent vote. She joins UCCS faculty member Chris Bell. The search committee received its charge from the Board of Regents after the addition of a couple new representatives. The new frontage road will begin construction in early Spring and should be ready for use next Fall. We have seen an increased need for mental health services and are looking into contracting out for some outside help. This situation has been observed across all CU campuses. The CU online initiative has been taken on by Venkat Reddy as the lead chancellor this year. The CU campuses have been allocated $22 million for this initiative and UCCS will receive $6 million. We have a new Interim Director for Cybersecurity Programs, Rick White. We received $1.8 million in state funding for this program. UCCS Downtown Presence is open now for non-credit programs. Next year we will be offering for-credit classes there. An e-mail notice was recently sent out to review Martin Wood, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement. Please complete that review if you know him and have worked with him. The Engineering Building is #20 on the renovation list for capital improvements. The one-week campus holiday closure details will be coming out soon.
Provost Christensen’s Report:
The resolution that was passed in last month’s Faculty Assembly meeting concerning faculty ownership of educational materials has been distributed to the Deans and Faculty Resource Center. Regent Law Article #5 concerning “excellence in teaching at time of tenure” has now been approved by the Board of Regents. We will need to review all campus RPT criteria after the APS’s are completed. Faculty titles are now out of Article #5. The first draft of Article #11, which deals with faculty salaries, is underway. The main goal in these revisions is to remove anything from regent law that regents don’t have to act on. They are trying to streamline these revisions. The open comment phase will be forthcoming. We are finishing up the Discovery Phase of the Strategic Plan process with JERA Partnerships. They will be meeting again with the Chancellor’s Cabinet in January and reports will be sent out to the campus. We are also looking at possibly changing budget models at the Cabinet level. Any change will take 3-5 years for the process.
Suzanne Scott, Budget Office Director:
Vice Chancellor Litchfield is also attending the Board of Regents meeting today. A couple of items presented earlier at the Regents meeting were a panel discussion about partnerships with CU and rural areas in Colorado, and the process of developing a “Cost of Education” tool to help plan out the costs of an education at CU. The current governor’s budget request for FY20 includes an operating budget increase of about 13% for governing boards, which equates to an increase of slightly above 13% for CU. This is tied to a 0% tuition rate increase. The loss of revenue from tuition rate increases could be impactful and will need to be made up in the state allocation increase. The request includes about $23 million increase for financial aid and $6.5 million for a new rural teacher scholarship program to encourage new college students to pursue a teaching career in rural Colorado. These requests are from Governor Hickenlooper, but we may see changes in the budget as a result of the new governor taking office as well as a result of the December revenue forecast. We will be watching this closely so we can make our budget plans for the Regents in January for presentation in February 2019. We have also begun to look at the possibility of a software program to help with budget modeling, forecasting and reporting. We will also begin research/consultation on a new budget model in July 2019.
Lisa Bartholme, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and Beau Kelly, Associate Director of Development:
UCCS Advancement will be rolling out a new fundraising campaign called “Essential CU – UCCS Fuels Success” in January 2019. The campaign will focus heavily on scholarship support, specifically the Bridge Forward scholarship, which is an annual $2500 award that provides financial assistance to eligible UCCS students who may not qualify for the highest need-based financial aid. This scholarship is aimed more towards bridging the gap that exists for UCCS students from middle class households to help reduce the need for outside income work so that they are able to concentrate more on their studies and ensure that they graduate. This campaign is part of an overall brand refresh to build broad support throughout campus with participation and contributions encouraged from faculty and staff.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report
Melissa received a lot of faculty feedback regarding the five questions she sent out concerning the civics issue and she has complied that input into a 5-page document that she has sent on to Faculty Council. Attached is a brief summary.
President-Elect’s Report
No report
Past President’s Report
Maja attended a campus winter weather workshop. We are predicted to receive more snow than last year, mainly in the Spring. Some clarifications concerning campus closures: 1) when campus is closing during your class, you must end class at or before the planned closure; 2) when campus has a delayed start and is opening after your class start time, that class is cancelled for the day. Please remember that some students may have long commutes and traffic delays, and also realize that it takes time to get everyone off campus.
Reports from Standing Committees:
EPUS:
No report
Personnel & Benefits:
They are meeting next week; they’re working on a system-wide salary comparison report.
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget:
Not present – no report
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
- A question was raised about the status of 3-year contracts for non-tenure track faculty. They are not being used – what is the status? When is the campus viable enough for usage?
- Kraemer Family Library now has a campus subscription to the New York Times. Current students, faculty and staff can sign up for a free All Digital Access account, which will need to be re-activated every year.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Discussion 1:
The FCQ Taskforce for implementation has been formed to include David Moon, Nicole Huber, Wendy Haggren, Karin Larkin, Farida Khan, Morgan Lee, Kathleen Tomlin and Michael Calvisi. The taskforce co-chairs are Raphael Sassower and David Weiss. Their charge is to “recommend best practices for use of FCQ data in faculty reviews (both merit evaluations and retention & promotion reviews).” No formal deadline has been set, but it is hoped that they will have some recommendations to the Faculty Representative Assembly by May 2019 or sooner for voting.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Norah Mazel
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:12 p.m.