November 2021
November 2021
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
November 12, 2021
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Kelli Klebe, Chuck Litchfield, David Moon, Minette Church, Norah Mazel, David Weiss, Andrea Hutchins, Lynn Gates, Margaret Hunt, Deborah Kenny, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Cortny Stark, Elisa Thompson, Curtis Turner, John Lindsey, Darshika Perera, Craig Bubeck, Suzanne Cook, David Diamond, Kristi McCann, Kathrin Spendier, Claire Rau, Dylan Harris, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Lei Zhang, Ilaheva Tuaone, Matthew Jabaily, Kate Angulski, Farida Khan, Glen Whitehead, Stephen Suh, Laura Eurich, Scott van Ness, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from October 8, 2021 meeting by Norah Mazel
Seconded by David Weiss
Motion passed with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Please take the Campus Climate survey (UCCS is looking favorable for participation response rates). Thank you for wearing masks on campus. This practice is resulting in limited campus cases, and we are able to conduct Commencement in December in-person, so I hope to see you there. We appreciate the Board of Regents’ and Interim President’s support for recent pay increases. In the future, we need to concentrate on increasing both enrollments and retention rates. We are working on the job description for online support operations. The Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion search will be extended as we were not able to secure a good candidate fit for the position. The candidates for the Provost position are set to visit campus this week and next, so please participate in those campus sessions. The CU President search committee is still obtaining input feedback from all the campuses. The T-Rowe Price Career Center is now open on the first floor of University Center – please be sure to stop by and visit. The RCM budget model is definitely a change. The change of focus is challenging, but a good direction and is open to more in the process.
Chuck Litchfield, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance:
There are three topics we are currently focusing on. First, the governor’s budget sent to the legislature was not great for higher ed with only a 4.6% increase. There are no authorized increases in tuition and no adjustments for increase in costs and no increases in fiscal spending authority. With the current inflation status, this makes it very difficult. The interim CU President is working with the legislature to make a case for higher ed to cover the minimum expected cost increases. Second, Spring enrollment is up 9.1% from this time last year. Although this is a great improvement from last year, we need to keep it in perspective. We’d like to get to pre-Covid levels. We still have a long way to go to get back to Fall ’19 – Spring ’20 figures. Third, deals with the status of the new budget model. We just finished meetings with the deans and finance folks in the colleges on the FY22 budget drivers. The governance process is in motion with both the Primary Unit Committee and Support Unit Committee working on this process. Full participation in this process is much better than the past model. We are trying to get back to pre-Covid levels and we also need to work on retention. Students having financial strains is a major block on retention. Cost increases are high for everything – labor, goods, expenses, etc. Do we save some costs with remote operation? Are holds for vaccine attestation affecting registration for Spring? We had about 4000 holds and we worked hard to get it down to half of that (2000). We’ve had the most balanced approach with our communication on vaccine status. However, other questions have arisen, such as who are we affecting with this registration hold policy? Is it affecting minorities disproportionately? This remains to be seen for students, since we are finding that there are communication issues. We keep watching all these things.
Kelli Klebe, Interim Provost:
We are working on the changes that the Budget Allocation Model (BAM) group has brought forward on the budget model. We are also working on the process for vaccine requirements for people working on government contracts to see who’s impacted. Harper is also reviewing how we would comply as a full campus, if needed or required. The IRC Personnel Action Policy is on its way to EPUS, but first it must be reviewed by the Deans and Legal Counsel. After its review by EPUS, then it will go to Faculty Assembly. We are also reviewing the integration of the new degree process with the budget governance model. Mountain Lion Research Day is on December 3rd on campus, so please support it and stop by to visit.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report
Also, an equal pay analysis is being done by an outside contractor concerning compression and lower pay start rates involving faculty and university staff.
President-Elect’s Report
Please take time to complete the Campus & Workplace Culture Survey.
Past President’s Report
Please complete the evaluation of teaching survey for the discussion at next month’s meeting. The Teaching Evaluation Task Force is figuring out the percentage of FCQs and other factors.
Reports from Standing Committees:
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Intercollegiate Athletics:
No report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
No report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion 1:
The Sustainability Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly approve the following resolution
(Motion passed with 24 in favor, 1 opposed and 1 abstention)
Discussion 1: – Faculty Rights and Responsibilities
Faculty member Rex Welshon introduced the topic and led a discussion, explaining that last spring David Weiss assembled a task force to investigate and adopt CU Boulder’s Faculty Rights and Responsibilities. Rex is the chair of this task force and submitted a report to David. Also attached is the response to the FRA survey on this topic. There appears to be insecurity across the faculty about the security of their rights and concern about the selection of academic administrators. Clarity on the role of chairs is also needed. Please feel free to direct any questions or comments about the content of these reports to Rex. The goal of the task force is to present a full recommendation for support to Faculty Assembly in April of 2022. It was determined that the Faculty Assembly representatives want to consult with their colleagues and departments and revisit this topic next month.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by David Weiss
Seconded by Laura Eurich
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:02 p.m.