November 2023

November 2023

November 2023

UCCS Faculty Representative Assembly Meeting

Friday November 10, 2023

Attendance: Monica Yoo, Minette Church, Joel Tonyan, Lynn Gates, David Moon, Laura Austin-Eurich, David Weiss, Dylan Harris, Kylie Rogalla, Suzanne Cook, Karin Larkin, Constance Staley, Jon Caudill, Robin Kempf, Kathy Kaudois, Jena McCollum, Michael Kisley, Kristi McCann, Marke Grabowski, Rosely Conz, Kevin Lauder, Aaron Corcoran, Claire Rau, Matthew Jabaily, Janet Guiddings (guest), Jennifer Zohn, Brynn Adamson, Andrew Subudhi, Lei Zhang, Norah Mazel, David Anderson, Fernando Feliu-Moggi, Ilaheva Tuaone, Elisa Thompson, Regina Winters, Assma Sawani, Margaret Harris, Camilla Troudt, Fawn Beherns-Smith, Douglas Risser, Leslie Tekamp, Zhe (Cliff) Li, Thomas Wolkow, Gordon Stringer, Jessi Smith, Andrea Wenker, Jian Ma, Erik Hanson, Mattew Beckwith, Susan Taylor

 

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes

Call to Order by Monica Yoo

Motion to approve the minutes from October 2023 meeting by David Moon

Seconded by Laura Austin-Eurich

Minutes approved: 

 

Reports of Visitors:

Jennifer Sobanet, Interim Chancellor

The Board of Regents held a successful meeting this past week. The focus of discussion included a strategic enrollment deep-dive on how we handle recruitment and retention of new students. The Board received favorable strategies and are constructing a campus report. Other items included a discussion of military affiliations, outreach efforts, faculty research, and various student support programs. The “Hero Scholarship”—aimed at enriching our military pipeline moving forward by filling tuition gaps. Reserve funding reviews are in place for the month of November. Overall, the Board of Regents report being very happy to hear of the work that we’re doing at UCCS.

 

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

Academic Affairs is currently going through restructuring as we lost two members, and three remaining others are taking over additional roles. We’re doing a lot of work around a micro-credentials taskforce and want to initiate more badging opportunities for faculty. Differential workload discussions from faculty perspective are continuing, and the grievance committee submitted documentation under review by HR and legal counsel. The current deadline for discussions (e.g., working titles, redefining the “I” in IRC) regarding potential changes to APS 5060 is January 1st.

Questions posed regarding three-year contract opportunities for IRC faculty:

  • Responses—three-year contracts are available on campus, but decisions are up to individual Deans of each college based on budgets and current/anticipated enrollments; leadership at the campus level does not wish to micromanage individual colleges; more discussion is warranted regarding interest in extended contracts for IRC faculty who are already here vs. coming to UCCS, as well as whether those with a terminal degree may be interested in title vs. salary

 

Kathy Kaoudis, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance

The next upcoming University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) meeting is scheduled for November 15th. The previous meeting gathered and provided feedback on budget pauses, and the next will focus on reserve balances, funding commitments, and strategic use of one-time funds available. Last month, we explored current cyber options, and this month, we’re looking at longitudinal budgets. We have collected data from 2004—present for analysis. Reminders—we welcome your input on the budget process and want to be intentional about receiving feedback. On November 15th, Suzanne Scott and her office will lead the meeting, and it will be recorded on Teams for asynchronous review. We will also hold a budget transparency discussion on November 17th, which is open for each college. Open discussions are held primarily in-person with a limit to 20 people in each meeting. If more space is needed, we’re happy to make that happen with notice.

 

Jose Cantu, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management

We are currently redesigning enrollment management to become more strategically data-informed and driven over the entire campus. If you are not already receiving weekly/monthly reports, we can forward transparent registration documents to you, so please let us know. Wendy Clouse is also our new Chief Strategist in Enrollment.

Strategist Enrollment Management Council—a newly formed, top-heavy, team for the institution which invites more voices into discussion, with no surprises on current numbers or drop-offs. The Council will have internal committees (5), which are welcome to any faculty (advertisements coming soon). These committees will be looking at marketing, communications, and operational functions. A specific branch will consist of a Steering Committee—plan written up by end of February; will help us strategize for near and long-term future of the institution.

Overall enrollment updates—we are negative in registrations and headcount; grads are up 17%; undergrads down -5%, overall down -6%; important variable—6,000 students still trying to register right now, but should balance over the next few weeks.

What is the overall makeup of the internal committees?

  • Response—The Council is very inclusive; tri-share of leadership, 25+ members of diverse titles; we want to add more folks to the new internal committees; 11 members of steering committee with balanced representation; we have met for the first time as a full council, finalizing membership now; should be published in December

 

Reports of Officers:

Report of the President – Monica Yoo

A big shout out to all our veterans with Veterans Day approaching and thank you for all your service. The Faculty Council at Systems level is finishing up work on bylaws and trying to get that out soon. With the CVS piece, everyone should have gotten those PMB meeting minutes, so please look to make sure your concerns were addressed. If people are having issues, please contact benefits@cu.

Grievance Committee—finishing up their work and currently meeting with HR and legal; meeting with Provost again before anything goes out for review, hoping to report out to Faculty Assembly in December (if not, early next semester).

  • Grievance Committee still needs members from engineering, business, and cs 

Faculty Assembly Governance related to item 200-15—being voted on in December. APS 5060—number of different opinions, IRC Committee collecting feedback, please let us or IRC Chair know if you have further thoughts/questions; open forum date pending with Provost.

Provost putting together RPT committee for all of campus and looking for members; membership is preferred for those who have had previous experience on RPT committees.

Systems committees still needs UCCS representation—communications, LGBTQ, etc.

On the Faculty Assembly website, the Grievance Committee still doesn’t show up as a standing committee although it has been voted/approved. If we can show we really do exist (memberships, bylaws, etc.), this may attract more membership for service?

  • Response—there has been some concern on using the term “grievance,” and further discussion may be warranted with Provost’s office; Suzanne Cook emailing Lynn Gates details of concerns/confusion & to confirm official approval.

 

Report of the President-Elect – Joel Tonyan

No Report.

 

Report of the Past-President – Minette Church

We now have an updated list of lecturers on campus. If you have new lecturers in your department with anticipated long-term work (across multiple semesters), please contact Minette with their UCCS email address to get them added to a lecturer listserv.

 

Committee Reports

    1. CMRSC Report
    2. UBAC Report
    3. FACT Report
    4. SUSTAINABILITY Report 
    5. FAWC Report 
      1. Robin Kempf, Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee (FAWC)
        • Written report turned in to FA; launched taskforce on service equity; interviewed several for faculty fellows; selected two members—Amanda Elder and Nick Fuselier; currently working on lit review and developing advisory board; if you’re interested in serving on the advisory board, please let Robin know; board members will report to Faculty Council at the end of each year. 
        • Are there any recent updates on changing the language or “white paper” descriptions of service to something more accurate and specific? 
          • Response—The goal is to provide a tool for Chairs and Deans to use to measure service and try to reach more equitable distribution. This question will be passed on to the team as well.

 

Unfinished Business

No Report.

 

New Business

Susan Taylor & Regina Winters, Strategic Enrollment Plan

Presented five areas of focus; planning process for next steps; returning in December meeting. 

  • Breakout groups for discussion on ideas for “protect, sustain, continue” items
  • Large group feedback following break-out meetings: 
    • “We are a sinking ship being given cups,” concerns about recruitment efforts for tech sciences in K-12, concerns about affordability to attend UCCS & lack of meaningful conversations

 

Matthew Beckwith, Representing Staff Association & Parking 

We are building a joint committee for equity concerns related to parking and employee permits. Last year, we built a committee to offer solutions; current idea to propose to leadership—any employee that earns under $70k will get a 10% reduction in permit costs.

Low-end of salary range for full-time employee parking is 2.25% of their total salary; high-range pay 0.25%; one day passes 3x/week can be up to 6% of stipend for adjunct/part-time faculty or staff; maintaining parking structures is also very expensive and there needs to be incoming funds to support; parking charges will continue to be a significant income source. 

Looking to construct a Parking Equity Committee (employees only at this time)—we need both faculty and staff representation, Monica will be point contact for recruitment for faculty; Matthew for staff.

Can we raise prices for higher salary ranged employees?

  • Response—Absolutely, this can be an option depending on committee proposals and leadership approval. 

Can we name corporate lots or numbers and access state funding?

  • Response—We are charging the public for 500-service lots this year; students already pay for those; employees do not pay for such and no future plans for this next year

 

Monica Yoo & Matthew Beckwith

Faculty-staff mixer & joint service opportunity (all campus) events; some FA money available to host; timeline in early Spring; looking for volunteers to put this together (late afternoon ~ 4:00 p.m.); would like one staff and faculty to head the planning/organization.

Office of Sustainability hosts a “Clean the Stream” movement each spring, could be an appropriate opportunity.

Gathering faculty/staff to attend the student sporting events; potentially using the Skybox (often empty); Nathan Gibson contact person for scheduling (Laura); faculty and staff always free for admission; approximate date January 26th; get there early for women’s bball, stay for men’s following. 

 

Fawn, Behrens Smith, Executive Director of Planning, Design, & Construction/Campus Architect

New director for planning and construction for facilities; campus architect; coming to Colorado Springs from Grand Forks, ND; facilities group working on campus master plan, almost ready to wrap that up, seeking input for upcoming sessions; virtual meeting 11/15 @ 2 (virtual); 11/27 (in-person) @ 3 p.m. UC 302.  

 

Representative Reports

Jennifer Zohn, College of Nursing & Health Sciences

Question/Concern—Amy Silva-Smith brought forth a concern (wrote formal letter) and asked that Jennifer share with the FA committee—UCCS is now three months post-termination of our past HIPAA compliance officer, and we still have no clear plans for replacement or addressing this gap. We worry this is negligent to not replace this position due to the many departments and programs that require clinical practices/placements with protected health information.

  • Response (Jessi Smith)—We agree this is worrisome; many individuals in leadership are aware of the issue, although we are in a holding pattern right now. From the clinical perspective, our former compliance person had the ability to do both clinical work and HIPAA compliance, which is very rare. We need someone who is good at assessing site-based compliance and IT protocols, while the research piece is a separate set of competencies for students and faculty who want to use this data in their work. We have put together job descriptions for competencies to cover these areas of expertise. Every day we’re out of compliance is one case too many. Thank you for bringing this up so we can seek clarity. Reach out to us if you have a concern or specific case questions in the meantime.

  

 

Motion to Adjourn

Karin Larkin motioned to adjourn.

Laura Austin-Eurich seconded.

Meeting adjourned at 1:57 pm.