October 2020
October 2020
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
October 9, 2020
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Tom Christensen, Chuck Litchfield, David Weiss, David Moon, Minette Church, Norah Mazel, Henriikka Weir, Lynn Gates, Deborah Kenny, Kathy Prue-Owens, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Andrea Bingham, Monica Yoo, Diane Stutey, John Lindsey, Darshika Perera, Jena McCollum, Suzanne Cook, Leilani Feliciano, Claire Rau, Christine Robinson Coon, Roger Martinez, Emily Mooney, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Kirsten Ortega, Matthew Jabaily, Michael Landon-Murray, Glen Whitehead, Laura Eurich, Larry Eames, Deborah Tuffield, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from September 11, 2020 meeting by Glen Whitehead
Seconded by Deborah Kenny
Motion passed with 28 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
The Chancellor thanked the assembly representatives for their attendance at the recent State of the Campus address, which was held both virtually and also with limited in-person attendance at Berger Hall. He mentioned that it was nice to see some faces. Donor events have been going well doing them virtually. There was a significant news article in CU Connections which outlined the online initiative and the work that Alpha Education consultants are doing with all four CU campuses. The proposed annex to the Engineering Building received a boost after CU President Mark Kennedy collaborated with the CU Foundation to make $2 million available for the project. The 25,000-sq.ft. building will add space for about 1300 more students. We have about $8 million now and need to raise more to the goal of about $15 million through continued philanthropy and potential state funding. There is about $1 million coming in for Diversity & Inclusion efforts and about $.5 million for focus on mental health. The faculty and staff need support. The students have the Wellness Center, which is currently very busy with a waitlist. We are still on track to open after Thanksgiving, but we are in discussions, as things could change. The preference is to leave campus open and decide early for planning purposes. We are also looking at Spring Break to make a decision there, too. We had a good response to the recent faculty survey regarding Spring on campus. It helps to identify what the areas of most concern are that we can work together on.
Tom Christensen, Provost:
The Provost thanked the faculty and staff for all the work being done to make this semester go as well as it’s going. The tenure and promotion criteria have all been checked and updated and are posted on the Provost’s website, and we are reviewing issues for this year. Spring semester will look like Fall. We will start next Fall’s schedule soon. We will still have various instruction options and we’ll see how things look. The University of Colorado has questions regarding the Executive Order issued on September 22 regarding diversity training and as of now, we will continue our diversity training as we are. The details of the online initiative are not clear now, but we are working on it. The third title of Principle Instructor is now official. We are looking at common campus-wide standards for promotion, which we don’t usually have, but then we also want allowances for individual colleges. We used to have a campus-wide review of curriculum and we need to re-establish that for monitoring and as part of the budget model.
Chuck Litchfield, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance:
Chuck presented the slide presentation on the budget model governance and also mentioned that he gave an extended presentation to the college Deans. In the resulting discussions, some issues raised were about possible UBAC transformation and how faculty will be represented in these budget decisions and governance model.
Officer Reports:
President’s Report
Online initiative committee to focus on campus
President-Elect’s Report
Past President’s Report
Not present - no report
Reports from Standing Committees:
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
PRIDE:
Working on building more community
Intercollegiate Athletics:
Not present – no report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present – no report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
- Proposal for a new Faculty Assembly research steering committee – Glen Whitehead shared a presentation to outline the need for this new standing committee on Faculty Assembly. Their reasons include the move forward in R-2 status, the need for more grant money for campus, and they would like representation on Faculty Assembly.
- Discussion: Should waitlisted students have access to Canvas course content while on waitlist? Discussion items included: students can start course materials in Canvas while waiting, which would save a lot of time; this is done at CU Boulder; no opt-in/opt-out – automatically done for all; could be a messaging issue – should be in their portal; do it so they don’t fall behind; how do other campuses do it? Global announcement? Does Advising inform students? Streamline waitlisted students? David Weiss will follow-up and report on his findings next month.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by David Moon
Seconded by Karin Larkin
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.