October 2021
October 2021
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
October 8, 2021
Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Kelli Klebe, Suzanne Scott, David Moon, Minette Church, Norah Mazel, David Weiss, Henriikka Weir, Lynn Gates, Fernando Feliu-Moggi, Margaret Hunt, Assma Sawani, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Elisa Thompson, Curtis Turner, John Lindsey, Jena McCollum, Craig Bubeck, Suzanne Cook, David Diamond, Solveig Olsen, Kristi McCann, Claire Rau, Dylan Harris, Emily Mooney, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Lei Zhang, Ilaheva Tuaone, Matthew Jabaily, Glen Whitehead, Laura Eurich, Larry Eames, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from September 10, 2021 meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Lynn Gates
Motion passed with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Venkat Reddy, Chancellor:
Update on campus searches: 1) candidates for the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be visiting campus starting next week, and 2) candidates for the Provost position will be coming in November. Everyone’s participation and feedback are important. Our new Executive Director of the Ent Center for the Arts, David Siegel, will be starting with us on January 3, 2022. We are sending out COVID updates every Friday with important information. We are watching the campus infection rates in comparison to El Paso County, and we are 60% less than the county, so we are doing well so far. The Campus Culture Survey will be released soon and sent to all campus individuals. We need to increase faculty participation in this survey. UCCS had the lowest participation rate in the 2019 survey. The keynote speaker at the recent EthicsFirst event on accountability was very good. We are working with and developing our community college connections to increase the number of transfer students coming to campus. It is clear that the in-person campus experience is good for our students and we are hoping that Commencement will be on-site. We are aware that Sustainability staffing is way down and Kent Marsh is working on it. Some of that is due to forced budgetary savings. We are hoping to get a new director by mid-January and we are looking forward to faculty participation in this effort as well.
Kelli Klebe, Interim Provost:
Interim Provost Klebe thanked the faculty for their hard work this semester. She reminded them about the e-mail she sent out recently regarding Disability Services and testing needs. Disability Services has already received the most requests ever for Testing Center services and they cannot handle all the requests. Their first priority is for students needing accommodations, so please use Canvas with Respondus or make other arrangements for make-up exams. Also, please let her know how extensive these testing needs are so that campus solutions may be examined further. As the Chancellor mentioned, outreach with Pikes Peak Community College and Pueblo Community College has been initiated and we are continuing to work together to reach out to transfer students. Salesforce is a new software program for admissions and recruiting and will be replacing the Starfish Early Alert program in January. This new program will cover many student areas and will have the same basic functionality, but will have better system operations. CU Online was a strong initiative started by former CU President Kennedy, but they are now moving that out to the campuses and CU ODE (Office of Digital Education) is being phased out by June 30th. Please take the Campus Culture Climate Survey when you receive it on October 12th. You cannot forward that e-mail because privacy protection is included in the unique link sent to only you. We are working on having Commencement in-person in the World Arena, which has no Covid rules. UCCS will be requiring masks and social distance seating will be arranged for students and faculty.
Suzanne Scott, Budget Director:
The Board of Regents approved the tuition budget of $115 million, which represents a 2.8% enrollment decline. Our actual decline was 2.9% at Fall census. The good news is that first-time students and undergraduate transfers were up from last Fall. If we retain our students, this will help build back the pipeline. A strong mix of non-resident students helped us to meet and slightly exceed our tuition revenue target. We normally budget Spring at 92% of Fall, but for this Spring, we are setting it at 90% of Fall. We are trying to support a compensation increase of 1%, but it looks like we will be coming up short on revenue to support it. The Budget Allocation Model (BAM) group has been reviewing the model and are ready to push forward recommendations soon. The initial draft of FY22 BAM has been completed and sent to the Deans for review. The goal is for the budget model to work altogether for the campus and not be divisional.
Officer Reports:
President-Elect’s Report
No report
Past President’s Report
The Teaching Evaluation Task Force is working across colleges to see how FCQs are being used. They are gathering ideas for discussion to report on in December.
Reports from Standing Committees:
EPUS
No report
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
PRIDE
No report
Intercollegiate Athletics
No report
Sustainability
Report attached – concern expressed about several open positions, including Director
Committee on Disability
No report
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities
No report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
Discussion 1: Mitigating the Effects of COVID-19 on Faculty
Faculty members Karin Larkin and Anna Kosloski presented a task force survey presentation on this topic, focusing particularly on the effects on women faculty. As their report went into great detail, it was suggested that they set it up for easy and widespread accessibility with feedback options online. The importance of soliciting quality feedback on this issue was emphasized.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Laura Eurich
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:02 p.m.