October 2022

October 2022

October 2022

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING

October 14, 2022

Attendance: Emily Skop, Erica Allgood, Emily Mooney, Fernando Feliu-Moggi, Jian Ma, Kathy Prue-Owens, Karin Larkin, Scott VanNess, David Weiss, David Anderson, Melissa Benton, Laura Austin-Eurich, Suzanne Scott, Farida Khan, Christine Biermann, Craig Bubeck, Kate Quintana, Aaron Corcoran, Haleh Abghari, Jena Mccollum, Esther Lamidi, Suman Lakkakula, Assma Sawani, Martin Key, David Moon, Christina Jimenez, Elisa Thompson, Dylan Harris, Grant Clayton, Claire Rau, Jessi Smith, Solveig Olsen, Cortny Stark, Lei Zhang, Curtis Turner, Karen Markel, Minette Church, Larry Eames, Yvonne Wu, Phillip Haisley, Monica Yoo, Adham Atyabi, Robin Kempf

CALL TO ORDER / APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Motion to approve the minutes from September 9, 2022 meeting by David Moon

Seconded by Robin Kempf

Motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstained

REPORTS OF VISITORS:

Nancy Marchand-Martella, for the Chancellor

Provost Nancy Marchand-Martella spoke on behalf of Chancellor Venkat Reddy—the campus appears to be more vibrant, with students and staff participating in in-person events. Athletic events are back in full swing, and the next Board of Regents meeting is happening on our campus the first week of November and we will be highlighting our athletics and activities at that event. We hope faculty participated in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) community dialogues, Vice Chancellor of DEI, Rame Hanna was excited about those that participated in one for the Provost area.

We have a new police chief, Dwayne McCarver, starting on Monday, October 17. We also have a new Vice Chancellor of Enrollment starting on November 1st. The Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance search will also continue as a rolling-search. The Cabinet continues to understand/respond to faculty and staff needs and provide recognition.

We are partnering with Pueblo Community College on an Engineering degree, Pikes Peak State College, and other community colleges. Working with city and county officials on capital construction efforts and education opportunities for their employees. Engaging with military officials to help with cyber security space programs.

Suzanne Scott, Executive Director, Budget

Suzanne spoke on behalf of Karl Spiecker, Interim VCAF, and provided an update on the overview with Dean’s on the FY23 Budget Allocation Model (BAM), will continue to review the model and focus on implementing changes. This is the year to start building procedures, timelines and tools that are needed in the model to be successful. Unfortunately, we did not meet the targeted enrollment numbers this fall due to mix; however, we did meet our revenue budget for the fall, but to be cautious in the spring to hit both enrollment and revenue numbers. The groundbreaking on the Engineering Annex has begun and we expect it to be completed by January 2025. We have begun work on the merit increases, that’ll be effective on January 1st, 2023, and the poll is 3%, and not 3% across the board. The parking fee was waived for this past year. For FY24 budget           planning, we’ll be looking at tuition rate increases, state support, mandated cost increases which will be reviewed this November and finalized in February 2023.

Nancy Marchand-Martella, Provost

Provost Nancy Marchand-Martella provided an update on the search for Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and closing on the final candidate. A Faculty Relations person will be hired as well and will be handling faculty records. The Provost asked the Faculty Assembly for their feedback on the need for a Grievance Committee, who will be tasked with meeting faculty needs. The Provost is also looking into new revenue idea streams with the colleges, publishing faculty at a high level have a higher percentage of doctoral students and hitting large scale grants.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President’s Report

Report of the President-Elect

No Report.

Report of the Past-President

No Report.

Educational Policy and University Standards (EPUS)

Personnel & Benefits

No Report.

Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget

No Report.

Faculty Equity and Inclusion Committee

Faculty Assembly Women’s Committee

No Report.

IRC Faculty

No Report.

Faculty Assembly Committee on Teaching

No Report.

PRIDE

No Report.

Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities

No Report.

Committee on Research  

No Report.

Intercollegiate Athletics

No Report.

Sustainability Committee

Committee on Disability

Representative Reports

An update was reported by a College of Business representative regarding the testing center, which faculty are discussed separating the testing center for students with disabilities and testing center. There have been issues for students retaking courses on computers and there has been a lengthy waiting period for students with disabilities. The Faculty Assembly President asked other faculty members to collect responses to determine if this issue exists in the other colleges. Gordon Stringer mentioned that in the past, there were separate testing centers more than 20 years ago and due to budget issues both testing and disabilities center were merged. This has put pressure on the disability centers to service regular students and serve their mission.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

No unfinished business. 

NEW BUSINESS:

Academic Affairs Policy Development Report see attached

Motion 1: Vote to delay the Faculty Governance policy (200-15) revision (see attached revised policy in Appendix A) until November for more time.

Motion to delay the Faculty Governance policy (200-15):

Motion passed with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 4 abstained

Discussion Item: Research Task Force Report Recommendations Updates on Implementation

The Provost established the Research Faculty Task Force, which came up with a task force report that was presented towards the end of last spring, following up on the strategic plan and last year’s surveys on where people are feeling low. Discussions with the Deans and the Provost in the council meeting which brought up three discussion items: 30 credit hours of individualized revenue construction offload, new hire 2.2 comprehensive review, and renegotiation load post-tenure in a more robust way. The solutions will be equitably addressed across all.

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Robin Kempf

Seconded by Clair Rau

Motion passed unanimously

Meeting adjourned at 1:47 pm.