September 2017
September 2017
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
September 8, 2017
Attendance: Tom Christensen, Susan Szpyrka, Maja Krakowiak, Melissa Benton, Barbara Prinari, Norah Mazel, Pam Carter, Rhonda Glazier, Margaret Hunt, Carole Traylor, Martin Key, Matt Metzger, Andrea Bingham, Joe Wehrman, Patty Witkowsky, Jugal Kalita, Les Tekamp, Michelle Dorne, Suzanne Cook, Leah Chandler Mills, David Diamond, David Havlick, Leilani Feliciano, Andrew Lac, Sarah Treschl, Glen Whitehead, Kristi McCann, Wendy Haggren, Nicole Huber, Kathrin Spendier, Joel Tonyan, Monica Yoo, Christine Robinson Coon, Dave Anderson
Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve the minutes from May 5, 2017 meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Monica Yoo
Motion passed with 26 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstentions
Reports of Visitors:
Tom Christensen, Provost:
The two Town Hall meetings on Academic Excellence that the Chancellor just conducted on campus had good attendance turnouts and were well received. Many comments, suggestions and ideas were shared by everyone who participated. We will be having follow-up meetings, so watch for announcements with more information soon.
Susan Szpyrka, Sr. Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance:
We are just getting the census data in and we are up more in head count (12,422 students, which is +3.6%) than student credit hours (which is +3.2%) compared to last year. We are down in international students and are still sorting through resident and non-resident status, which is affected by military affiliation. New freshmen are down slightly (-1.75%) from last year, however, last year we had record high growth of 25%. The first meeting of UBAC will be held next week and all the information and meeting minutes will be posted on their website. The ENT Center for the Arts new building is on schedule for a January 2018 opening and on budget. We have successfully hired a replacement for Gary Reynold's position and an announcement will be coming out soon.
Officer Reports:
Vice President's Report
No report
Past President's Report
No report; suggestion for a taskforce on academic excellence
Reports from Standing Committees:
Personnel & Benefits:
No report; have not met yet
Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget:
No report; have not met yet
Faculty Minority Affairs Committee
Non-Tenure Track Faculty:
No report; have not met yet
Intercollegiate Athletics:
No report; have not met yet; Jackie Berning has stepped down from the committee
Sustainability:
No report; have not met yet
PRIDE:
No report; have not met yet
Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities:
Not present - no report
Reports from Representatives:
None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
None
NEW BUSINESS:
Motion 1:
The Educational Policy and University Standards Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly endorse APS 200-025: Intellectual Property that is Educational Materials.
(Motion passed with 21 in favor, 0 opposed and 10 abstentions)
Background for Motion 1:
This policy has been developed and must be adopted in order for UCCS to implement the CU System's APS 1014 (which shares the same name). See the EPUS Committee's report for further information.
Motion 2:
The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee moves that the Faculty Representative Assembly adopt the new FCQ for use beginning in Fall 2017.
(Motion failed with 5 in favor, 20 opposed and 6 abstentions)
Background for Motion 2:
Full information about the FCQ redesign process can be found on their website.
In addition to considering the questions themselves, other issues that involved much discussion were using a 5-point scale rather than an even scale and whether to include a N/A option. Both of these have been adopted. The base questions are included, and departments can add up to 5 additional questions customized to their needs.
The FCQ committee sought to use or adapt questions derived from various sources that focused more on observable classroom teaching behaviors. For instance, instead of asking a student if they learned a lot, the new FCQ asks:
• I was encouraged to reflect on what I was learning
• I was encouraged to evaluate arguments, evidence, assumptions and conclusions about key issues
These questions are more focused than a general learning question and are intended to provide professors with meaningful information about where they can improve their classroom practices.
In general, the new FCQ questions were created from questions asked by other institutions, from the National Survey of Student Engagement, and from questions asked in previous research studies. A list of references can be found on the redesign website. Further, the most recent version of the FCQ was reviewed, in part, by the CU Boulder Discipline Based Educational Research (DBER) group - an interdisciplinary group of professors who seek to improve STEM-based educational practices through research.
Additional Discussion:
The questionnaire needs to be accepted by Faculty Assembly. At this time, we believe CU Boulder will be adopting these base questions. There was much discussion concerning this issue and some points made were: 1) no course content, 2) questions do not apply to all courses, 3) need revisions to come up with more evenly applicable questions for all disciplines, 4) how are they going to be used for evaluations? Based on the extensive discussion, a recommendation was made to initiate a process to revise these set of questions, which led to the creation of Motion 3 for a FRA vote.
Motion 3:
The Faculty Representative Assembly recommends that a process be initiated to revise the questions in the current FCQs.
(Motion passed with 29 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions)
Discussion 1:
Current state of Canvas pilot - Dave Anderson reported that it is going well and there are 90 courses in the system without any problems. He would like to have FRA's endorsement to switch to Canvas for the campus LMS. This will be brought to vote at the next meeting.
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Pam Carter
Seconded by Dave Anderson
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:50 p.m.