September 2021

September 2021

September 2021

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING

September 10, 2021

Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Kelli Klebe, Mathew Cox, David Moon, Minette Church, Norah Mazel, David Weiss, Andrea Hutchins, Lynn Gates, Fernando Feliu-Moggi, Margaret Hunt, Deborah Kenny, Kathy Prue-Owens, Assma Sawani, Martin Key, James Van Scotter, Cortny Stark, Elisa Thompson, Curtis Turner, John Lindsey, Darshika Perera, Jena McCollum, Craig Bubeck, Suzanne Cook, David Diamond, Solveig Olsen, Kristi McCann, Kathrin Spendier, Claire Rau, Dylan Harris, Erica Allgood, Wendy Haggren, Lei Zhang, Ilaheva Tuaone, Matthew Jabaily, Kate Angulski, Farida Khan, Thomas Aicher, Glen Whitehead, Stephen Suh, Laura Eurich, Scott van Ness, Larry Eames, Nick Tapia-Fuselier, Karin Larkin, Dave Anderson, Joel Tonyan

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve the minutes from May 7, 2021 meeting by Norah Mazel
Seconded by Minette Church
Motion passed with 28 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention

Reports of Visitors:

Venkat Reddy, Chancellor: 
Chancellor Reddy joined the meeting virtually from the Board of Regents meeting in Denver during a break.  He thanked the Faculty Assembly representatives for their patience, courage and compassion in welcoming the students to campus this academic year.  He also mentioned his appreciation for the collaboration with shared governance.  We predicted to be down in enrollment by 2.8%, and we are actually down 2.9%, but this figure is coming in alright with our budget and tuition mix.  We have restarted our COVID-19 weekly updates on Fridays starting today, and we are resuming our Town Halls.  The searches for the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Provost are moving along well.  We plan to bring finalists to campus for the VCDEI in October and finalists for the Provost position to campus in November.  The new Engineering Building Addition project should start construction in 2022 and we are moving forward with renovations to the Cybersecurity building based on donations.  The University of Colorado announced a signed partnership agreement with the U.S. Space Force, which just took place at the end of August.  We just opened the Kevin W. O’Neil Cybersecurity Education and Research Center, which was made possible by the gift money from alumnus, Kevin O’Neil.  We still do have the vaccine mandate in place, but we are only requiring proof for the students in the dorms.  The attestation form results continue to indicate high numbers of vaccinations.

Kelli Klebe, Interim Provost: 
(Interim Provost Klebe presented a combined report to include information from Vice Chancellor Litchfield since he was unable to attend today’s meeting).

Interim Provost Klebe expressed her appreciation for the work Faculty Assembly does in shared governance, and she’s looking forward to having deeper conversations on topics this semester with a commitment to open dialogue.  The weekly COVID e-mails as well as the COVID dashboard and website are updated regularly and will give more detailed information.  So far, there has been no transmission, but exposures have occurred.  Please remember to be compassionate to students in working with them on these COVID exposures in their families, etc.  There have been reports that faculty are not allowing students to make up work when they are under quarantine.  There have also been more reports to the CARE team in the first weeks of classes concerning suicide issues amid lots of stress.  Please check the CARE resource website for help for all faculty, staff and students.  Former Provost Tom Christensen is still working on Instructor promotions and multi-year contracts, campus RPT policy 200-001, and Dean reviews.  We’re also reviewing the post tenure review policy and IP Educational materials are being reviewed by the CU system.  CU Next, a system funded program to support proposals from faculty/staff for teaching innovation which includes collaboration across CU campuses, is coming soon.  Also, Project CREST is a NSF ADVANCE adaptation grant we received to support women’s research to gain positive impacts on their research experiences and productivity.  We have started working with department chairs about developing inclusive annual review criteria that is separate from RPT criteria.  The enrollment update is pretty good considering that we are down by about what we projected.  The freshmen class is bigger than last year; the returning students are down more; but all other categories are up.  We have more out-of-state students than expected.  We’ve also had large graduating classes and smaller incoming classes.  The FY22 Budget is set up and complete and being put into the new model.  The Primary Unit Advisory Committee will start working soon.  The timelines and processes are being developed for the model governance.

Mathew Cox, Senior Executive Director of Enrollment Management: 
Mathew wanted to express his appreciation to the faculty for their support of enrollment during this difficult year.  He wanted to thank them for engaging with the students in helping the students create better lives in such difficult times.

Officer Reports:

President’s Report

President-Elect’s Report
FRA surveys will be distributed each month; participation is appreciated

Past President’s Report
No report

Reports from Standing Committees:

EPUS

Personnel & Benefits
No report – has not met yet

Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget
No report – has not met yet

Faculty Minority Affairs Committee

Women’s Committee
No report

IRC Faculty

Teaching with Technology

PRIDE
No report

Intercollegiate Athletics
No report

Sustainability
No report – has not met yet

Committee on Disability
No report – has not met yet

Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities
No report

Committee on Research
No report – has not met yet

Reports from Representatives:

None

Open Discussion – floor was opened for general discussion, which was centered around the COVID vaccine policy; student attestations and possible penalties for non-completion; proof of vaccinations and exemptions.

FA President David Moon explained the new meeting process for this year’s Faculty Assemblies.  The FRA representatives will complete a survey each month in order to determine appropriate actions for the assembly meeting.  Consultation time will be established for the assembly, followed by action being initiated and decisions made collectively.  The key is everyone’s participation in the monthly survey.  Basically, the process can be described as “decide what we want to do and then do it.”

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

None

 

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Larry Eames
Seconded by Karin Larkin
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 2:02 p.m.