September 2022

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING

September 9, 2022

Attendance: Venkat Reddy, Susan Taylor, Suzanne Scott, Minette Church, Monica Yoo, Karin Larkin, David Moon, Jian Ma, Henriikka Weir, Lynn Gates, Melissa Benton, Kathy Prue-Owens, Assma Sawani, Martin Key, Cortny Stark, Elisa Thompson, Curtis Turner, Adham Atyabi, Darshika Perera, Jena McCollum, Craig Bubeck, Suzanne Cook, Solveig Olsen, Kristi McCann, Haleh Abghari, Claire Rau, Dylan Harris, Suman Lakkakula, Emily Mooney, Erica Allgood, Aaron Corcoran, Lei Zhang, Ilaheva Tuaone, Matthew Jabaily, Kate Quintana, Farida Khan, Norah Mazel, Christina Jimenez, Esther Lamidi, Laura Eurich, Scott van Ness, Larry Eames, Robin Kempf, David Weiss, Grant Clayton, Heather Albanesi, Christine Biermann, Mike Kisley

Call to Order / Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve the minutes from May 6, 2022 meeting by Minette Church
Seconded by Karin Larkin
Motion passed with 28 in favor, 0 opposed and 4 abstentions

Reports of Visitors:

Venkat Reddy, Chancellor: 
The Chancellor reported virtually from the CU Anschutz campus since he was there attending the Board of Regents meeting.  It is very good to see lots of campus activity for Fall.  Although we are 3.8% down on enrollment, we are making progress on non-resident and international student categories.  Rame Hanna, the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is having dialogues with faculty, staff and students.  The groundbreaking for the new Anschutz Engineering Center expansion went well and the Tree of Peace was incorporated agreeably into the annex expansion.  UCCS has been recognized as a military-friendly school for the last 4 years, and now that distinction has been expanded to include military spouses as well.  We have welcomed our new Provost, Nancy Marchand-Martella, and our new College of Education Dean, Henrietta Pichon, over the summer.  Our new Chief of Police will start on October 1, 2022.  We do have an offer out for the new Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and we hope to hear back soon.  We are also searching for a new Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities and are ready for campus visits for the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance candidates, who will be announced the day before their visit.  The Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources search will start soon after that.

Susan Taylor, Vice Provost & Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning: 
Susan Taylor presented the report for Provost Nancy Marchand-Martella since she was attending the Board of Regents meeting.  The search for the new Vice Provost & AVC for Faculty Affairs is underway.  This position includes broad areas of faculty emphasis, so watch for announcements on candidate visits.  Nancy will be providing a roll-out plan of action soon with Institutional Research.  Assistance will be provided in the interim.  We are focused on policies and procedures surrounding a differential workload for faculty.  The Office of Research and OSPRI want faculty to know that they have new people resources and programs to assist with grant writing, including new software for proposals, so please contact them for assistance.  There are also many workshops being offered by the Office of Research.  We are also looking at cluster hiring initiatives and an online presence for the Grad School.  The provost’s report is attached for further reference.

Suzanne Scott, Budget Director: 
We projected our FY23 budget with an enrollment decline of 1.8%, but we’re down 3.8% currently.  We are down in SCH activity, but there is a possibility that even with being down, we could break even from a tuition revenue budgetary perspective if we have a strong mix of non-resident students.  We will be taking budget cuts from previous years.  A lot depends on census and SCH.  We are now live in BAM, and system work is now being done on the final FY23 budget.

Officer Reports:

President’s Report
Be sure to review the information on the Rising Star applications:

President-Elect’s Report
No report

Past President’s Report
No report

Reports from Standing Committees:

EPUS

Personnel & Benefits:
No report – have not met yet

Faculty Advisory Committee on the Budget

Faculty Equity and Inclusion Committee:
No report

Women’s Committee

IRC Faculty:
Verbal report – update on IRC policy and procedure around promotions and multi-year contracts; promotion policy approved; deans need to work within each college

Faculty Assembly Committee on Teaching:
No report

PRIDE:
No report – have not met yet

Intercollegiate Athletics:
No report

Sustainability:
No report – have not met yet

Committee on Disability:
No report

Misconduct in Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities
No report

Committee on Research
No report – have not met yet

Reports from Representatives:

General comments were made concerning class size determination, which is done within each college – calculation is based on pool of what is being paid and also based on student need.  It was also mentioned that staff are overwhelmed by assisting faculty with grants.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

Discussion Item: – IRC faculty issues with morale and retention, and representation on the FA Executive Committee
Several points were discussed including the retention issue, professional development recognition, heavy teaching and service loads, and being included for involvement and representation.  There is also a possibility of changing titles.  It was also mentioned that housing and childcare assistance would be helpful.  After Covid issues and then budget issues, there is low morale everywhere.  IRC faculty want input and feedback and possible involvement to include representation on the FA Executive Committee.  It was determined that Laura Eurich will serve as the IRC faculty representative on the FA Executive Committee in a temporary role for this year.

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn the Faculty Assembly Meeting by Laura Eurich
Seconded by Christina Jimenez
Motion passed unanimously
Meeting adjourned at 1:58 p.m.