Faculty Assembly

Minutes
Faculty Representative Assembly Meeting
May 8, 1998

Attendance:  Douglas Swartzendruber, Tom Zwirlein, Charlie Shub, Doris
Carey, Harlow Sheidley, Joe Zumalt, Mary Hagedorn, Mark Malone, Rex
Welshon, Teresa Jillson, Richard Blade, Eric Olson, Paul Harvey, Tom
Napierkowski, Diana Cook.

Guests:  Chancellor Linda Bunnell Shade, David Moon, Jan Tharp, Ron Fitz.

I. WELCOME - DOUGLAS SWARTZENDRUBER

Swartzendruber welcomed everyone to the May Faculty Representative Assembly
meeting.  He thanked and commended everyone for their participation this
year.  Swartzendruber thanked those people who have agreed to be
representatives again for the coming year.  He recognized Richard Blade as
the new president-elect.

II. COMMENTS FROM THE CHANCELLOR - CHANCELLOR LINDA BUNNELL SHADE

The Chancellor commended Swartzendruber and other officers for this past
year.  A lot of progress was made in faculty governance and the Chancellor
expressed her appreciation of the time and effort that was put forth.

We are being pushed very hard by the President on TLE goals and to put
those forward.  We are trying to work closely with our TLE implementation
team and still be consistent with the expectations of the President.  One
of the problems for the President is the Regents' budget/planning retreat
which is the time the President has to focus the Regents on basically the
agenda for the system for the next year or multi-year.  President Buechner
has done a very good job of putting the issues before the Regents rather
than letting them come up with the ideas they have and would like to see.
President Buechner is very experienced at leading a board in a positive way.

The five strategic goals the Chancellor will be sharing with the Regents are:

1. The first has to do with our becoming a truly residential campus and
serving the needs of students throughout the state and country in terms of
the number of students increasing rapidly who want a four year college
education.  That figure alone in the state of Colorado is a 20% increase.
By serving students we will also support our own efforts achieving some
critical mass here and moving to 10,000 students by 2005, 25% of which will
come from out of state.
2. The second goal has to do with the core curriculum and there are a group
of people who are already working on that which supports our recruitment
and retention efforts.
3. The third goal has to do with strengthening existing majors and adding
those new majors that we might need to support various aspects of the
community.  One of those areas is the sports studies.
4. The fourth has to do with strengthening research, strengthening faculty
capacity in times for research.
5. The fifth has to do with integrating technology to teaching first here
on campus and then at a distance.

All of those build off of what we do in a way that will really change and
position this campus and the University of Colorado as far ahead of many
institutions in the country.

The campaign goal for phase one is 7.5 million.  Our total goal for the
entire campaign will be 30 million dollars.  We already have 8.4 million
dollars of that 30 million in the bank.  We are making progress on the
support funds that we will need to raise for the Library Communication
Technology Building. 

The TLE campaign priorities are:  1) Scholarships.  Last fall we had 1,000
students whose needs for financial aid we could not meet.  These are people
who qualify but lack financial aid.  We had run out of financial aid by the
time they applied for it.  2) Faculty Support.  We are looking at endowed
chairs, looking at support for research, looking at support for
sabbaticals, travel, etc.  3) Facilities.  The first priority here is
private dollars for the Library Communication Technology Building.  The
Human Performance Complex with Beth-El being the first priority within
that.  There will be other efforts to raise private dollars for a theatre
and gallery of art, as well as a field house.

The Chancellor is pleased that the students voted to expand the University
Center.  That will contribute in many ways to make the campus a place where
people will want to stay and it will contribute to the quality of
residential life.  Residential life is not just an issue for students.  A
strong residential life has speakers, lecturers, arts programs, and
opportunities for the community.   You can go a long way in recruiting and
retaining faculty with a vital intellectual community outside the classroom
where there is always something going on.  It is something that will
enhance the quality of education that we offer here.  The University Center
expansion will make much of that possible.  The Chancellor is requesting an
auditorium/lecture hall in the Human Performance Complex that will seat
500-800 people.

Swartzendruber thanked the Chancellor for her cooperation and support
toward faculty governance and the faculty in general.

III. COMMENTS FROM THE VCAA'S OFFICE - DAVID MOON

The TLE committee is working on trying to integrate the things we already
had in place with the TLE goals.  The committee now has a framework that
will allow them to not worry too much if something is a strategy or an
objective or a goal or a mission, etc.   The committee's real task is to
oversee implementation.

Dr. Pierce has had a positive response to his first year.

Swartzendruber announced that the invitations to serve on the general
education committee have gone out electronically.  Hopefully there will be
one meeting before the end of the year to talk about what is going to be
done in the coming year for general education.

IV. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - DOUGLAS SWARTZENDRUBER

The Foundation is undergoing a reorganization with some people leaving.  It
looks like they will be hiring people with a bit of different expertise and
different connections with working directly with the Deans.

The Chancellor said she is planning to organize the Foundation and
University Relations in an overall advancement function so the two
interrelate and mutually support each other.

Swartzendruber noted the SIS system is being looked at with a possibility
of being replaced.  Consultants will be on campus on May 19th looking for
input.

The sports presence in this community is of a big interest here.  The
university along with local and national entities have been discussing the
possibility of a significant human performance complex on north Nevada that
would include recreational facilities, rehabilitation facilities, wellness
facilities, facility for Beth-El, a sports science facility, and general
purpose classrooms.  It is a large project.  A feasibility study and a
market analysis is being done.  It is something that would take a number of
years to develop to its fullest.

The response on the administrative evaluations was 106.  Don Morley will be
tabulating the results.

V. COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. EPUS - TOM NAPIERKOWSKI

Napierkowski said he has been very pleased with the EPUS committee this
year.  They have worked very hard and the committee members have put in a
lot of time.

Earlier in the semester the committee spent a lot of time putting together
recommendations concerning general education for the Vice Chancellor.

The last month or so the committee has been working on the post tenure
review document.  Committee members have consulted with Faculty Council
members concerning the document.  Also, they have submitted the document to
the AAUP.  The gentleman Napierkowski spoke with at AAUP didn't think too
highly of the document regarding it as having a greater emphasis on
sanctions rather than development.

The committee passed a general principle which reads "Interpretation of all
documents pertaining to post-tenure review at the University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs shall be informed and implemented according to the 'AAUP
Standards for Good Practice in Post-Tenure Review,' to which all actions
shall adhere."  With that in mind, the committee is looking very closely at
the document, almost line by line.  While the committee cannot re-write it,
they are going to deconstruct it in a way that is not hostile and with an
emphasis on peer review and development that protects faculty rights.

What seems to on the horizon for EPUS is scheduling modules, distance
learning and grading policies.  EPUS will be happy to work with the
instructors as they work on the instructors bill of rights.

Swartzendruber commended EPUS for having a representative (Mark Malone) to
the system-wide EPUS. 

Malone said the system-wide EPUS is dealing with the program discontinuance
which has gone from the Regents policy to the administrative
implementation.  They are working on the language.

B. BUDGET/UBAC - RICHARD BLADE

UBAC is in the last stages of deliberations before they make very specific
dollar recommendations.  Unfortunately they have not reached the point
where they are dealing with the real dollars.  They are still trying to
understand where the deficits come from.  Blade provided a handout giving
some of the assumptions UBAC is working on.  They are going through the
long term budget principles to try to set up a better system in the future.

C. PERSONNEL AND BENEFITS - CHARLIE SHUB

The committee made some recommendations about faculty scholarships.
Swartzendruber said as it states now the funds should be within the CU
system, a person should be awarded scholarships for no more than four
years, it should only be used for the first undergraduate degree, and it is
for faculty dependent children.

Shub said the committee recommended that the funds should be limited to
high school graduates and limited to students who are not on academic
probation.  The committee's understanding is that the money is totaled and
divided annually in the fall with the number of applicants and the amount
of dollars.  Swartzendruber said this is vending machine revenues.

It was moved and seconded that the faculty scholarships be limited to high
school or GED graduates.  Motion passed unanimously.

Shub presented a motion from the committee that if a student is receiving a
faculty scholarship and is put on academic probation, the faculty
scholarship is withdrawn from that student for the next semester.  This
scholarship is considered financial aid and is not merit based nor need
based.  After discussion, motion failed.

It was moved by Carey and seconded by Blade that the faculty scholarship be
limited to 8 semesters (including summer semesters) per student.  After
discussion, motion passed.

Shub said the representatives to the Benefits Oversight Committee sent
e-mail to all faculty and staff outlining some proposed cuts in the
benefits package which are being proposed by the benefits officers to try
to reduce costs.  The committee would like some input.  There is an issue
as costs go up as to whether the university should raise the amount of
money they are contributing to the health package.  It seems like the
Benefits Oversight Committee is not the appropriate place to look at this
issue.  This probably belongs somewhere else but no one seems to know
where.  We would like, as faculty, to see some principles that a certain
portion of the health plan be paid by the employer.  The Chancellor said it
is actually the legislature that sets the amount.

Shub said there is a task force on re-doing some of the retirement options.
They are tossing around a phased retirement which is close to closure.  It
is a benefit available for tenured faculty.  Age plus years of service
totaling 75 and at least 55 years old which allows an arrangement to work
up to 3 years at a net of 50% time.  The institutional contribution toward
health premiums would be as if you are a full-time employee and the
institutional contribution toward your mandatory retirement would be as if
you are a full-time employee.  They are also looking at a targeted
handshake which would be used as a management tool to impact turnover in
departments.

D. ACADEMIC COMPUTING POLICY COMMITTEE - DORIS CAREY

The committee had their 18th and final meeting.  Carey provided handouts
which contains four motions from the committee.

Motion:  "That congratulations be officially extended to Jeremy Haeffner
for his achievements and awards."  Motion seconded.  Motion passed
unanimously.

Motion:  "That Faculty Representative Assembly authorize the ACPC to
produce a first draft of guidelines for all faculty/all staff e-mail
lists."  Motion seconded.  Discussion followed.  The committee does not
want to direct anyone to stop any type of behavior.  They feel
professionals can decide for themselves what they feel is important,
however, it may be helpful now to have some guidelines.  A sample of a
guideline is that if you send out an announcement, only do it once (unless
you are making corrections).  The committee would like to take in some
concerns about ways they can use to shorten the traffic.  One change would
be a request to computing services to change the automatic default response
to reply to all recipients be changed to no.  Motion passed unanimously.

The committee is concerned with communication problems in computing
services.  Lots of examples of crashes and breakdowns, running out of
memory.  Concerns are being passed on to Tom Huber for the Task Force on
Technology Services.

The committee will be requesting a meeting with the newly-hired
instructional designer who is responsible for faculty development in
instructional technology.  The committee would like to know how
professional development needs will be determined or met.

Motion:  "That Faculty Rep Assembly designate the appropriate committee for
examining issues related to intellectual property rights related to on-line
courses and course material pertaining to distance education curriculum."
Motion seconded.  Discussion followed.  More and more faculty across the
nation are designing course materials for delivery on the web.  For one
hour of instruction you may be coding for a hundred hours.  Once it is up
there, it is not yours any more.  Contract companies can end up owning the
code and universities can own the materials.  Motion passed unanimously.

Motion:  "That computing services allow access to faculty e-mail account
does not require long-distance telephone charges."  Motion seconded.
Discussion followed.  Faculty are concerned that their colleagues all over
the U.S. can easily gain access to their e-mail accounts during summer and
when traveling professionally by dialing a local telnet number, but this
access is denied to UCCS faculty.  While faculty share computing services'
concerns about security, it seems that campuses all over the country have
managed to provide both security and reasonable access.  Blade would like
to have a slip connection.  Motion passed unanimously.

E. MINORITY AFFAIRS - NO REPORT

F. INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS - CHARLIE SHUB

The banquet is tomorrow night with about 400 people attending.  The
committee met yesterday.  Student government approved a mountain lion
mascot.  There was a discussion on how to kick that off.

G. WOMEN'S COMMITTEE - HARLOW SHEIDLEY

The Women's Committee is hosting a reception this coming Monday, 4:30-6:00
p.m. in the art gallery. 

The committee has been meeting with the VCAA and discussing the
establishing of a mentoring program.

The committee is planning a search for the Director of Women's Studies.

VIII. OTHER BUSINESS

On behalf of the Faculty Representative Assembly and all the faculty Carey
thanked Swartzendruber and Zwirlein for all the hours they have spent on
their behalf this year and for the progress towards the important issues.

IX. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

© University of Colorado at Colorado Springs | Copyright | Privacy Statement | Vision and Values