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The Arts and Sciences Council (ASC), September 23, 2019, 3:30-5:00, UMC 247

Meeting Minutes

Representatives present: Daniel Appelö, APPM; Tania Barham, ECON; Barbara Buttenfield, GEOG; James Cowell, LING; Françoise Duresse-Stimilli, AAH; Erica Ellingson, APS; Michaele Ferguson, PSCI; Gerardo Gutierrez, ANTH; Lew Harvey, PSYC; Peter Hunt, CLAS; Daniel Jones, HNRS; Dan Kaufman, PHIL; Robert Kuchta, BCHM; Angelica Lawson, ETHN; Ramesh Mallipeddi, ENGL; Matt McQueen, IPHY; Christina Meyers-Denman, SLHS; Stephen Mojzsis, GEOL; Cecilia Pang, THDN; Lonni Pearce, PWR;  Roger Pielke, ENVS; Patricia Rankin, PHYS; Evelyn Shih, ALC; David Stock, EBIO; Tim Weston, HIST; Annje Wiese, HUMN; Ding Xue, MCDB; Masano Yamashita, FRIT; Mike Zerella, RAPS

Representatives not present: Tanja Cuk, CHEM; Juan Herrero-Senes, SPAN; Leslie Irvine, SOCY; Alison Jaggar, WGST; Berit Jany, GSLL; Julie Lundquist, ATOC; Hanna Shell, CINE; Rob Tubbs, MATH; Rebecca Wartell, JWST; Deborah Whitehead, RLST

Ex-officios: present: Roshanne Ebrahimian, SAC; Robert Ferry, BFA; Melynda Slaughter, SAC; Kristy Tiampo, GEOL

Also in attendance: Jenny Schwartz, PSYC; Jim White, A&S

The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.

Chairs remarks, Stephen Mojzsis

Stephen Mojzsis welcomed the assembled representatives to the first ASC meeting of the academic year and introductions were made.

Given the likelihood of a college restructure as well as the University’s Accreditation self-study being underway, the ASC meetings are increasingly important. Mojzsis asked the representatives to think about what faculty governance should look like; the ASC has historically been a unit that reacts to administrative decisions that affect the professional lives of all faculty. Is the ASC able to go beyond this role and become more proactive?

The Faculty Advisory Board to the Academic Advising Center is meeting. This is a new group encouraged by Dean White and endorsed by the ASC. This group will report to the ASC at the end of the semester.

Mojzsis is a member of the Provost’s Faculty Governance Committee. He is currently meeting with department faculty to help explain the role of the ASC. Mojzsis also meets monthly with Dean White and he will be meeting with the divisional deans.

Dean’s remarks, Jim White

Dean White spoke of the College of Arts and Sciences goals for the academic year:

• Student success and stressing the roles of faculty and staff.
• Additional Academic Advisors: Dean White has pushed for additional advisors, since he has been Interim Dean; 12 advisors have been added; this year the college expects to add 5 more. The campus has been shouldering the majority of the costs.
• The Instructor Task Force Report: The Dean’s Office is preparing to implement several of the task force’s recommendations, including a return to 3-3 teaching load, if the expected funding is available. The lion’s share of the expected additional funds from the growth in the college will be spent on instructors. 
• Staff Issues: Dean White met with the Be Heard staff group and received recommendations to improve conditions for staff. 
• Publicizing the value of a liberal arts education: Dean White spent the summer traveling the state with this message. During the school year, the important audience will be high school students and counselors.
• Fundraising: Last year was the biggest year for the College of Arts and Sciences fundraising; over 30 million dollars.
• Recruiting: The College of Arts and Sciences is focusing on recruiting; departments will be getting lists of students who are interested in specific departments. The goal is to reduce students who don’t fit in the college.
• Moving away from a historic budget model to one that has more goals written into it.

The Dean’s Office is interested in solving organizational problems before the reorganization. The floor was opened to discussion.

Standing Committee updates

The Diversity Committee hasn’t met yet. They expect to be continuing last year’s work with the Curriculum Committee; reviewing courses that satisfy the Gen Ed diversity requirement and working on diversity and inclusivity statements for new hires.

The Budget Committee has met, once in the summer and a meeting in the fall. Ann Schmiesing and Carla Ho-a were guests at the recent meeting. The Budget Committee is working to improve transparency, encourage productive dialog with the campus, increased understanding of the base budget and clearing up the confusion over course fees. Committee chair Patricia Rankin welcomed questions from faculty.

The Planning Committee hasn’t met yet; last year was spent working with Academic Advising. The committee plans to meet with Dean White and Mojzsis to discuss possible areas of focus.

The Curriculum Committee has met and reviewed business left over from last year.

The Personnel Committee starts meeting next week. There is a heavy load of cases this year. Committee chair Kristy Tiampo is visiting departments to discuss the reappointment, promotion and tenure process. The process is now paperless.

The Online Education and Technology Committee hasn’t met yet. The committee expects to address online teaching as part of the regular teaching load and departmental and Curriculum Committee review of online courses. 

The assembled representatives discussed faculty responsibilities over curriculum and pedagogy. Mojzsis proposed the Online Committee consult with the Curriculum Committee and discuss possible policies to propose.

Proposal: ASC form an ad hoc committee "Faculty Affairs"

Mojzsis would like an ad hoc committee to form dealing with the implementation of the Instructor Task Force recommendations; many of which don’t apply solely to instructors but also to tenure track faculty and lecturers. As there were no objections from the representatives, Mojzsis will invite Rolf Norgaad and Jenny Knight from the Instructor Task Force to make the case for the new committee.

Proposal: Ad hoc committee to implement the College’s Strategic Plan

In April 2019, the Strategic Plan was endorsed by the ASC. Mojzsis proposed the ad hoc committee that was outlined in that report, also report to the Provost’s Faculty Governance, Budget and Structure Committees for the purpose of reminding them to consider the College’s Strategic Plan in their deliberations.

Proposal: Ad hoc committee to explore the role of Lecturers in the College and their relationship to the goals of the college’s Strategic Plan

In the end of the 2018/2019 academic year, the ASC endorsed the Instructor Task Force Report. In this report, lecturers were mentioned and lecturers attended the final meeting. Mojzsis would like to form a task force that will explore the role of lecturers and their relationship to the College’s Strategic Plan. Many lecturers feel underrepresented and work under very temporary conditions. Mojzsis would like to task the committee to gather data, e.g., how many lecturers are in the college, how long they’ve been in their departments, how many classes they teach.

Dean White said there are lecturers who teach 6-8 courses a year and should be instructors. There are costs to that transition as full time instructors are eligible for benefits; the Dean’s Office is identifying those costs.

Some lecturers are happy with their situation and others not; it is important to speak directly to lecturers and find out how many would prefer a more permanent situation. After information is gathered the committee would report to the ASC.

Looking ahead

Mojzsis asked the ASC if the new University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy should visit an ASC meeting. All such requests go through the Chancellor’s Office. There were no objections to asking President Kennedy to attend a meeting so Mojzsis will contact the Chancellor’s Office. The goal of this visit will be to let the President know the College of Arts and Sciences takes faculty governance seriously. 

Council invited to be heard.

In December the Provost will take the three recommendations from the Provost’s committees and has given the impression that he will only refuse recommendations if they are too costly.

The meeting was adjourned 4:53

Minutes submitted by Janice Jeffryes and approved 10-3-19.