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 The Arts and Sciences Council, February 19, 2019, 3:30-5:00, UMC 247

Meeting Minutes

Representatives present: Barbara Buttenfield, GEOG; Cathy Comstock, RAPS; James Cowell, LING; Tanja Cuk, CHEM; Françoise Duresse-Stimilli, AAH; Erica Ellingson, APS; Michaele Ferguson, PSCI; John Gibert, CLAS; Jim Goodrich, BCHM; Paul Gordon, HUMN; Gerardo Gutierrez, ANTH; Juan Herrero-Senes, SPAN; Leslie Irvine, SOCY; Berit Janey, GSLL; Daniel Jones, HNRS; Julie Lundquist, ATOC; Matt McQueen, IPHY; Akira Miyake, PSYC; Stephen Mojzsis, GEOL; Christina Meyers-Denman, SLHS; Lonni Pearce, PWR;  Evelyn Shih, ALC; David Stock, EBIO; Deborah Whitehead, RLST; Masano Yamashita, FRIT

Representatives not present: Daniel Appelö, APPM; Kwame Holmes, ETHN; Jon Hughes, ECON; Janet Jacobs, WGST; Dan Kaufman, PHIL; Joanna Lambert, ENVS; Ramesh Mallipeddi, ENGL; Patricia Rankin, PHYS; Hanna Shell, CINE; Ted Stark, THDN; Rob Tubbs, MATH; ; Tim Weston, HIST; Ding Xue, MCDB;

Ex-officios: present: Sarah Altshuler, UCSG; Robert Ferry, BFA; Alicia Turchette, SAC

Also in attendance: Catherine Cartwright; Vilja Hulden; HIST; Samantha Martin; Elaine Paul; Janet Rupert; Peter Shaffery; Kristy Tiampo, GEOL; Jim White, A&S

The meeting was called to order at 3:31p.m.

Chairs remarks, Stephen Mojzsis

A faculty vote on the bylaws will be coming up before the end of the semester. A survey on the ASC will be sent out this week.

Mojzsis welcomed representatives from the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA), College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI), student government and staff advisory groups.

Nominations are being accepted for ASC chair for the 2019-2020 academic year. It is a one-year appointment with the possibility of renewal for three terms. Mojzsis will accept a nomination for a 3rd term. The vote will be at the April meeting.

The government shutdown was recently averted but our DACA students remain in limbo.

Dean’s remarks, Jim White

Dean White asked the representatives to follow the progress of the Academic Futures 2 Online Strategy Working Group chaired by Robert McDonald. Dean White is chairing the Interdisciplinary Teaching, Research and Creative Work Committee; this is still forming. These groups are campus-wide and will have implications for all faculty.

The Provost met with the Committee on Academic Reorganization recently but hasn’t made any announcement as to the direction the campus will be taking. Provost Moore has asked for time during the March 12 Chairs and Directors meeting so the college may get more information then.

The campus Growth Enrollment Model is how the financial office allocates money as the campus grows. Dean White has asked that the Natural Sciences be allocated similarly to Engineering as they are more expensive classes to run. The money, approximately $300,000-$400,000 won’t be transformative but will make the point that our classes are not homogenous; there are more and less expensive parts of the college. Dean White should have an answer in two weeks.

Instructor Task Force will have a report ready in March.

There was a question about the Program in Exploratory Studies which is the alternative college renamed. The College of Arts and Sciences teaches these students. The idea is to give a home to students who haven’t picked a major. Identifying these students will also give the college a chance to recruit them.

Online Education Committee report, Vilja Hulden

The Committee’s report was previously distributed and may be found here: .

Hulden spoke on a few major points of the report:

• Online courses are growing and there is demand for more; and
• The most important focus is to make the online courses of good quality.

The committee has one recommendation: To ensure curricular oversight by the faculty and uniform practices regarding quality of online instruction across the college, we recommend that all College of Arts and Sciences online courses be subject to review and approval by the curriculum committee.

The committee also made two suggestions: Allow regular faculty (TT and non-TT) to teach online courses as part of fulfilling their contractual teaching obligations; and define criteria that online courses must meet in order to be approved by the curriculum committee.

The meeting was opened for discussion. The assembled representatives discussed types of courses online, department responsibilities for course review, limiting class sizes, instructor need to study online pedagogy, fees, and limits on credit hours among other issues with online courses.

Hulden asked the representatives to share the information with their departments and e-mail her with feedback: Vilja.Hulden@colorado.edu.

Mojzsis suggested taking the report to the Executive Committee and then back to the ASC for endorsement, and if endorsed, move forward on recommendations. There were no objections to this course of action. 

AAC Faculty Advisory Committee, David Stock

At the January ASC meeting, Lily Board from Academic Advising mentioned a faculty advisory committee to the AAC; an idea brought to her by the ASC Planning Committee. The Executive Committee is interested the structure this would take, an ad hoc committee of the ASC or a committee independent of the ASC. Professor Stock asked the assembled representatives if anyone had an opinion. 

It was suggested that a committee that is affiliated with the ASC would have a body to get feedback from. There were no objections to forming an ASC ad hoc AAC faculty advisory committee. Dean White and Mojzsis will work together to recruit members.

Activities of the ASC’s Strategic Plan Task Force, Michaele Ferguson & Elaine Paul

Ferguson thanks the Staff Advisory Committee, Mojzsis and the students for nominating the task force’s members: 5 staff members, 5 faculty members and 3 undergraduates. On the week of February 11 they worked to gather documents such as the Strategic Plan, climate surveys across campus, college reorganization white papers and other documents that would help inform the process. Now the task force is focused of changes to the Strategic Plan that may be recommended. The weeks of February 25 and March 4 the task force will be considering the implementation process. The task force plans to present to the ASC during the March meeting.

The group has divided into groups to cover culture, teaching and research. They will soon be meeting with Hillary Potter help find ways to incorporated inclusion in the process.

The meeting was opened to questions.

ASC’s Instructors Task Force update

Mojzsis read from a report prepared by Rolf Norgaard, chair of the Instructors Task Force. The task for is in the drafting phase of the report, they hope to have a draft ready for the ASC chair and Dean. They hope to have the report ready for the March ASC meeting then to have the report made public. That will give the college time for implementation. One of the recommendations of the report will be to have an ASC Faculty Affairs Standing Committee with a strong representation of instructors. Dean White has asked the task force to remain together to consider implementation. 

Budget report, Andy Cowell

Cowell represented the Budget Committee to report on that committee’s discussion on the BFA’s resolution to support the graduate students request to waive fees. The committee looked at comparable institutions’ graduate fees and ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä is among the highest with no availability of fee waivers. A preliminary calculation of the revenue the graduate fees bring in is 4.5 million dollars which equals over 2 years of the college’s normal budget growth. Issues the Budget Committee considered on this subject:

• How would the campus make up for this loss in revenue if graduate fees are waived: an increase in tuition?
• Do students want all the services provided by the fees and should they be the group that votes to get rid of them?
• Are some fees locked in on a contractual basis for instance the rec center expansion: did students vote for that?
• All fees are not equal e.g. 12.00 for career services and 288.00 for student activities.
• Are some fees services the university should provide: 34.00 for student compution?
• Fees do give the students control over how the money is spent
• The benefits of fees are different: health insurance vs capital construction
• Who would benefit from a fee waiver?  GPTI’s, TA’s RA’s, fellowship students of should it benefit all graduate students?

In summary, Cowell said the Budget Committee is sympathetic to the position of the graduate students and feels the fees should be looked at in detail, fee by fee to analyze benefits, costs and the possible unintended consequences of waiving any fee.

Committee on Rights and Compensation, Peter Shaffery, Janet Rupert

Shaffery and Rupert started by addressing a few of the Budget Committee’s concerns:

• The CRC agrees that the problem of high fees isn’t solved by treating the fees as a monolith.
• The Rec Center expansion was voted on by the student body in 2011 to fund a 30-year bond. Graduate students make up only a 6th of the student population so they don’t have much of a voice in these votes.
• Some fees, for instance the health fee, go to a single purpose. The student activity fees is more fractured; it funds many areas including the UMC, the Distinguished Speakers Board, the Environmental Center. Many different services that have different impacts on the graduate student population.
• The CRC doesn’t favor an opt-out option as they feel most services are important and should be funded.

The CRC wants to see the question of graduate fees discussed and some action taken. The students see big changes when faculty stands up for students. The floor was opened for discussion. The issues discussed included undergraduate support of graduate fee issues, fees and recruitment, communication of fees in graduate student offer letters.

The BFA is supporting the UGGS call for consideration of the issues.

The Budget Committee report will be distributed.

Jason Shelton, College of Arts & Sciences, Director of Recruitment, Office of Academic Affairs

Shelton noted that he is the inaugural director of recruitment for the college while all other colleges on campus have that that position for at least 2 years. This position reports to Daryl Maeda, Associate Dean for Student Success and his roll is to connect the college to central admission and identify gaps in what admissions is doing and what the college needs to do. The college has new brochures, better visibility to scholarship opportunities, and Mr. Shelton will also be the department’s liaison to central admissions. Lists of admitted students will be going to the departments. He invited faculty to visit his office in Old Main and will also be visiting the departments. He wants to help recruit the best students.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:02.