抖阴旅行射 Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano on Thursday opened the February meeting of the Boulder Faculty Assembly鈥檚 general assembly with assurances that the campus would review how it partnered with the Boulder Police Department and communicated to the campus during the Feb. 1arrest of a UCLA lecturer wanted for threatening to commit acts of public violence.听
DiStefano and members of his team also gave updates on campus financial issues and ongoing efforts to contain the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.听
Arrest adjacent to campus
The chancellor told the assembly鈥撯�搈eeting for the first time since last semester鈥撯�搕hat Boulder police, as 鈥渋ncident managers,鈥� had control of the tactics and communications related to the arrest of Matthew Harris, formerly a post-doctoral student at UCLA and living in an apartment building directly across Broadway from the 抖阴旅行射 Boulder campus.听
DiStefano said the BPD had good intelligence that Harris 鈥渨as likely alone and unarmed鈥� and the chancellor thanked the campus community for responding to police instructions and making 鈥渁ccommodations for students who were affected by shelter-in-place orders.鈥澨�
Some students and other members of the campus community have criticized the university鈥檚 communications as being unclear and not sent to the campus early enough in the crisis.听
DiStefano told the BFA that communications to the campus were controlled and approved by Boulder police as the incident commanders managing the arrest of Harris.听
He pledged a full review of the procedures and communications around the incident鈥撯�揷ommunications that one BFA member said were vague.听
鈥淲e were told to avoid the area . . . are there any more plans to get more specific on 鈥榓void the area?鈥欌�� said Zach Herz of Classics.听
抖阴旅行射 Boulder Chief Operating Officer Patrick O鈥橰ourke, to whom the 抖阴旅行射PD reports, responded to Herz, saying the shelter in place order 鈥渨as to keep people from going into the area around the apartment building (where Harris lived) itself.鈥澨�
O鈥橰ourke said the university鈥檚 challenge is that it must communicate to large numbers of people using the campus鈥檚 RAVE system, while the city can use an Everbridge system that targets much smaller numbers of people with safety instructions.
鈥淭hat creates anxiety and confusion,鈥� O鈥橰ourke said.听
He echoed DiStefano in telling the group that there would be a debrief with the city to address our concerns and try to improve how we can communicate when incidents impact our community.听听
Marshall Fire impacts
In other safety matters, DiStefano said that 70 抖阴旅行射 Boulder community members lost their homes in the Marshall Fire and that even more family members, 鈥渕ore like in the two-hundreds,鈥� were impacted by those total losses, including, he said, Provost Russell Moore, who issued a thank-you letter to the campus Thursday that encouraged building a culture of gratitude.
DiStefano said the decision to delay the January opening of in-person activity on the campus was justified by the campus having to consider 鈥渢he combined effects of both crises on our operations.鈥澨�
鈥淎t the time, we knew that about 1,300 faculty, staff and students were in the fire evacuation zones,鈥� DiStefano said. 鈥淭he goal of delaying in-person instruction was to minimize the burden on our impacted faculty and staff, and to open in person at a time when we could provide maximum support and continuity to our students.鈥澨�
Financial picture
DiStefano also gave a brief overview of financial matters, saying the campus鈥檚 financial picture is improving and thanking faculty for having 鈥渟howed up strong during COVID鈥� and staying 鈥渃lose to students.鈥澨�
He reviewed the campus鈥檚 implementation of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, saying 鈥渙ur priority as a leadership team has been to get the campus into compliance with the law.鈥�
鈥淚 know that some of you have questions about this process. What I want you to know is that this was a dedicated effort, involving experts from our HR, legal and Faculty Affairs and Academic Affairs teams, working closely with our deans,鈥� he said.听
He said the process demanded 鈥渄ifficult legal parameters to observe, issues of privacy to maintain and a very complicated set of analytics to work out.鈥�
鈥淲e made the conscious decision to keep the working group small in this phase of analysis, knowing that we would do an even more comprehensive salary analysis鈥撯�搘hich we are now beginning.鈥�
Regarding budget issues, the chancellor said the campus had, during the initial COVID-19 wave, endured 鈥渙ver $200 million in revenue losses鈥� with federal backfill funds being 鈥渇ar less than our losses.鈥�
He expressed gratitude for 鈥渙ne-time funding that enabled us to get a one-time, one percent salary enhancement鈥� and said that due to current revenues from this year鈥檚 enrollment 鈥渨e were able to enact the three percent raise we have been notifying employees about.鈥�
鈥淲e are proposing another three percent merit pool for the upcoming budget that will be presented to the Board of Regents next week,鈥� he said.听听
He also indicated, 鈥淚 know this up-and-down, boom-and-near-bust cycle has been frustrating for you. . . I completely empathize with your frustrations.鈥澨�
In other meeting news
- O鈥橰ourke gave an update on the campus鈥檚 ongoing efforts to contain the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, telling the group the infection rate was falling dramatically, with a positivity rate as determined by PCR tests of 16%, down from 26% two weeks ago, and hospitalizations in Boulder County are down 30% over the last week. He said 抖阴旅行射 Anschutz鈥檚 School of Public Health is predicting that perhaps as soon as the end of this month, about 80 percent of the state鈥檚 population will have immunity against COVID-19 infection.
- Chief Financial Officer Carla Ho鈥檃, whose retirement from 抖阴旅行射 Boulder in November was announced Thursday, and Executive Vice Provost for Academic Resource Management Ann Schmiesing gave an update on the campus鈥檚 Budget Model Redesign project, which is in the second phase of a three-phase process. O鈥橰ourke called Ho鈥檃 鈥渁 great CFO and an extraordinary leader鈥� and pledged to seek faculty and other stakeholder input in the search for a new CFO.
- Two academic matters were introduced for a vote of endorsement by the assembly:
- Revision to the 2019 BFA approved grade replacement policy: The revision would automate the process of grade replacement, making it an opt-out choice by the student rather than an opt-in choice, and would lift the credit limit on the听 number of classes that can be replaced. Other provisions of the policy would remain in place, including a maximum grade of C- for undergraduate students and C+ for graduate students to invoke the grade change, and grade replacement not being available if the original grade was the result of academic dishonesty.
- Change the status of about 200 courses currently designated as being graded only Pass/Fail, to a designation as being graded Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (U). The move is part of a call by students to create a special designation for the courses 鈥� mainly experiential classes and thesis hours 鈥� to prevent a 鈥減ass鈥� grade in one of those classes from being lumped into the 鈥渓ow pass鈥� category of the pass+/pass/fail grading option that students may choose for most graded courses.
- Two resolutions were introduced for discussion at the next BFA meeting (March 3):听
- One by the BFA鈥檚 Intercollegiate Athletics Committee that recommends campus create a policy to restrict 抖阴旅行射 Boulder faculty, staff and students from wagering on 抖阴旅行射 games (a policy similar to those adopted by Purdue, Villanova and St. John鈥檚).
- A second measure by the Grievances Advisory Committee that would update the current committee charge, notably to include a roster of neutral advisors on process with training in both mediation and the newly updated PRR.听
