Meeting summary: Boulder Faculty Assembly

Editor's note: In addition to news coverage of meetings of the systemwide Faculty Council and Staff Council, theFaculty and Staff Newsletter will post meeting summaries as provided by councils and assemblies at the campus level. To submit material, please e-mail to Jay.Dedrick@cu.edu.

Joint BFA Meeting and CU-Boulder Faculty Senate Meeting
Nov. 4, 2010

The Boulder Faculty Assembly held a joint meeting with the Boulder Faculty Senate on Nov. 4.
Meeting highlights are below. For more detail please visit http://www.colorado.edu/bfa/ to read the most recent minutes, reports, current motions before the assembly, or other items of interest to the faculty.

I. Senate Meeting: Reports by President Bruce Benson and Chancellor Phil DiStefano

• The president reported that CU is hoping for $158 million in state support in fiscal year 2011, down
  from $175 million this year including stimulus, but has been told to prepare a budget including less.
• The president reported that CU and CSU are engaged in an effort to share services in libraries,
  procurement, IT and travel functions.
• The faculty alerted the president and the chancellor that graduate student application processing has
  slowed significantly due to increased workload as a result of software and staff procedural changes.
• The faculty notified the president and the chancellor that CU's relocation of Boulder's international
  tax specialists to Denver would impose a large burden on international students and post-docs to
  commute for required meetings with tax advisers. A Boulder satellite office was suggested.

II. Chair's Report:

• New Boulder Campus P&T Chair. The BFA nominated Physics Professor Anna Hasenfratz.
• The Annual BFA Winter Reception is Monday, Dec. 6. Invitations will arrive by campus
  mail in the coming weeks. RSVP to Sierra.Swearingen@colorado.edu or 303-492-6271.
• BFA Motions on instructor tenure and on program discontinuance. Citing concerns raised by CU's most senior legal counsel, Dan Wilkerson, Faculty Council's EPUS (Educational Policy and University Standards) Committee has indicated it does not support these motions.

Wilkerson will speak at the Dec. 9 BFA meeting to answer the BFA's questions. In the meantime, the BFA Faculty Affairs Committee is exploring alternative ways to improve the employment situation for instructors.

III. Special Report: UCB Alumni Association:

Executive Director Deborah Fowlkes' comments included:

• The Alumni Association's mission is to reconnect alumni to one another and to the university, to
  keep them interested in and excited about what's happening at CU, and motivate them to give back to
  CU in volunteer time, internships for CU students, and financial support. The Alumni Association
  does not do direct fundraising, but does work with the CU Foundation to improve access to alumni.
• Opportunities for faculty involvement include travel to alumni clubs for speaking engagements;
  international instructional trips; and encouraging students to use the association to find internships,
  networking opportunities and alumni expertise.

IV. Special Report: Faculty Ombuds and Office of Faculty Relations:

Director of Faculty Relations John Frazee and Faculty Ombuds Lee Potts and Larry Singell answered questions from the floor. Highlights included the following:

• The Faculty Ombuds program was created by a BFA initiative in 1997.
• A chart comparing and contrasting the two offices is available online: http://ombuds.colorado.edu/faculty-ombuds/contrast-chart-of-faculty-ombuds-faculty-relations/

V. The next BFA meeting is 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, in Wolf Law 307.

Speakers include University Counsel Dan Wilkerson, Provost Russell Moore and Senior Associate Vice
President Jill Pollock, who will discuss self-funded insurance. All faculty are welcome to attend.

The Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Update is a short summary distributed to members following each BFA meeting (or more often as needed). Members are asked to forward BFA Updates to faculty they represent after adding their own comments, if any. For more details, please visit the BFA website at http://www.colorado.edu/BFA .