Meeting summary: Boulder Faculty Assembly

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

Boulder Faculty Assembly meeting
April 7, 2011

For more detailed information please visit www.colorado.edu/BFA to read the most recent minutes, reports, current motions before the assembly and other items of interest to the faculty.

• Chair's Report:
  • Budget Issues – The Provost's office has asked whether it would be useful for faculty salary committees to model faculty salary increases, in case a salary increase pool is available this year.
  • Instructor Status – The BFA Faculty Affairs Committee plans to bring a motion on April 28, after it reviews the 'Instructor Guidelines' (IBOR) and the responses to the BFA Motion on instructor status.
• New Notices of Motion were presented:
  • Motion to amend the BFA's Standing Rules to guide committee composition (Bylaws Committee)
  • Motion to amend AAP policy to correct an apparent contradiction (Administrator Appraisal Cmte)
  • Motion to create a BFA standing committee for instructors (by a group of BFA Instructor members)

• BFA Intercollegiate Athletics Committee (IAC) Annual Report – Committee Chair Elizabeth Bradley gave an overview of the committee's work this year. Highlights included:
  • New athletics initiatives include reviewing prospective student athletes before they visit campus, and monitoring at-risk athletes to ensure class attendance.
  • The IAC distributes the new student athletes' class conflict policy by e-memo each semester.
  • IAC continues to monitor COIA issues (national Coalition for Intercollegiate Athletics), athletes' class and major choices (to head off 'clumping') and academic progress.
  • IAC has developed a strong list of recommendations in response to plans that the Boulder campus host a weeknight football game this fall.

• Special Report: Associate VC and CIO Larry Levine - Highlights from Levine's report:
  • ITS has begun a phased process to replace "CU Learn" with "Desire to Learn." Faculty can opt-in in Fall 2011, and must opt-out in Spring 2012 if they want to use CU Learn in what will be its final semester. ITS welcomes feedback, to Deborah Keyek-Franssen at deblkf@colorado.edu.
  • CU has a new bulk PC purchasing contract with Dell. (None will be required to purchase a Dell.) A similar opportunity exists for software, using a standard campus software configuration. This would also ease various routine processes such IT support, virus protection, and backing up data.
  • Faculty should be aware of IT security risks and take steps to protect their data, such as running the new "identity finder" software to remove private data: www.colorado.edu/itsecurity/identityfinder/.
  • ITS will soon install an enterprise file server, making it easier for faculty to safely back up their data.
  • ITS is in the process of converting e-mail services to a Microsoft Exchange Server model. CU Link will be turned off within the next year. ITS will provide assistance to ensure a smooth transition.

• Candidates for Next Year's BFA Officers and At-Large Executive Committee Representatives - Melinda Piket-May and Jerry Peterson, candidates for Chair, and Bill Emery, candidate for Vice Chair, gave statements in support of their candidacies. Rosse reported that no candidates have yet appeared for BFA Secretary or the two At-Large Executive Committee rep positions.

• The next BFA meeting is 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in Wolf Law room 204.

New BFA officers will be elected. Ric Porreca will give a budget update. All faculty are welcome.