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The Arts and Sciences Council, January 15, 2019, 3:30-5:00, UMC 247

Meeting Minutes

Representatives present: Daniel Appelö, APPM; Barbara Buttenfield, GEOG; Cathy Comstock, RAPS; James Cowell, LING; Tanja Cuk, CHEM; Erica Ellingson, APS; Michaele Ferguson, PSCI; John Gibert, CLAS; Paul Gordon, HUMN; Gerardo Gutierrez, ANTH; Juan Herrero-Senes, SPAN; Jon Hughes, ECON; Leslie Irvine, SOCY; Janet Jacobs, WGST; Berit Janey, GSLL; Daniel Jones, HNRS; Dan Kaufman, PHIL; Joanna Lambert, ENVS; Julie Lundquist, ATOC; Ramesh Mallipeddi, ENGL; Akira Miyake, PSYC; Stephen Mojzsis, GEOL; Christina Meyers-Denman, SLHS; Lonni Pearce, PWR;  Evelyn Shih, ALC;Ted Stark, THDN; David Stock, EBIO; Tim Weston, HIST; Ding Xue, MCDB; Masano Yamashita, FRIT

Representatives not present: Françoise Duresse-Stimilli, AAH; Jim Goodrich, BCHM; Kwame Holmes, ETHN; Matt McQueen, IPHY; Patricia Rankin, PHYS; Hanna Shell, CINE; Rob Tubbs, MATH; Deborah Whitehead, RLST;

Ex-officios: present:  Sarah Altshuler, (UCSG); Alicia Turchette, SAC

Also in attendance: Vilja Hulden, HIST; Daryl Maeda, A&S Hillary Potter, A&S Clint Talbott, A&S Kristy Tiampo, GEOL; Jim White, A&S

The meeting was called to order at 3:30PM.

ASC chair Stephen Mojzsis welcomed the assembled representatives.

The recent by law changes that were approved by the ASC, adding the Staff Advisory Committee chair and the CMCI faculty governance chair as permanent ex-officio members of the ASC, will need to be endorsed by the faculty of Arts and Sciences. According to the ASC bylaws, changes in the bylaws need to be approved by a majority of votes cast. The electronic vote will happen in the next few weeks.

Dean’s Remarks, Jim White

Dean White reminded the Council that there are a number of campus-wide reorganization committees currently meeting. The Academic Reorganization Committee has reported out and the Provost will make a decision in early February concerning what direction he wishes to go. 

Academic Futures has two committees that have an impact on A&S one concerning online education and a second that Dean White will be chairing on interdisciplinarity. A call for member nominations will go out shortly.

Financial Futures and the Strategic Facilities Visioning Initiative continue to meet.

The Instructor Task Force will report mid to late February and action will be taken on its recommendations.

Dean White asks the representatives to follow these important committees.

The Dean’s Office is currently working on issues related to staffing and trying to address large inequities in salaries and staffing levels. The college is currently at half the staff levels of the average non-profit university. 

On January 22, Dean White will attend a Dean’s Council meeting to discuss the Enrollment Growth Model (EGM). The EGM is a calculation that gives more or less money to colleges according to student hours. Business and Engineering receive higher rates as their salaries are higher. The College of Arts and Sciences  is requesting that its three divisions are looked at separately and our fastest growing division, Natural Sciences, is looked at as Engineering is. With the current GEM, the college loses money as student hours increase.

Lily Board, Assistant Dean for Academic Advising

Dean Board began her career as an academic advisor in psychology and moved to Naropa University holding positions of increasing responsibility ending as the interim dean of students. In returning to ��������Ƶ from a small college, Assistant Dean Board is struck with how critical academic advising is to a large university; she is enthusiastic about marketing ��������Ƶ as “the best of all worlds;” tier one, division one with a personalized counseling experience.

Dean Board is unhappy with the disconnect between the AAC and faculty that has occurred in recent years and will make it a priority to optimize the partnership between them to increase student success.

Dean Board currently has three main strategic priorities:

• Increase the well-being and organizational health of the AAC.
• Recommit to higher quality relationships with faculty by
  • Improving contact, collaboration and communication;
  • Insure deeper disciplinary knowledge by advisors; and
  • Establish an Academic Advising advisory board.
• Establish shared student success goals with departments.

Currently, on the positive side, student satisfaction with the AAC is high as shown in the recent reactive surveys; 97 percent of students rate their experience with the AAC as “somewhat” or “extremely” positive. The students who rated their experience negatively were contacted by the AAC for feedback.

Dean Board outlined some best practices for the AAC:

• Cultivating strong relationships with faculty, hosting drop in hours, offering regular updates.
• Emphasis on curricular and disciplinary depth of knowledge.

Dean Board encourages faculty to invite department advisors to curriculum and departmental meetings.

The ASC Executive Committee will discuss the AAC Advisory Board and bring a proposal to the February meeting.

Dean Board answered questions from the representatives.

Update on the College’s Strategic Plan Task Force, Stephen Mojzsis

The A&S Strategic Plan Task Force being put together with a recommendation that the task force begins with two members each from faculty, staff and student populations. These six members will then be asked to recruit additional members not to exceed 15 total. This task force should have a report by the March ASC meeting with prioritizations for implementation and recommendations for changes. Professor Mojzsis thanks the members of the A&S community for their attendance at the December meeting and the interest staff, faculty and students showed in the Strategic plan.

How shall ASC respond to the petition by the graduate students concerning their fees?

A petition concerning graduate fees was brought to the ASC at the December meeting. The ASC needs to decide how it is going to respond, if at all. Professor Mojzsis invited Juan Garcia Oyervides, president of ��������Ƶ’s United Government of Graduate Students (UGGS) to speak about the petition and answer questions.

Garcia Oyervides let the representatives know that graduate students feel undervalued, under compensated and sometimes exploited. The petition came from a group outside ��������Ƶ—The Committee for Rights and Compensation—that calls itself a union for graduate students. The CRC has attempted to deal with ��������Ƶ administration who referred them to the UGGS. The floor was opened for questions and discussion. Some topics discussed:

• The UGGS isn’t currently endorsing the petition as they have yet to meet and discuss.
• Several ASC representatives felt supporting the petition was a “no brainer” and asked for reasons why the ASC wouldn’t support it.
• Graduate student fees make ��������Ƶ less competitive with graduate student offers.
• Several ASC and BFA representatives will be meeting to discuss graduate student fees and gather more information (e.g. what is the history of graduate student fees, how much money is involved, what do the fees fund).
• The UGGS plans on creating its own resolution supporting the spirit of the petition and focusing on the positive outcome for ��������Ƶ graduate students.
• The UGGS has been working on issues of compensation for at least the last 4 years.

Professor Mojzsis proposed inviting the CRC to the February meeting; there were no objections.

Update on the College’s Budget

Professor Mojzsis asked the representatives to review the report from ASC Budget Committee chair, Patricia Rankin [Addendum A]. Ann Schmiesing and Carla Ho-a from Financial Futures will be invited to the next ASC meeting.

Visit to ASC by College of Arts & Sciences Associate Dean Hillary Potter, Associate Dean Daryl Maeda, and Communications Director Clint Talbot

These three College of Arts and Sciences administrators have been invited to introduce themselves to the ASC and describe their positions so the Council will have the opportunity to find ways of working together with them.

Hillary Potter, Associate Dean for Inclusive Practice

Associate Dean Potter is a ��������Ƶ alum, she worked 10 years in the field of criminal justice then came to ��������Ƶ in 2005 as faculty, first in Sociology and currently in Ethnic Studies. 

This position is new effective July 1, 2018; instituted by Dean White with the concurrence of the Dean’s Team. The job description is long and broad. The four main areas of duties and responsibility are:

• Institutional diversity and inclusion;
• Recruitment and retention;
• Professional development and training; and
• Functional oversight and management.

These responsibilities include working with students, faculty, staff, former and potential students. Associate Dean Potter outlined a few of her ongoing projects including: coordinating with ODECE and the IDEA Plan; working on social climate issues in departments; co-coordinating on special events concerning issues of diversity and equity; meeting with faculty candidates; and outreach with Denver Public Schools.

Associate Dean Potter asks that the representatives keep her apprised of initiatives and issues in the departments.

Daryl Maeda, Associate Dean for Student Success

Associate Dean Maeda is a cultural historian interested in social justice movement, especially the racial justice movement of the 1960’s. He has been a faculty member of Ethnic Studies since 2005, has served as chair of the department and has also worked in Faculty Affairs. His position is also new, effective July 2018, overseeing the student-facing parts of Arts and Sciences

• Curriculum Office
• Residential Academic Programs
• Academic Advising Center
• Director of Recruiting

The College of Arts and Sciences, although the biggest college on campus, is only now starting a concerted effort to recruit the kind of students who will strengthen the college and contribute in their future lives.

Associate Dean Maeda hopes to find more opportunities for faculty to be involved with the recruiting process which will improve the quality of students in the college; students that want to learn the kind of things the faculty wants to teach. Associate Dean Maeda would also like to find more opportunities for faculty to mentor students and for the departments to recognize the time put in toward this valuable service to students. Graduation and retention rates are both improved when students have a close relationship with at least one faculty member.

Clint Talbott, Director of Communications and External Relations

Clint Talbott spent 24 years as a newspaper journalist, leaving 10 years ago at the invitation of Todd Gleeson to be the college’s first communications person. The position started with the primary function of creating a magazine that would tell the good news of the college with the goal of boosting the College of Arts and Sciences' reputation and aiding donor development. Over time Talbott’s role increased to overseeing the college’s three websites: the main College of Arts and Sciences website, the faculty and staff website and the magazine website. 

The main A&S website is the place where the college burnishes its reputation and recruits and retains the best students. The main website function is as a marketing tool for prospective students. The college also creates print publications, brochures, information sheets and a print version of the magazine among other items. There are currently four staff members in the communications area.

Talbott summarized his department’s role as supporting the strategic goals of the campus.

Council invited to be heard

Sarah Altshuler (UCSG) agreed with Dean Maeda’s focus on the importance of student-faculty interaction. She spoke of how few faculty members know her name making it, at the least, difficult to get meaningful letters of recommendation.

Various issues with mentoring were discussed.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:59 PM

Submitted by Janice Jeffryes

Addendum A

Report from ASC Budget Chair Tricia Rankin:

A subgroup of the ASC Budget committee met with Dean Ann Schmiesing, and members of the McKinsey firm involved in Financial Futures. Budget Committee stressed that things that generated net income for the campus such as increased enrollment might not (and in case of enrollment were not) income generating for Arts and Sciences due to the way revenue was shared and that therefore some plans campus was making might not be embraced at College level. This goes back to the historicity of the Base Budget (that the College “pays” a ~60% “overhead” to the campus).

Budget committee also stressed that comments about student retention in the College should be attributed to our lack of staff, not a lack of interest. We are largest College and often have fewer staff than much smaller colleges. Similarly asking for our faculty to volunteer in this role must account for the fact that our faculty have less staff support and higher teaching/service loads to begin with.