Fort Lewis College Faculty Senate Meeting minutes April 20th, 2017

Blake / David / X
Burke / Brian / X
Dichio / Michael / X
Clay / Paul / X
Davis / Ginny
Dorr / Betty / X
Fenster / Steven / X
Frazer / Lee / X
Fry / Michael / X
Fullmer / Shawn
Gore / Rick / X
Greer / Kris / X
Gulliford / Andrew / X
Holmquist / Tony / X
Lienert / Carl / X
Mangrum / William
Meyer / Felicia
Mouzakis / Katie / X
Oliver / Astrid / X
Riggs / Chuck
Smith / Ryan / X
Sommerville / Les / X
Valdez / Michael / X
Wendland / Amy / X
Williams / Laurie / X

Guests:

Pam Smith

Caroline nnn

Evan Wick

Leslie Goldstein

Ayla Moore

Jillian Wenberg

Brad Clark

Shere Byrd

Cathy Simbeck

Barbara Morris

Theresa Rodriguez

Megan Paciaroni

Kathy Fine

Jesse Tune

Martha Talman

Susumu Iwasaki

Missy Thompson

Melissa Knight-Maloney

Cynthia Dott

Gary Gianniny

Michele Peterson

Amy Gilley

Sandy Gilpin

Erik Juergensmeyer

Dene Thomas

  1. Announcements
  2. BOT Update (Valdez)
  3. During the latest BoT meeting, Dr. Valdez discussed
  4. shared governance and the need to be able to assess shared governance,
  5. Adjunct Pay and the challenge adjuncts have with the lack of a living wage in the Durango area, a living wage in La Plata County is ~$25k, while adjunct pay is $15-19K
  6. There needs to be clarification on how the evaluation is conducted and what are the metrics/criteria for evaluation method for the FLC president. The BoT has agreed to follow up on this issue.
  7. Strategic planning and issues relating to time, cost and process
  8. There will be a BoT meeting on May 26, 2017, of which a part is open to the public
  9. Election nominations and ballots (Fry)
  10. Elections will be held starting at 5pm on Friday April 21 and continue through 5pm Wednesday April 26
  11. Committee end of the year reports (Oliver)
  12. Motion & 2nd to disband the Academic Policy Committee
  13. Passed unanimously
  14. Consent items
  15. Minutes (April 6th)
  16. Adopted by consent
  17. Action items and reports
  18. Discussion of approved field trip policy (Peterson)
  19. FLC legal counsel has stated that CO state employees are covered against lawsuits stemming from off campus and study abroad activities
  20. FLC counsel suggests that language be added to the Faculty Handbook articulating how and to what extent faculty are covered by CO state law
  21. The mechanism to implement the field trip policy are still in the works.
  22. Per section I, paragraph 3, an administrative decision to cancel a program should be done in conjunction with faculty
  23. Budget Update with visual aids and handouts(Schwartz)
  24. CO funding to FLC is likely to increase by $306k
  25. The budget forecast is dependent, in part upon the BoT’s decision regarding resident and non-resident tuition increases
  26. Questions
  27. Are one-time expenses built into the model?
  28. Yes, one-time are listed in the ‘normal’ budget, but stripped out in the ‘full’ budget
  29. Are students getting larger scholarships or are the scholarships being awarded to a larger proportion of students?
  30. Yes, and yes
  31. Are state funds still ties to student FTEs?
  32. Not in practice, because as the FTE changes, the state will counter balance state funding such that an change in student FTE does not actually impact FLC revenue
  33. Discussion with President Dene Thomas regarding concerns about Vision and SEP timeline
  34. The purpose of the SEP meeting of ~50 was to focus on ~50 of the 200+ enrollment ideas that have been generated
  35. Regarding consultants, 2years ago we started talking about what is FLC, who are we in the market place?
  36. The recently drafted and approved Mission and Values (Dec 2016) are still our Mission and Values.
  37. RNL was engaged to help formulate a process to identify enrollment growth opportunities.
  38. Concurrently, Ramona Pierson (FLC Alumnus) volunteered to work with FLC to restructure FLC.
  39. Emphasizing STEM does not diminish our commitment to the Humanities and Liberal Arts (LA).
  40. We are going to market areas outside of the traditional LA disciplines.
  41. Cost is the number one student/parent concern, when choosing a school
  42. Career opportunities are the most important curricular-related issue for new students, hence a change in the marketing message to emphasize STEM opportunities at FLC
  43. SEP crafted draft vision: Igniting creativity, through research, entrepreneurship and adventure
  44. We are not cutting LA programs as a result of the marketing shift, however, given inefficiency in programs and the tight budget, there could be cuts.
  45. NSF: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Computer Science
  46. Questions:
  47. Would President Thomas be willing to sign document that states that zero LA programs would be cut?
  48. Small and inefficient programs cannot be shielded just because they are LA
  49. Do we have an independent Strategic Plan group?
  50. Yes, the group is comprised of ~50 faculty, students, staff and administrators. The strategic plan will be forwarded through faculty senate and onward to the BoT.
  51. Could we have access to the data used to assess the 200+ ideas?
  52. All chairs have access and faculty have access to predictive analytics, if they request it.
  53. Are we still using RNL? If so are they and Ramona Pierson being paid?
  54. RNL is no longer on the payroll. Pierson is being paid $175k, much of which will come out of savings from terminating the contract with RNL.
  55. Does Pierson have the skills we need to be able to help us attract the students we need to attract?
  56. President Thomas, Pierson is our best shot.
  57. Some faculty have a concern re: Pierson and her qualifications inteh area of higher education.
  58. We have been changing curriculum nearly every year for much of the past decade. Do these changes negatively affect enrollment?
  59. What we are doing now is not a rework of our programs, rather we are remarketing FLC.
  60. Motion: Friday 10:30 am Faculty Senate meeting, faculty assembly 10:00 am
  61. Motion, second
  62. Motion, second to add the ‘Option A Statement of Concern’ to the agenda for the next faculty meeting
  63. Motion to table and second, approved
  64. Adjourn

Fort Lewis College Faculty Senate

Agenda for meeting of April 20th, 2017, 12:50-2:10 pm, 130 Noble Hall

I.Announcements

A. BOT update (Valdez)

B. Election nominations, acclamations, and future ballots (Fry)

C. Committee end of the year reports (Oliver)

II. Consent items

A.Minutes (April 6th)

B.Course approvals (none)

III. Action items and reports

A.Discussion of approved field trip policy (Peterson)

B.Budget Update with visual aids and handouts (Schwartz)

C.Discussion with President Dene Thomas regarding concerns about the Vision and SEP timeline

D.Open faculty only discussion of new Vision and strategic planning process

i.Overview of comments sent to SEC from faculty since all campus meeting and FLC organization chart

ii.Resolution requiring a vote on the new STEM mission

Attachments

1.Faculty Committee Reports

2.Minutes from April 6th

3.Six documents regarding the field trip policies (3 that were presented to Senate and 3 revised documents that were approved by cabinet)

4.State of the Union Presentation from Ramona Pierson’s campus-wide meeting (this presentation can be found at the summit website -

5.AAF_State of the Union (EAB report that was sent to the SEP group)

6.Numbers of graduates in each department at FLC (from 4 separate program review reports) and the associated CCHE policy concerning the number of graduates per program per year (

7.Resolution requiring a vote on the new STEM mission

8.FLC organization chart (prior to the reorganization of Academic Affairs that occurred this semester)