[CED/CD/EAT] Faculty Council

Wed May 9 09:11:57 MST 2018

Dear Directors and fellow faculty,

Here is a summary of yesterday's  CALS Faculty Council meeting, which was also attended by Dr. Mike Staten  (Associate Dean for Academic programs) and  Dr. Betsy Arnold (Plant sciences, and Fellow, Bart Cardon Academy for Teaching Excellence).

1. Drs. Staten and Arnold shared with us the following:

*         Consensus is 1 FTE teaching workload is about 18 units (3 courses (3 units each) per semester, 2 semesters)

*         There is no magic formula (yet) to address the teaching evaluation/equity (class size, course nature, lab vs. no lab, upper lower division, etc.) and as such the consensus is to leave this to the unit heads. Nutritional Science has developed an elaborate mechanism that others can look at for ideas

*         CALS has about 39 POPs (Professors of Practice) and 11 of them are up for promotion this year (complex process that is still very unclear but guidelines are being developed. Some POPs waited for years for this promotion cycle)

o   There was recognition that some POPs are really overworked (teaching classes counting 1000/800 students in some cases with no TAs) and some quite underused (in terms of class size and # courses) . Some POPs are teaching up to 24 credits, which 8 courses per year. There will be requests for  some changes/corrections and unit heads are expected to look into this and address.

*         POP Salary equity is an issue being looked at (across POP ranks, across units, career vs. tenure, etc.) and the college is planning to address this by providing some funds.  POPs teaching more than 6 courses per year may get supplemental compensation.

*         The administration and faculty consensus is not to have POP do any research, except instructional  in nature. Contracts will be reviewed to see how is this being done across the college and make corrections where necessary.

*         The process for promotion for is that the POP will either be promoted or stay at the same level (not like tenure/continuing track).

2. CALS Budget/Finances

*         There was a budget retreat last week attended by the FC chair. CALS looks quite strong for years 2018 & 2019 with a positive balance (so the $1.7M deficit is no more, although things may still change).  However, the 2020/2021 horizon is not very positive, with a projected deficit of between 5000 - 17,000 SCH (student credit hours). The College needs to attract an additional ~560 students to move to the positive side.  Everyone also recognizes that the new president is promoting a message of quality and not quantity.

*         In the retreat all unit heads also voted to prioritize funding for:

*         TA'ship for graduate students

*         GRA'ship for graduate students

*         Faculty salary

3. The office of Dr. Parker (Associate Dean for Research) has funds totaling around $400K to support recruiting graduate students with the following conditions:

*         They will guarantee the first year funding for the graduate student

*         And funds for the next 4 yrs will need to be picked up by the units/faculty

4. The CALS FC organized town hall meeting with the EC.  It was quite successful and we encourage all of you to review the video, lots of useful information was shared.

Ed Martin
UA Faculty Senate
CALS Faculty Council

______________________________________________________
"Doing something once is worth more than seeing it done 1,000 times"

Edward C. Martin, Ph.D.
County Extension Director
Maricopa County

Professor/Irrigation Specialist
Dept. of Ag. & Biosystems Engineering

University of Arizona

Phone:  602-827-8200
Email:    ecmartin at email.arizona.edu

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