[Plsfaculty] Fw: ALVSCE Faculty Council Re-cap 2024-2025

Wed Jun 12 17:20:44 MST 2024

FYI, Dear Colleagues!

Ramin
________________________________
From: Linares-Gaffer, Ashlee L - (alinares) <alinares at arizona.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2024 12:54 AM
To: Armstrong Florian, Traci L - (tarmstro) <tarmstro at cals.arizona.edu>; Quailes, Cory - (qcq) <qcq at arizona.edu>; Barreto Munoz, Armando - (abarreto) <abarreto at arizona.edu>; Mclain, Jean - (mclainj) <mclainj at arizona.edu>; Dontsova, Katerina M - (dontsova) <dontsova at arizona.edu>; Kennedy, Kathleen J - (kjkennedy) <kjkennedy at arizona.edu>; Cooper, Kerry K - (kcooper) <kcooper at arizona.edu>; Bonine, Kevin E - (kebonine) <kebonine at arizona.edu>; Linares-Gaffer, Ashlee L - (alinares) <alinares at arizona.edu>; Lopez, Gerardo U - (lopezg3) <lopezg3 at arizona.edu>; Ottusch, Timothy - (ottusch) <ottusch at arizona.edu>; Mitchell, Rachel M - (rachelmm) <rachelmm at arizona.edu>; Yadegari, Ramin - (yadegari) <yadegari at arizona.edu>; Stewart, Rosie E - (rosies) <rosies at arizona.edu>; Schlenke, Todd A - (schlenke) <schlenke at arizona.edu>; Snider, Ashley J - (ashleysnider) <ashleysnider at arizona.edu>; Rahman, Tauhidur - (tauhid) <tauhid at arizona.edu>; Torres, Robert M - (rtorres1) <rtorres1 at arizona.edu>; Xiong, Zhongguo - (zxiong) <zxiong at arizona.edu>; Zeiders, Katharine Hunsdon - (zeidersk) <zeidersk at arizona.edu>
Cc: Burgess, Shane C - (shaneburgess) <shaneburgess at arizona.edu>
Subject: ALVSCE Faculty Council Re-cap 2024-2025

Dear Faculty Council Representatives-

As the outgoing chair of the ALVSCE Faculty Council (FC), I am writing with some annual highlights and reminders. I ask that you please share this information with your faculty in your units through your appropriate channels this summer.

  1.  In fall 2023, FC voted to change its name from CALS Faculty Council to ALVSCE Faculty Council.
  2.  In collaboration with Dean and VP Shane Burgess, we established a Budget Working Group<https://compass.arizona.edu/sites/compass.arizona.edu/files/CALES%20Budget%20Working%20Group%20%28November%2022%2C%202023%29%20%281%29.pdf> consisting of faculty, staff, and administrators, to increase shared governance and collaboration around budget-related issues and solution-building. FC recently voted to extend the duration of the working group into Fall 2024.
  3.  Upon request from Dean Burgess, we developed and approved a summer shared governance plan due to the extraordinary financial circumstances we are in, to ensure continued engagement by faculty council in college decision-making during summer 2024 (attached).
  4.  We provided feedback on a policy proposed by Jon Chorover, Interim Associate Dean for Research (CALES), regarding involvement of Assistant Professor of Practice involvement in research activity (attached).
  5.  We discussed numerous concerns related to workload fairness and equity, particularly related to instruction. We advocated for clarification on how instructional workloads are defined in CALES and received written responses to questions posed to Mike Staten on this topic in a memo he sent to all faculty in December 2023 (attached). In collaboration with Jeannie McLain with input from Dean Burgess, we have identified a need for new policies and practices to ensure workload equity and fairness, which is currently slated as an FC priority for the 2024-2025 academic year.
  6.  Reminder: ALVSCE Faculty Council minutes, roster and other important documents related to ALVSCE Faculty Council are posted on Compass<https://compass.arizona.edu/faculty-council>.
  7.  Kathleen Kennedy, Associate Professor of Practice, Retailing and Consumer Science was elected as our vice-chair in Fall 2024 and will serve as ALVSCE Faculty Council Chair for the 2024-2025 academic year. Per our charter, a faculty council representative will be elected to the role of Vice Chair at the first council meeting in fall 2025.

In 2023-2024 we also made great progress clarifying important aspects of instructional workload with support from Dean Shane Burgess, Jeannie McLain, Associate Dean for Faculty Advancement in CALES, and Mike Staten, former Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Career Development. The current expectations are:

  *   In CALES, a 0.05 instructional workload equals teaching 1 unit of credit (e.g., a 3-unit course = 0.15 FTE; a 4-unit course = 0.20 FTE).  A faculty member with a 0.90 instructional workload will typically teach 9 units per semester and will teach 18 units in a year.
  *   Unit heads and faculty may identify a need for faculty to fulfill additional teaching mission-centered activities outside of typical for-credit course delivery. For non-credit teaching activities that are formally assigned by the unit head, a good-faith effort must be made to determine an appropriate workload percentage associated with each activity.
  *   At minimum, there should be a written communication to each faculty member prior to the start of each academic year that documents the parameters of their teaching assignment for the academic year. Teaching assignments are also expected to be accurately documented in the electronic CALES Workload Tracking Tool.
  *   Faculty may choose to volunteer to teach above their assigned FTE for no additional compensation. Such cases must be formalized in writing and approved by the unit head and the faculty member.
  *   If any CALES faculty member believes these standards are not being followed regarding assigned instructional activities, they are encouraged to first speak with their Unit Head to try to resolve the issue. The next step is to discuss the workload concern with Jeannie McLain, who will work with you to facilitate a solution.

Our council has a strong history of collaboration and engagement with Dean Burgess and senior administrators within ALVSCE to advance the interests of faculty; however, it is important to keep in mind that the recommendations we provide, and documents we create, do not have formal standing within the University in the way that Faculty Senate does at the University. This is one reason CALES’ Faculty Senators sit on the ALVSCE Faculty Council- it enables us to take strategic, multi-pronged approaches to advocate on issues of interest/concern to our faculty within ALVSCE, and in the Faculty Senate. This key distinction between ALVSCE Faculty Council and the University Faculty Senate is often not fully understood among our faculty or new members of council, which is why I am reiterating this point here. Although it may seem that ALVSCE Faculty Council’s lack of formal standing within the university gives us less power as a shared governance body (which is true to some extent), our track record demonstrates meaningful impacts we have achieved through ongoing, good-faith advocacy and collaboration between our Council, CALES Faculty Senators, the Dean and our ALVSCE Senior leadership.

I want to close by expressing my appreciation for the opportunity to serve on Faculty Council for the past three years, including as the elected chair in 2023-2024. It has been a learning experience to serve in this advisory group for the Dean and ALVSCE senior administrators on matters related to faculty, within the scope outlined in our charter<https://compass.arizona.edu/sites/compass.arizona.edu/files/Revised%20CALS%20Faculty%20Council%20Charter%20%28May%2019%2C%202021%29_0.pdf>. I encourage all faculty council representatives and general faculty to familiarize themselves with CALES policies <https://compass.arizona.edu/policies-faculty> and advocate for policy change when you feel it is warranted, to ALVSCE Faculty Council representatives and CALES faculty senators. I also encourage you to explore getting involved at different levels of shared governance at the university, including CALES committees and councils<https://compass.arizona.edu/committees>, the University Faculty Senate<https://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/participate/faculty-senate>, and University faculty committees<https://facultygovernance.arizona.edu/participate/committees>.

With gratitude,

[The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.]

Ashlee Linares-Gaffer, MS, RDN, FAND

Associate Professor of Practice

School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness

she/her/ella

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

1177 E. 4th Street-Shantz Rm 615

Tucson, AZ, 85721

520-636-3504

alinares at arizona.edu<mailto:alinares at arizona.edu>

Land Acknowledgment<https://www.arizona.edu/about#:~:text=Land%20Acknowledgement>

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[Integrity, Compassion, Exploration, Adaptation, Inclusion, Determination]<https://www.arizona.edu/purpose-mission-values>

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