College of Liberal Arts NTTF Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes
December 12, 2023

Agenda:

Item Type of Action Decision Required
A. Approval from Minutes of Meeting from 11/14/2023 Vote Yes
B. Ellie Light: Dean’s Office Update/Dept Equity Checklist Info-Sharing No
C. Tom Conway: CoNTTF Updates Info-Sharing No
D. Annie: Job Stability and Use of Contracts Info-Sharing No
E. Wrap up meeting and adjourn N/A N/A

 

Members present: Niroj Bhattarai, Thomas Conway, Sadie Kinney-McGrath, Megan Lanz, Ellie Light, Gregory Luft, Gina Robinson, Amanda Wright, Dan Goble, Annie Krieg

Members absent: Ashlee Allen, Frankie Wilcox, Eli Alberts, Keri Canada

Meeting notes:

Meeting Began – 3:31 PM

A. Approval of Minutes from 11/14/2023 Meeting

Motion: Megan Lanz
Second: Amanda Wright
Minutes approved unanimously

B. Dean’s Office Update – Ellie Light

  1. IT is working on IT for CCA faculty. They have spent half the money budgeted for it on desktops, so they are waiting to spend the second half of the money to see if there are any department funds to use to buy desktops.
  2. Dean Withers: He has approved another year of the CCAF Summer Conference. It will be limited to 50 people and 10 presenters. ($300 stipend) It will be slightly scaled down. There will not be an opportunity to obtain the additional $200. If anyone wants to sit on the committee to plan the conference, let Ellie know.
  3. Scheduling: It has been a challenge to schedule our committee. Thank you for your patience. Frankie Wilcox will not be able to be at meetings due to scheduling but will work with Ellie for the semester on the Service document. Annie Krieg and Frankie Wilcox will continue to be co-chairs and Frankie will review the meeting notes.
  4. Transitions in Dean’s Office: Ben Withers is leaving, and they are putting together a search committee for his position. In the meantime, there will be an interim dean appointed (not someone who will be applying for the position).
  5. Dean Withers will be leaving at some point in the spring semester.
  6. They are looking for Chairs and Assistant deans for the job at this point but may be expanding that search.
  7. The new dean may change the structure of our committee, but we are codified so our committee will remain intact.
  8. Email Ellie with any questions about the transition.
  9. Sadie talked about the elections for the committee. She will search for eligible employees in January, get that info out in February and then Ellie, Annie and Frankie will decide on how to proceed.

C. CoNTTF Updates – Tom Conway

  1. The committee voted to expand some of the faculty awards, to include CCAF but they want to maintain the same criteria. This will eliminate a lot of NTTF faculty.
  2. CoNTFF met with Rick Miranda, Jen Martin and Rob Mitchell on the new budget model committee. There is already a steering committee and technical committee for this, and we have a voice on these committees.
  3. Workload equity committee is piloting with Mechanical Engineering and Languages, Literatures and Cultures department chairs and faculty regarding workload equity. They are hoping to expand this to other departments.
  4. The model “as is” is unsustainable, but when we ask questions there are a lot of “We don’t nos.” They say there will be big changes, which is concerning to all.

D. Department Equity Checklist and Job Security & Contracts – Annie Krieg

Department Equity Checklist: Annie asked the committee to look at the Sociology checklist that Ellie had put in the chat. There is a need to start talking about an equity toolbox/checklist we could share with departments.

Discussion: Annie said it is hard to comment on the Sociology checklist because there is no context, where did they get their info from? Who wrote it? Was it a retreat? Etc. We can pick up on this next semester. What do we want our equity checklist to look like? Big picture like Sociology or more detailed with tips? Megan: She thought the Sociology checklist would be more specific rather than broad as it is. Ours could be a living document that keeps getting edited. Annie: We could take the Sociology doc and use it as a skeleton and build from it. Is there a shared governance? Do we include onboarding? Professional development? Etc. Dan: Department codes are all different. What does each department code say? Do they provide equity opportunities to have a voice? Annie: What do faculty meetings look like? What is the promotion process for each department? They are different. Bob: Now we have more CCAF who have been through the promotion process who could serve on a committee to speak about this. Annie: There are administrative professionals/ASC who also teach. They fall between the cracks. Could their checklist raise awareness of their situation? Good to ask Keri Canada as she falls into that category. Bob: Some of these Admin prof/ASC are experienced and have terminal degrees and are still receiving base pay. There is no mechanism to change this. Amanda: Another issue is physical space at CSU. Is there a dedicated space for offices for the faculty? When do you get it? This discussion will be continued next semester.

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Job Security and Contracts: People can ask for a contract after 10 consecutive semesters at CSU but won’t necessarily get one. We need to keep chatting about this in the spring. The new budget model will have an impact on this.

E. Wrap-Up Meeting & Adjourn – 4:25 PM

Minutes respectfully submitted by Gina Robinson