College of Liberal Arts NTTF Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes
February 14, 2024

Agenda:

Item Type of Action Decision Required
A. Approval of minutes from 1/31/2023 meeting Vote Yes
B. Ellie Light: Dean’s Office update Info-Sharing No
C. Tom Conway: CoNTTF updates Info-Sharing No
D. Elections, Changes to MOO, CLA NTTF AC Meetings Discussion Yes
E. Department Equity Checklist
Open Meeting Feb 28 – plan for open discussion
Discussion Yes
F. Wrap-up and adjourn N/A N/A

 

Members present: Keri Canada (Non-Faculty Teaching Rep), Thomas Conway, Sadie Kinney-McGrath, Megan Lanz, Ellie Light, Layla Malander, Gina Robinson, Emily Wilson, Amanda Wright. Annie Krieg


Meeting notes:

Meeting Began – 10:03 AM

A. Approval of Minutes from 1/31/2023 Meeting

Motion: Amanda
Second: Megan
Minutes approved unanimously.

B. Dean’s Office Updates – Ellie Light

  • The search for the new Dean has started. There is an email survey for all CLA faculty to fill out. of us to fill out. The original deadline to complete it was 2/14 at 9 am and it has now been extended to 2/14 end of day. Ellie and Carmen Martin Quijada are the two NTTF faculty on the search committee.
  • Tom asked about the contract language issue (five-year contract). Ellie said the legal department has said the language is optional, but we don’t know if it will be adopted by the Board of Governors. It is not on their agenda for next month.

C. CoNTTF Updates – Tom Conway

  • Bad news: 11 of the PLACE instructors have been terminated. All 11 were senior instructors. They will be employed until May. They may all re-apply for four contract full time spots. The rest may apply as adjuncts. Layla is one of the faculty affected by this and she expressed her frustration with the situation. She recognized that there are budget cuts needed, but it is affecting instructors and not those in power. Layla said they knew it was coming because of decreased enrollment. Layla explained what PLACE is. Ellie told everyone that there is a grievance process available to all faculty. You are not permitted to grieve terminations though but could sue in court. Tom answered Annie’s questions about how this came up in CoNTFF, and he explained that a member of CoNTFF was affected, so it was discussed. Ellie expressed that Layla did not need to stay on this committee, but Layla said she wanted to keep her commitment to the committee.
  • CoNTFF is taking on the expansion of mentoring and onboarding. The had a meeting with the Sues (Sue Doe and Sue James) to hear their vision on this and how to work with TILT and the Dean’s office regarding these matters. Marian Underwood is the new provost, and they had a meeting with her also. Annie is on the TILT advisory board and said she is learning a lot, and that Sue Doe is a great advocate for us. There is a new faculty lounge in the TILT building. She is not sure what is they will have there but keep us informed.

D. Elections

  • Sadie reported that they are looking for terms starting Fall 2024-Spring 2026. She has the names of those eligible for this committee. The deadline to nominate someone or yourself is March 1. Ellie said they may not want to ask a PLACE employee to be on the committee because that is a big commitment from a unit with only four people. It could be an optional position. They will decide later. Ellie then discussed who is still on the committee and what positions are open.
  • Meeting scheduling has been a huge issue and there was discussion as to whether to let people know we usually meet on a Tuesday or Thursday 4-5 pm so they can decide ahead of time whether to run. The consensus was to let people know this before they run.

E. Department Equity Checklist

  • There won’t be any discussion on this at this meeting but when we have the open meeting, we will do a google jamboard doc etc. like what we did at our last in-person meeting, but online. The open meeting is scheduled for February 28

F. Wrap-Up Meeting & Adjourn – 10:53 AM

Minutes respectfully submitted by Gina Robinson