The Boulder Faculty Assembly held it's first meeting of spring semester on Thursday, February 2, 2023 via Zoom. The following items were on the agenda:
Katherine Eggert, SVP of Academic Planning and Assement gave members an update on the propsal for a campus common curriculum from fall and on next steps. These will include mapping of common curiculum learning outcomes onto existing curricula and First-Year Experience programs. A campus curriculum committee will be formed in the fall to evaluate the mapping and work with colleges, schools and Student Affairs to identify gaps. Common Curriculum presentation slides; Common Curriculum Proposal Acceptance
Rolf Norgaard, chair of the BFA Teaching Faculty Affairs committee (TFAC) announced that the BFA is launching a survey on governance, voting rights, and inclusion for teaching and clinical faculty on campus. The survey will be sent to eligible teaching and clinical faculty for two weeks with a summary of results being presented at an upcoming Assembly meeting. Please send questions to bfa@colorado.edu.
Melissa Cantrell, Data & Scholarly Communications Librarian updated Assembly members regarding recently announced federal guidelines from the OSTP (Nelson) Memo and the possible impacts for public access to all publicly funded research and data. The BFA is hosting joint listening sessions with CU Libraries and RIO for campus faculty and researchers aimed at providing more information and getting feedback on how campus can support them. These sessions are open to campus.
AI Developments and Academia - BFA Chair Tiffany Beechy and Janet Casagrand, chair of the Academic Technologies & Services Committee (ATSC) led a preliminary discussion related to recent, high-profile developments in AI. While there was concern regarding academic integrity, faculty are also very curious about the ramifications of powerful software, for every area of human endeavor. The faculty discussed near-term objectives such as shoring up the Honor Code but also discussed plans for a series of interdisciplinary symposia on the impacts of AI in faculty's respective fields. The Center for Teaching & Learning will coordinate with both the BFA and OIT to create these sessions.
The BFA voted on and approved four pending motions that were introduced at the December Assembly meeting for consideration:
- BFA-M-3-111422 BFA Administrator Appraisal Committee Charge Revisions
- BFA-M-1-110722 BFA Officer Membership & Eligibility
- BFA-M- 2-110722 CU Faculty Council Officer Membership & Eligibility
- BFA-M-4-112822 BFA At-Large Representative Membership & Eligibility
Lastly, BFA Secretary Vicki Grove reminded representatives that BFA Assembly At-Large Representative election procesess would begin in February and that all faculty senate members are eligible to serve. A call for nominations can be expected later this month. Additionally, there are two open seats for Boulder faculty on the system Faculty Senate Grievance Committee (formerly P&T). These seats are for open to eligible faculty in non-A&S units. Please contact Jennifer Hendricks, chair of the BFA Grievance Advisory Committee at bfa@colorado.edu for more information.