Executive Committee Meeting

Boulder Faculty Assembly

Minutes

November 10, 2003

Attending:

Barbara Bintliff, BFA Chair

Mel Branch, BFA Faculty Affairs Committee Chair

Greg Carey, Secretary

Bob Hohlfelder, Budget and Planning Committee Chair

Jerry Peterson, At-Large Board Member

Uriel Nauenberg, former BFA chair

Marguerite Moritz, BFA GLB Affairs Committee Chair

Mike Preston, BFA Intercollegiate Athletics Cmte Chair

Rodney Taylor, At-Large Board Member

Bill Waite, Academic Affairs Committee

Bill Kaempfer, Assoc. VC for Budget and Planning

Basim Mahmood, UCSU Academic Affairs Liaison

Guest Speaker:

Ric Porreca, Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer

Media:

Adam Ewing, Colorado Daily

Not Attending:

Stein Sture, Vice Chair

Cathy Comstock, BFA AAP Committee Chair

Dipankar Chakravarti, Minority Affairs Committee Chair

Andy Cowell, BFA Academic Technology Committee Chair

David Guenther, BFA Administrative Services Committee Chair

Mark Dubin, BFA Libraries Committee Chair

Tom Mayer, Communications Committee Chair

Clayton Lewis, Faculty Compensation and Benefits Cmte Chair

Gail Ramsberger, Arts and Sciences Council Chair

Lori Seward, BFA Committee on Women Chair

Martin Walter, BFA Student Affairs Cmte Chair

A meeting of the Boulder Faculty Assembly Executive Committee was held on Monday, November 10, 2003, in UMC room 325. Chair Barbara Bintliff presided. The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m. and adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

A. Minutes

The minutes of the November 3 meeting were not available for approval.

B. Chair’s Report

Bintliff announced that the November 17 Executive Committee meeting has been cancelled and that reminders concerning the remainder of the semester’s schedule would go out via email.

Bintliff will be meeting with Kent Zimmerman of the Alumni Association to discuss the proposal to move the Association and part of the admissions functions into the University Club. Please forward any and all comments on this proposed change to her before her meeting scheduled for November 11.

The Chair brought with her the transmittal letter to the Chancellor requesting the review of FCQ’s and she invited faculty to appraise it.

Bintliff reported that she spoke with Tony Barker about the apparent change in eligibility for the CRCW small grants this year and he promised to research the question including whether or not a policy shift was responsible for the changes.

C. C. Special Reports

Bintliff introduced guest speaker Ric Porreca, Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer for CU, who has been working with admissions on the most recent CCHE policy changes to take effect as early as Fall 2005.

Porreca began by stating that the CCHE has statutory authority and is required by statute to develop guidelines and policy with regard to admissions. He then described the external criteria he and admissions have to pay attention to, beginning with the admission standard overall, or the “103.” He distributed a student score matrix used to calculate a “103” or total score. The matrix represents the total number of admit points a student can be assessed based on four criteria: high school ranking or high school GPA, and the student’s SAT or ACT scores. These numbers combine to create the number seen on the matrix chart, with 103 points the necessary “index score” required to be considered eligible for admission to CU Boulder. Other institutions have different CCHE index scores for admission eligibility: the School of Mines has the highest index score of 110 and UCCS has set theirs at 92. Porreca pointed out that the chart indicates the combination of the four scores necessary to become eligible for admission which does not guarantee a student will be admitted as there are additional criteria applied to student applications. Twenty percent of students admitted to CU could have a score of 103 or below which is called the “window.” CCHE would like to close this window down to ten percent by Fall 2008. Athletes represent a relatively small number of “window” admits. Students with additional criteria such as music auditions, or those who do not have GPA’s or class ranks, as well as home-schooled students would be brought in to CU through this window. Students with foreign high school transcripts are exempted from this policy.

There is a higher percentage of students admitted through the window who tend to matriculate, hence the decision by CCHE to make the window on admissions smaller. CU has agreed to move towards a smaller, more selective window on admits provided the campus get approval on Quality for Colorado.

This year CCHE added an admissions “floor,” which describes those students with an admissions score 10 points below the admissions criteria standard of 103, or a floor of 93. CU can only accept one percent or less of admits with a score of 93 or below, which means that ninety-nine percent of CU’s admits must score above 93.

The admissions window for resident students must be bigger than the admissions window for nonresident students, which means it shouldn’t be easier for nonresidents to gain admission over residents. The resident applicant pool is currently growing faster than the nonresident pool, which poses problems in terms of getting the mix of students we want to meet our diversity and budget objectives.

Additionally there is the “55-45” state law and CCHE requirement which requires that the freshman class be composed of fifty-five percent instate matriculants. This fifty-five percent is a three-year rolling average which causes you to try to aim higher at matriculating instate residents. The goal is to aim for a breakdown of 56-44, and this past fall admissions hit at 56.3. Nonresident tuition is currently at $19,500 per year, with resident tuition at about $3,200.

There is a companion “two-thirds” rule which states that the overall student population, including graduate and transfer students, must be two-thirds residents.

Chancellor Byyny has said that the campus goal is to reduce the freshman class size by five percent for next year and again the following year, for a total reduction of ten percent over two years. The average freshman admit score was a 113 which means that CU can reduce the size of the window or raise the CCHE index score from 103 to a higher number.

Bintliff asked what would happen should Quality for Colorado not be approved, and Porreca responded that the goal would still be to try to reduce the freshman class size. Kaempfer stated that changing the graduate student tuition policy could affect the numbers and that it is still important for nonresidents to claim resident status when eligible.

The Chair asked about the changes in coursework criteria or academic preparation standards for admission to CU, and Porreca described the procedure by which a prospective student’s transcript is evaluated. In the past, if there were one or two course requirements missing we overlooked the deficiency if the candidate was strong. If there are more than two deficiencies in a student’s record, admission is more difficult, with the CCHE now requiring as of spring, 2008 a minimum of four units of English, three of Mathematics, three of Natural Science, three of Social Science, and two electives. In 2010 the two electives will be replaced with an additional mathematics unit and two units of the same language, bringing the total number of electives up to three. Bintliff remarked that rural students could be disadvantaged particularly in the sciences if there high school facilities were inadequate. Porreca pointed out that these standards are the minimum and even higher criteria are encouraged. High school counselors currently have these criteria for admission for Fall of ’04, and he stated that CU will likely deny admission to a greater number of students with an admit score of less than 103 than last year.

Chair Bintliff thanked Porreca for his time and presentation.

D. Committee Reports

On behalf of Cathy Comstock, the Administrator Appraisal Chair, Bintliff reminded the committee to complete and return all Administrative Appraisal questionnaires as soon as possible.

Bob Hohlfelder reported that at the November 7 meeting of the Budget and Planning Committee discussed Quality for Colorado and the extra funds available and where they could be directed. About $5.7 million was realized from the Quality for Colorado initiative, with twenty percent committed to Financial Aid students. Commitments were also made to specific undergraduate programs such as Advising and UROP, and monies were also committed to the 1% raise pool for faculty due in January. Other programs may be under consideration for funds, such as the Writing Program or graduate tuition waiver pool. Hohlfelder asked Porreca that the BFA Budget committee be involved in the preliminary discussions in the spring when it would still be possible to suggest how the money be spent. Bintliff suggested that the BFA Budget Committee hold a meeting at which time they discuss faculty priorities for the expenditure of these funds and had priorities that were set going into the discussions rather than wait for the administration to come to the BFA in the spring of 2004. Hohlfelder agreed that all of this should have been decided earlier, and added that at this time the committee will learn what the options are, what has or has not been funded, and this will help form the discussion to establish priorities in the spring.

Capital construction funding prospects for the next few years look bleak, which will result in a huge backlog of projects. Currently forty-nine percent of all courses being taught at CU include an instructional course fee; instituting this fee is under consideration. CU is catching up with its peer institutions when it comes to faculty salaries at the associate and assistant level thanks to Chancellor Byyny’s efforts. Preston noted that CU is still behind its peers when factoring in medical coverage. Hohlfelder responded that his committee has asked for figures on total compensation but was not certain what kind of input his committee would be able to give this year.

The Chair thanked Hohlfelder for his report.

Bintliff reported that the BFA under-populated Administrative Services and the Benefits committees still needed members, and that a representative from the BFA to serve on Faculty Council would also be welcome.

E. Next Meeting

The next regular meeting of the Boulder Faculty Assembly Executive Committee will be Monday, November 24, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in UMC room 325. Phil DiStefano, Cheryl Brazeau, William Kaempfer, and Uriel Nauenberg will make a presentation on salary surveys. The November 17 meeting has been cancelled.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and the meeting was adjourned.