Members of the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) heard updates on common curriculum implementation and the shared values project, a report from the BFA collective bargaining task force and more during their November meeting.

Common curriculum implementation update

In 2023, former Provost Russell Moore tasked the vice provost for academic planning and assessment, the dean of undergraduate education and the BFA with the implementation of the newly approved common curriculum proposal based on the idea of "sustainable futures," which comprise the self, society and world.

Since then, the committee has changed—but the mission of improving the educational experience for undergraduates has not.

"Many of you have already been great partners to us in this process, and for that we are grateful," said Erika Randall, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education and one of the presenters.

In particular, Randall and Chad Bebee, assistant dean of undergraduate curriculum, outlined where they were in the common curriculum planning process, which this semester has been focused on curriculum mapping and the ongoing development of the new first-year experience.

They also encouraged faculty assembly members to send any questions, comments or concerns about the common curriculum implementation to this Qualtrics page.

"We want this process to feel real and right for our students and faculty. As we look towards continuous improvement, we want to make sure we are assessing for student learning not just of student learning," Randall said, adding, "If there are questions that you have in your unit, know that we’re here for you. We want the work to feel focused, tenable and appropriate for our students and for your unit's own thinking about how you engage in these outcomes."

Randall and Bebee will return to talk more about assessment at a later date.

BFA Collective Bargaining Working Group report

In March, the BFA created the BFA Collective Bargaining Working Group in response to a resolution that was passed in support of collective bargaining. The group was charged with looking at how collective bargaining would work on campus, the potential benefits and drawbacks of such an effort and how that group would fit together with shared governance bodies on campus.

Deborah Palmer, BFA chair elect and an education professor, Robert Benim, BFA parliamentarian and an associate teaching professor in applied mathematics, and James Byrne, BFA student affairs committee chair and an assistant teaching professor in the Herbst Program for Engineering, updated the assembly on that working group's findings, which are available as part of the final report.

In particular, in that report they outline three different models for how shared governance could relate to collective bargaining and faculty unions and potential sources of tension. Overall, they felt that for an R1 university with a strong shared governance system like CU Boulder, any potential advantages of collective bargaining outweigh any risks to shared governance.

"Please look at the report. It’s not that long, plus (includes) links if you’re interested in reading more," Palmer said. "Any of the committee members can answer questions and engage in conversation. It’s why we did this work."

Any final decision on collective bargaining will need to be decided by the CU Board of Regents, the Colorado legislature or through a statewide referendum.

Campus Values Project

During the September meeting, Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership support and programming, and Jon Leslie, senior director of special projects, encouraged faculty to submit feedback on an authoring committee's draft of the campus's shared values. Using all feedback collected in the last year, five values have been determined. For now, DeLuca Fernández and Leslie are looking for input regarding the implementation of those values.

"We've gone to shared governance multiple times for your input, and here we are coming back because we really can't implement this without you," Leslie said.

Details regarding implementation will be defined with shared governance input during the remainder of this fall, after which next steps will be officially announced in the spring.

Other business

• Earlier this fall, the BFA voted on what they thought the assembly's priorities should be for the next two years. The top priorities from that list included artificial intelligence, academic freedom, collective bargaining, faculty pay equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, climate and/or sustainability and the campus budget.
• BFA introduced three notices of motion, including minor modifications to officer and ExCom at-large roles, a policy related to the minimum roster unit size for BFA representations, which would set the minimum members in the unit at five, and a resolution to include sustainability efforts in the faculty report of professional activities (FRPA). These motions will be voted on during the December meeting.
• BFA Chair David Paradis updated the assembly on the AI Contract that was voted on during last month’s meeting. The resolution was given to the CU system office for their consideration. They are also collecting feedback from the other campuses.
• System's AI Committee has produced separate one-page guides for faculty on how to assess students' work using AI. Those guides will be emailed and available on the Faculty Council’s website.
• Paradis reminded the assembly that there are resources related to hazing prevention and reporting on the Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution website and encouraged members to review.
• Paradis also invited assembly members to volunteer at the employee appreciation breakfast taking place from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 10 and to participate in the Staff Council’s coat drive.

Learn more about the BFA and previous actions on the BFA website.