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Meeting Minutes, March 17, 2020

��The Arts and Sciences Council (ASC), March 17, 2020, 3:30-5:00, Zoom Conference

Representatives present: Stephen Mojzsis, GEOL; Andrew Cowell, LING; Angelica Lawson, ETHN; Annjeanette Wiese, HUMN; Barbara Buttenfield, GEOG; Christina Meyers-Denman, SLHS; Daniel Appelo, APPM; David Stock, EBIO; Elizabeth Huard, SPAN; Françoise Duresse, AAH; John Gibert, CLAS; Juan Herrero-Senes, SPAN; Julia Lundquist, ATOC; Leslie Irvine, SOCY; Lonni Pearce, PWR; Matthew McQueen, IPHY; Rebecca Wartell, JWST; Robert Kuchta, BCHEM; Roger Pielke, ENVS; Sebastian Casalaina-Martin, MATH; Michaele Ferguson, PSCI; Mike Zerella, RAPS

Representatives & ex-officios not present: Tanja Cuk, CHEM; Hanna Rose Shell, CINE; Tim Weston, HIST; Patricia Rankin, PHYS; Tim Kuhn, CMCI; Samantha Martin, CUSG; Matthias Richter, ALC; Gerardo Gutierrez, ANTH; Erica Ellingson, APS; Peter Hunt, CLAS; Tania Barham, ECON; Ramesh Mallipeddi, ENGL; Michela Ardizzoni, FRIT; Daniel Jones, HONR; Shuang Zhang, IAFS; Jenny Knight, MCDB; Ding Xue, MCDB; Daniel Kaufman, PHIL; Ralf Norgaard, PWR; Deborah Whitehead, RLST; Cecilia Pang, THDN; Alison Jaggar, WMST

Ex-officios present: Hillary Potter, A&S Leaf Van Boven, PSYC; Roshanne Ebrahimian, SAC

Also in attendance: Robert Rupert, PHIL; Anna Jensen, A&S James White, A&S

Chair’s remarks

The meeting was called to order at 3:31 pm. Chair Stephen Mojzsis welcomes all and says that ASC meetings will be held by Zoom or other online modalities until further notice, due to COVID-19. This meeting will introduce attendees to the candidate for ASC chair for the next academic year. The nominee will have the opportunity to speak later on. Mojzsis reminds all that the documents outlining the functions of the new Faculty Affairs Committee, as well as the strategic plan implementation was posted to the A&S website and was sent to all ASC members prior to this meeting.

Dean’s remarks

Interim Dean James White explains that COVID-19 is an evolving situation and has been a learning adventure for everyone. Students have been told to go home if they want to, but they are not being forced to go home. Some students cannot get back home or do not have good enough internet access at home for classes.

Regarding White’s view on the restructuring announcement from the Provost, he believes there is a lack of planning for going forward. White explains that they are still debating when to hire the divisional deans and when to hire the dean; but this ultimately needs to be decided by the Provost.

White clarifies that the College Restructure committee is made up of a group in Old Main that were interested in looking into ways they could provide advice to the Provost on restructuring of A&S there is no formal committee.

On the closing of CU events, White explains that A&S is following the campus guidance here. Whatever we can do to limit that spread, we should do that.

Regarding CU’s plan for sick leave and staff salaries, White explains that there is no additional plan for using sick leave and that working from home doesn’t require using sick leave. A&S just updated their policy on working from home, which is very in-line with what is happening now in light of COVID-19.

As for the financial effects of COVID-19, White says that CU’s number one group of employees is students. They are being provided with paid administrative leave. The money for this was already budgeted and most students rely on this income. White then opens the floor up for questions.

Were faculty involved in the decision to go completely online? White says he does not know much about how that decision was made. He was under the impression that we had a few weeks to plan, but the timeline got pushed up. He heard about the decision to go online at the same time as everyone else.

Someone asks about the informal announcement concerning the libraries closing. White says he saw this announcement as well and thought it was not made clear whether they are closed completely, or just closed to the general public. White thinks CU employees doing research should be able to get into the building for that. His understanding is that they are operating on a “skeleton staff” (essential employees only in the building).

What if students can’t finish their work/is there a change in the incomplete policy? White suggests that if a student does not have internet access, the professor should let the chair of the department know immediately. They need to know what the specific circumstances are for that student so that the correct actions can be taken.

Someone mentions that students at other universities have been mentioning all classes for this semester becoming pass/fail. Some are concerned because this would not satisfy classes for their major/minor requiremen