The Metropolitan State University of Denver Faculty Senate convened Nov. 1, led by Senate President Liz Goodnick, Ph.D., associate professor of Philosophy.
Benefits open enrollment Nov. 1-17
This year’s open enrollment, which will be managed completely in Workday, is “passive,” meaning employees do not need to take action unless they are making plan changes. Medical, dental, vision and voluntary plan elections will roll forward to 2024.
There is one exception: Employees who wish to participate in flexible spending (FSA) in 2024 MUST reenroll each year. All changes made during open enrollment will be effective Jan. 1.
Medical-plan premiums will be higher, and some deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums will rise. See the open-enrollment overview for details and learn why premiums are increasing across the country. See the 2024 CHEIBA Rate Sheet.
Increasing enrollment, enhancing recruitment for grad programs
Inge Wefes, associate vice president of Graduate Studies, provided a program overview. In July 2010, MSU Denver became an accredited institution approved to offer master’s degrees. The program now offers 10 master’s programs and 11 graduate-certificate programs. To increase enrollment and enhance recruitment, the General Studies Office is hosting graduate-studies events and piloting new offers for students. Opportunities include waiving the application fee for domestic students for one year and offering graduate-student conference-travel support. MSU Denver has 1,160 graduate students. View the full Graduate Studies update to learn about the graduate-student population and other pilot opportunities.
Faculty Federation update
Rich Wagner, vice president of the Metro State Faculty Federation and Faculty Senate member, shared that the MSFF is now producing a regular newsletter. See the fall/winter edition on the MSFF website.
Provost update
Provost Ad Interim Marie Mora, Ph.D., shared updates from the Office of Academic Affairs.
- Mora and the Faculty Workload and Oversight Advisory Committee will convene Dec. 12 to review the three-year implementation plans concerning differentiated faculty workload.
- At the Board of Trustees meeting Oct. 27, deans presented their 30-60-90-day student-success plans. Mora and Will Simpkins, Ph.D., vice president of Student Affairs, also gave an update on the Student Success Launch work.
- Kudos to several departments for following the course-scheduling instructions meticulously for spring: Biology, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology and the entire School of Education.
- Cath Kleier, associate vice president of Faculty Affairs, will submit a $1 million proposal to the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Program, which is focused on promoting gender equity among STEM faculty members.
Announcements
New Senate guest-speaker process: Prospective guest speakers should complete the Faculty Senate Guest Presentation Request form available on the Faculty Senate website.
Spring registration is open, and classes begin Jan. 16. The spring schedule with instructional Methods is now live. Registration dates by class:
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- Senior registration: Oct. 30
- Juniors: Nov. 1
- Sophomores: Nov. 3
- Freshman: Nov. 6
The Dream.US 2024 Fellowship Project application is available now. The deadline for full consideration is Nov. 12. See the announcement.
Student Success Launch information is available in the SharePoint Student Success subfolder.
Information about other groups or projects can be found in their own separate subfolder within the Faculty Senate SharePoint:
Minutes from the Oct. 18 meeting were approved with 71 in favor, two in opposition and five abstaining.
Academic Policy Committee
APC bylaws – first read
- APC Bylaws
- The APC wishes to add two advisory members, one from Financial Aid and one graduate- student representative.
- To keep a balanced committee membership, the proposal is to add one additional voting member from the Council of Chairs and Directors.
Catalog cleanup
- The APC has conducted a thorough review and cleanup of the Catalog, which was last done in the 1990s.
- The technical changes encompass about 300 pages of red lines and are meant to clarify, update and remove any language that is no longer applicable, such as the recent minor-requirement removal.
- The Faculty Senate was given notice of this upcoming first read to allow time to review the changes prior to the official first read at the Nov. 15 meeting.
- View the Financial Aid and Full Catalog Clean-Up slide for details. All documents can be found in the Faculty Senate Nov. 1 meeting folder.
- Financial Aid and Scholarship page – Updated and cleaned up.
- Catalog Version 1 changes – Minor Required removal.
- Catalog Version 2 changes – full review to update language.
Second reads and votes
Approved:
- Faculty Senate Constitution change – Article IV – Members re: proxy voting
- APC Academic Standing
- APC Prior Learning
Rejected:
- Sustainable Systems Engineering discontinuation of the program.
- See the SSE overview slides, including SSE Faculty recommendations.
- Senators rejected the motion to discontinue the program due to lack of clear reasoning regarding why the program should be removed and budget analysis to support the discontinuation.