pres_report_200410

COLUMBIA COLLEGE, FACULTY ORGANIZATION (CCFO)
Report to the College Council

October 8th, 2004

A meeting of the full-time faculty Pension Plan Trustees, the CCFO President, the Vice-President for Finance and the plan actuary was held on September 14th. This meeting was honest and productive and answered several of the trustee's questions.

CCFO had its fall meeting on Tuesday, September 21st. This meeting was productive and issues raised at that meeting are being followed up on. In addition, an electronic survey will soon be sent out. Our web site will also soon be undergoing major changes.

The Provost has noted that the faculty workload reduction proposal will be soon delivered to the President for his consideration. A meeting between the Provost and CCFO members discussed other workload issues including, in part: orientation/registration; "cold-calling" and career counseling. Requests have been made that the Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs work together when faculty participation is sought.

Planning for the 2005 faculty retreat has begun and CCFO is encouraged that faculty wishes for having a "theme-less" retreat are not only being heard but actively encouraged. In addition, the retreat committee is recommending that we have the 2008 faculty retreat at the Indian Lakes Resort In Bloomingdale.

The Salary/Rank Committee will soon have its first meeting and will also seriously investigate the issue of developing a fair merit raise "scale" for faculty.

CCFO will closely monitor the searches for Chairs of the English and Art & Design Departments and also for the Director of the Freshman Seminar program to make certain that faculty handbook guidelines are adhered to. We are also curious to know how many new full-time tenure track faculty position searches will be occurring this year given that the college now has over 10,000 students.

We have also worked to help fill additional committee vacancies on the All-College Tenure and Budget & Priorities committees.
There will be a brief CCFO caucus after this College Council Meeting and, in addition, we will have a meeting next Wednesday with the President, Provost and Associate Provost.