UCCS Faculty Assembly took on a system-wide issue at its first meeting of the 2011-12 academic year. Mark Malone, chair, CU Faculty Council, made a PowerPoint presentation regarding a proposed amendment to establish clear rules regarding severance pay when a CU faculty member is dismissed for cause.
Malone reported that the CU System EPUS and Personnel committees voted in favor of amendments that revised Regents Law 5.C.1 to read:
“A faculty member may be dismissed when, in the judgment of the Board of Regents and subject to the Board of Regents constitutional and statutory authority, the good of the university requires such action. The grounds for dismissal shall be demonstrable professional incompetence, gross or repeated neglect of duties, conviction of a felony, sexual harassment, or other conduct that falls below minimum standards of professional integrity. The faculty panel on Privilege and Tenure may recommend, in consideration of mitigating circumstances, that the Board of Regents vote affirmatively to give one year of severance pay to the faculty member dismissed for cause.”
He said Faculty Council is seeking feedback from faculty members on all CU campuses before making the wording final and presenting the amended law to the CU Board of Regents. His presentation explained the history of dismissal for cause cases and how severance pay is a factor. Severance pay became a contentious issue following the Ward Churchill dismissal and regents asked faculty to consider modifying language in existing laws that automatically entitle a faculty member dismissed for cause to one year of severance pay.
Malone explained that revised wording of dismissal for cause guidelines has become necessary because of language in the text that has become confusing and archaic since it was originally established. Terms like “moral turpitude,” have become questionable. A substantial issue of the revision, however, is that the year of severance pay has been automatic up to now except in special cases such as moral turpitude, felony conviction, and sexual harassment, and will become a decision for the regents under the amended law.
Malone was accompanied by R.L. Widmann, chair, Faculty Council EPUS Committee, William Emery, chair, Faculty Council Personnel Committee and Skip Hamilton, secretary, Faculty Council. The quartet responded to questions from faculty after the presentation.
Widmann noted that revising the language has been an ongoing issue since before the Churchill dismissal, but that event prompted irritation and emotion over the severance pay. Regents and faculty recognized a need for some clarification, she said. Emery agreed that language needs to be understandable for the regents to make their decisions. Both said the year’s severance pay is considered by many faculty members to be a guaranteed right rather than a discretionary item to be decided by the regents.
Malone said faculty need to submit feedback on the new wording before Oct. 14, 2011 when the combined EPUS and personnel committees finalize the proposed amendment for Faculty Council’s recommendation to the regents.
Katie Kaukinen, president, Faculty Assembly, said she would notify all UCCS faculty members by email to review the amendment and submit their responses to Faculty Council. She subsequently requested UCCS faculty to contact her or any of the three Faculty Council representatives at UCCS with input by Oct. 7.
Information regarding dismissal for cause and severance pay discussions, as well as the PowerPoint presentation is available at https://www.cu.edu:443/facultycouncil/dismissal.html.
Faculty should send input to Kaukinen at [email protected]; Elissa Auther, associate professor, Visual and Performing Arts, at [email protected]; Barbara Frye, assistant professor, Curriculum and Instruction, at [email protected]; or Christina Martinez, senior instructor, Kraemer Family Library, at [email protected].
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