K. Dolan reported on the meeting of the Scenario Planning Work Group last Friday to discuss plans for spring 2021. Antigen testing of the 1900 students in the dorms is being increased weekly; testing of asymptomatic off-campus students is also planned. The 700 individuals officially teaching f2f may not all be doing so. It is unclear how many teaching personnel have switched from f2f or hybrid to online. These data are important because of their potential impact on international students. J. Reisel noted that in hybrid courses students are increasingly choosing to move entirely online, which is an option open to them. Some courses will move fully online because no students are willing to meet on campus f2f. This has an impact on spring planning because of its impact on spring schedule planning, which is currently expected to resemble the fall semester with respect to the mix of online and f2f/hybrid courses. Data have been requested about how many students currently in the dorms are actually taking f2f classes. L&S Dean S. Gronert has been asked for information about the rank and status breakdown of instructors teaching f2f in order to ensure that f2f instruction is not being mainly delivered by academic staff or graduate students; that information is pending.

K. Dolan reported that the nine 2030 Implementation Team co-leads have met to work out logistics and are reaching out to members; regular meetings will begin next week. The final report anticipated by end of January rather than end of December. Major changes are likely based on the expectations communicated by campus leadership. Faculty governance in spring should anticipate changes.

K. Esguerra was welcomed to the UC as the current Chair of the ASC. She reported that academic staff requests for extensions on indefinite status filing are being granted through at least February 15, 2021. The ASC has continued to discuss the Title and Total Compensation process. Implementation of use of the term “Professor” for certain academic staff positions continues to be debated. The “Clinical Professor” academic staff title is already in use in some areas of campus but not others, for example. Whether such titles might be extended to other areas of campus has been part of this discussion. K. Dolan reported that at a Faculty Representatives meeting a range of opinion were expressed across the 13 campuses about whether this would be supported or not; such a change would dovetail with other suggestions for changes in faculty titles (teaching vs research faculty titles as described in the R1 Working Group and 2030 Reports). Tim Danielson may come to the UC to discuss this. Projected layoffs are also a concern but these have not come to ASC to date; a Priority Referral Program is in place to help staff who are laid off find new positions. Another issue is related to the impact of position specific furloughs, which are not being implemented equitably in different units. ASC has requested clarification from HR about the numbers. There were some errors in payroll due to the position specific furloughs that have hopefully been resolved by now. The ASC has received confirmation from Provost that funding for professional development will be available again but there has been a reduction in the amount available.

Provost Britz will attend the UC meeting on October 6, 2020.