Faculty assembly updated on new micro-credential, lecturer title and more
A new micro-credential on climate, sustainability and justice education and an updated lecturer title were topics of discussion during the April Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) meeting.
Climate, sustainability and justice education micro-credential
Last year, the BFA, in partnership with the Center for Teaching & Learning, organized aone-year working group focused on creating an undergraduate pathway in climate, sustainability and justice education.
Drawing on CU Boulder’scommitment to addressing climate, sustainability and justice in research, teaching and practice, this collaborative effort had the goal of developing opportunities for students to become informed decision-makers in this area, both locally and globally.
After many discussions, including with community-based partners and student and faculty working groups, it was decided the best approach to implement this on a large scale would be the creation of a micro-credential.
Micro-credentials are focused, flexible programs designed to recognize specific skills and competencies through short, targeted learning experiences. Unlike traditional degrees or certificates, micro-credentials emphasize practical, skill-based learning and provide digital badges that showcase accomplishments.
While this micro-credential proposal is still a work in progress, the hope is that it will pull together the work already happening across campus to create a new educational pathway for students.
“There’s a big playground that we can work in here in terms of developing these things, and there’s a lot out there, too, that we recognize people are already doing in different departments,” said Victoria Hand, associate professor of education and the working group’s leader. “We want our work to be celebrating all that work and trying to provide a platform for the students where they can see where they can go to get these kinds of experiences.”
New lecturer title
In 2024, the CU system implemented a revision of its administrative policy on faculty titles. Since then, CU Boulder has been working to figure out a way to bring the university into compliance with CU system policy, particularly in relation to the role of lecturers, temporary faculty members hired to teach part-time on a course-by-course basis.
CU Boulder is now nearing completion of a plan to revise its own policy on non-tenure-track faculty titles and roles and to create a new faculty role for some of these temporary faculty members.
This new role would limit lecturers to under 50% of time. If they work more than that—defined campuswide as teaching 6 student credit hours or more—then they become instructional associates.
Instructional associates are eligible for CU system benefits when their position is 50% time or higher, but their time as an instructional associate is limited to three years, regardless of how many semesters they teach within that time period or how many credit hours they teach within a given semester.
After that, if the unit wishes for them to stay on, they can be moved into continuing teaching roles as teaching professor track faculty or faculty in residence, or can revert to a lecturer position of teaching less than six credit hours per semester.
“We want to create a clear option for schools and colleges to bring people who turn out to be fantastic teachers on as longer-term faculty,” said Katherine Eggert, vice chancellor and senior vice provost for academic planning and assessment.
Eggert emphasized the instructional associate role will not be a guarantee of a longer-term career path at the university, and that schools and colleges will need to take a comprehensive look at their curricular needs before they create faculty positions.
The implementation of this change is the subject of an ongoing discussion and is still a work in progress. More information about this new classification will be available once finalized.
In other BFA action
- BFA Chair Shelly Miller updated the assembly on thechancellor’s task force on faculty salary, which wasannounced last meeting; requested a BFA rep to serve on theOffice of Information Technology’s Wi-Fi network upgrade project; andencouraged faculty to attend the on April 15, hosted by Provost Russell Moore and Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost Michele Moses.
- There was a call for nominations for next month’sBFA officer elections for chair, chair elect, parliamentarian and bylaws and elections chair, and the shared faculty governance advisor seats.
- The teaching faculty affairs committee moved to update their charge to bring it into alignment with BFA goals and with other committee charges. This will be voted on next month.
- Representatives voted to approve a number of resolutions introduced at the March meeting, with the exception of a revised budget committee. Due to last minute feedback and proposed changes, members voted to postpone the vote on this item until the May assembly meeting in order to fully consider all input.
Learn more about the BFA and previous actions onthe BFA website.