The April 4 Colorado Mesa University Faculty Senate meeting involved debate over capping online course sizes. Senators were concerned about setting a precedent about class sizes that could have a negative impact on best practices for in-class courses.

The discussion arose from a review of recommendations presented by the Distance Learning Committee (DLC). Karl Castleton, professor of computer science was present to respond to senate concerns.

Tom Walla, representing biological sciences, moved to address the recommendations in different sections rather than as a whole document.

The first matter of discussion was pricing for online courses in comparison to in-class courses. Currently, online courses have higher pricing and fees than the identical courses offered on campus.

According to Castleton, the higher pricing originated because of the use of the CMU online platform known as D2L. However, now that in-class courses are also using D2L, the DLC felt it was unnecessary to have higher tuition costs for students taking online classes.

“I don’t really know much about pricing,” Walla said after mentioning that he felt the language was a little strong. “It does seem like a good recommendation.”

DLC also recommended enrollment caps for online courses. The proposal centered around limiting enrollment for online courses to enhance the educational experience for students and decrease the load placed on faculty.

Meredith Lyons, representing Theatre Arts, said her department was concerned about the wording that assigned the department head with limiting enrollment.

“The feedback was that the faculty member that teaches the course has been teaching for many years online,” Lyons said. She told the senate her department felt the teacher would therefore be better suited to set the class size.

“PES was two-to-one against the cap,” Physical and Environmental Sciences Senator Jared Worman said. “I am very mixed on this topic, so I’m not representing my own feelings.”

Social and Behavioral Sciences Senator Sarah Swedberg directed the subject of class size to in-class courses. “I would do a much better job if I had caps on how many I teach in person,” Swedberg said.

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“I think the intent is good, but I think there’s some issues,” Faculty Trustee Chad Middleton said, expressing concerns that a precedent could be set that might prevent in-class courses from being manageable sizes. “I like smaller class sizes, but I don’t want this to have some unintended consequences.”

Faculty Senate Vice President James Ayers voiced worry about how widespread online courses could become and how that could affect local faculty. Ayers said, “My concern is bigger classes being broken up and farmed out.”

Assistant Vice President of Distance Education Tim Pinnow assured the senate that CMU President Tim Foster insisted that all online courses be offered first to local faculty before being farmed out.

The senate decided to table the issue while senators worked on wording for an amendment to the recommendation. An official amendment will be voted on at the April 19 meeting.

In other action:

Vice President of Academic Affairs Cynthia Pemberton announced an increase in the Faculty Professional Development Fund (FPDF). According to Middleton, the total fund of $50,000 was increased to $70,000 during the 2015-16 academic year after nearly a decade of remaining flat.

Academic Affairs made a budget request for another increase to $100,000 for the next academic year. FPDF is an internal fund supporting faculty scholarship that allows faculty to request funding for their scholarship endeavors.

“This is something near and dear to our hearts,” Pemberton said. The senate applauded the announcement.

Laura Glatt, vice president of finance and administration presented information with Kevin Price from Insight Financial Solutions about engaging in a transition process for retirement investment. The goal is to make the process easier by limiting investment choices.

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Swedberg called attention to wording in the new faculty handbook proposals that she found to be a serious concern. Proposal 15 for the new handbook says, “allows the president to hire an individual into a full-time administrative position when deemed critical to the operation of the university without conducting a formal search.”

“Let that sink in,” Swedberg said. “What we’re giving to President Foster, if this goes through, is dictatorial powers. Not that he doesn’t already have them, but we’re giving him more dictatorial powers here in writing.”

Swedberg encouraged the senators to talk to their fellow faculty members and see how they feel about the issue so a formal response from faculty can be generated.