Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of Minutes from Nov 8, 2024 – Evanna motions to approve, Josh seconds. Minutes approved. 

New Business —

New Initiatives: Ryan 

• Welcoming forty-seven mid-year student athletes. 
• Twenty-seven are transfer athletes. This is both Welcome to College and Welcome to Kansas.
• The mid-year student athlete population has doubled. May need to consider both August and January section – and not just focus solely on August. 

Student Athlete Advisory Committee report reviews: Matt and Evanna

• There’s a desire that student athletes can be more involved in the community. 
• Have talked with Ryan about exit surveys. 
• The thought was to brainstorm some questions. 
• Three hundred student athletes participated so will give us a great sample. 
• Evanna met with Melinda Fowles and Jen Wamalink.
• Build out surveys close to semester. 
• Ryan said he can make connections. 
•  “Satisfaction with campus involvement” question and other pre-existing questions: 
  • What questions have already been asked? 
  • How can we rephrase them to get better data? 

  • Susan asks Ryan if he can check with Mia or Nicole – historically, we presented the data to the committee, but it would be helpful to know the questions already asked.

     

Jana: Course Offering Challenges: 

• ACCT 200: Josh will work w/ athletes to get into the labs. 
• BSN 310: Some athletes miss practice for this class.
• Supply Chain: This class is at 8am. Instructors have agreed to let athletes leave at 9am instead of 9:15 to make practice.
• Ryan mentions that we leave it up to the instructors. 
• Football practice is usually about 9am – 11am ( often w/ 8am meeting). 
• BSAN 310 spring: Have athletes leave practice early to make 11:00 AM class.
• BUS 110: going to be offered in both Spring/Fall but don’t know schedule yet since other classes are going away 
• T/TH Business 100 and 200 classes will be switching to MW.
• Biol 152 – instructors less willing to make changes but there are enough options in both spring and fall they felt it wasn’t impacting athletes. 
• BUS 305 – still discussing summer. 
• FIN 305: e-mail sent to Claire Rosenfield to see if they will be offering this summer, 2025. They are discussing.
• HSES 269: Two sessions offered online during the summer.

The big ones are BIOL 152, BUS 110 and FIN 305 – Jana still following up on these classes. 

HSE 350 – Austin, will this be offered this summer? Austin mentioned they haven’t offered Sport Ethics online. There is a 11-student minimum.

Austin will do some investigating on HSE 350. 

In a perfect world, a 1pm class would be great but Ryan mentions they’ll make it work.

Ryan – More teams are looking at morning practice: Volleyball and Basketball are looking more at AM practice. Track and Rowing aren’t yet but there is a trend more toward AM practice.

There are many moving parts in Business School with class. A “fill rate” is going into effect – need 70% fill rate, so a room can’t really be locked . This is part of the master plan change. This is so don’t have classes late at night or on Saturdays. More discussion will likely be coming soon on this. 

One KU: 

• Derek was talking w/ Edwards campus. 
• We haven’t hit on the Athletics piece quite as much yet – regarding the OneKU approach. Derek talked w/ folks at Edwards – hope is to get clearer picture of athletes taking classes at Edwards. 
• From an athletics perspective, not exactly sure what classes athletes may take out there but could be helpful. 
• Ryan mentioned Criminal Justice classes are offered at Edwards and there has been an uptick in interest among athletes. Many classes are online. Criminal Justice has also moved in-person classes to Lawrence. School of Prof Studies/ Project Management is also popular. 

Excused Absence Policy – Ryans asks about concerns/challenges, and how it’s going: 

• Josh’s spring plan is to review what’s needed in the Code language versus how things are interpreted. 
• The Code is clear on things that aren’t as feasible for large lectures. The FAQs can be contradictory as well. 
• The policy needs to be more accommodating to a broader range. 
• Or what if we left it as is? What are some requests that would be needed? 
• From athlete perspective, Josh thinks track & field is more “as an event happens.” Josh created plan for those potential conflicts: if you’re going to be gone, “here’s the plan” and then Josh sends to student and to the advisor – so the advisor knows. This isn’t feasible to do for every sport or class – but there are some practices that faculty can do up-front.

Athletes also have responsibility to keep instructors informed of their absences and staying on top of being away. 

Discrepancies with FAQs: Susan 

• Some faculty have as their policy “there are no make up for exams” and it doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete. There are two options: take all the exams or if need to miss an exam, regardless of reason, the final is 30% of grade. Miliary service and jury duty are included.
• When a student has grievance, to whom should they turn? 

Josh can ask Jen Roberts about syllabi. This may go through AIRE but Josh thinks it’s a reasonable request. Faculty Affairs and Student Affairs have asked Josh about his insights. Susan’s suggestion may lead to a tangible way to decipher how absences are being handled. 

How many instructors have changed their classes to remove attendance points? Also, how to deal with online courses. This can still be tricky. Getting a syllabus review may be a good way. 

Certain sports travel on Fridays more exclusively. Athletes sometimes need to go into a Thursday lab – Josh tries to schedule athletes into those labs. 

Brendan mentions situations in which can’t plan ahead -- such as first week of class and for some online courses, there is no leniency if legitimately sick. 

There also is disparity and discrepancy between instructors and courses. 

Peter and Ava are student athlete representatives: What are some things they see from their perspective? Could we think about those things for the April meeting? 

Ryan shares they’re trying to navigate the new world of College Athletics. May have more clarity as get close to April meeting. Things are going to look different but we’re not quite sure how. 

Next meeting : April 18, 2025, in Cap Fed 1170

Ryan will have Power Point ready to go and will send Jana ahead of time. 

There are many rules around athletes and gifts. Is this becoming more difficult to decipher? 

Susan was under impression that Student Access Center would be place for makeup exams but there has been uncertainty around this. Is there a matter of staffing this? The SAC hours are still limited – what are the plans of expanded access and expanded hours. 

Jana asks the students if they may want to work with Josh about the Student Access Center goals and future plans? 

Meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm