New Business —

Committee Charges and Chair

1. Kristin Villa introduced herself as the University Senate President and her role in the meeting. The committee still requires a chair in order to conduct business. Kristin reviewed the standing and specific charges and the expectations for the committee to address them.
2. Specific Charge #2 is already being addressed by efforts of the Endacott Society. There will be a panel event on Thursday, Oct. 26th. The committee can contribute to these panels in the future by defining frequency, modality, etc. University Governance can assist with logistical details, especially for virtual options.
3. Kristin noted that the committee can address Specific Charge #3 by elevating issues to herself and the rest of University Senate.
4. A challenge this committee faces is that the chair must be an active faculty or staff member of the university, which excludes the 3 retired member spots on the committee. An additional challenge is that all eligible members are new to the committee.
5. Specific Charge #1
   1. Q: How can the committee address Specific Charge #1?
      1. A: The committee can look into how these resources and deadlines are communicated to retirees and make recommendations.
   2. Q: How does HR currently go about announcing these things?
      1. A: Gary Minden noted that a few years ago, HR held an informational session on transitioning into retirement.
6. Kristin noted that the committee should not feel pressured to try to achieve everything this year. Governance is an ongoing process and takes time. The committee should meet at a minimum of once per semester, but other committees meet once per month. It is dependent on the scope and demand of the committee’s work. Committee members are welcome to attend other Governance meetings but are not required to do so.
7. Beth Benfield and Patrick Lansdon agreed to co-chair.

Discussion of Future Committee Business

1. David Ekerdt shared an observation from the FY2023 RRB survey that retirees seem generally positive about KU and about their relationship with KU. There are certainly areas where improvements could be made.
2. Gary Minden observed three main themes from the survey results: connectivity to former unit and colleagues (KU can take steps to improve this, but it also falls on the individual retiree; email connectivity to the university (retirees can keep their KU email accounts); and parking (reduced parking permits are excellent).
3. David observed that most dissatisfaction among retirees seems to be based in individual units, rather than KU or HR overall. Gary expressed that he feels fortunate to have a great relationship with his former department, but he is aware that this is not a universal experience.
4. Q: Is there a Teams site or other repository where the former committee kept notes?
   1. A: Not to our knowledge. Caty will create a Teams site and contact the former chair of the committee for any materials he may have. He may also be willing to meet with the co-chairs.
5. Beth suggested that the committee have a meeting dedicated to discussing the survey report.
   1. Gary asked the committee if there are any issues that the committee should be considering that are not included in the charges.
6. Amy Mendenhall joined the meeting and reviewed some of the ways that the Office of Faculty Affairs serves retirees. They process requests for phased retirement and emeritus status. She is open to learning about other ways they can support faculty retirees.
7. The Endacott Society struggles with identifying current faculty and staff who are considering retirement so that the group can contact them with support. There are some cases where HR or Faculty Affairs will know about a future retiree (phased retirement, VSIP), but in other cases employees might not want their unit or HR to know they plan to retire soon.
   1. Caty suggested inviting a representative from HR to a committee meeting to share any methods they use to identify retirees.
8. Dave suggested that the committee can enunciate why it is important for the university to cultivate its retirees. Why do universities differ from other corporations in this way? We know that it is good for the university, but it could be beneficial to have a clear statement explaining this.
   1. Gary proposed including examples with this statement, such as the following: once a faculty member retires, they may still serve on a proposal review committee at places like NSF, NIH, NASA, etc. It is important for these individuals to identify as being from the university, have a university email account, etc.
   2. Governance could assist with distributing and promoting this message with the university community. Caty noted that seeing positive examples and testimonials might encourage units to improve and bolster relationships with retirees.
9. Beth suggested that it would be helpful to gather information about what specific units do for retirees so that the committee can have a better understanding of support across the university. This could eventually become a resource for retirees, linked to the benefits webpages.
   1. Cindy Gilkey noted different expectations and past conflicts around preserving office space for retirees.
10. Amy suggested that the HR visitor share information about the HR Transformation process and Centers for Excellence realignment. They could provide information about how retirees will interact with the new framework and the new Business Partners. This will also be a good opportunity for the committee to remind HR about the importance of the retirement stage in the employee cycle.
    1. The Alumni Association has laid out a model for facilitating transitions and maintaining involvement for students: prospective students, current students, and alumni. This could inform how KU thinks about faculty and staff employees throughout their various career stages.

Next Steps

1. Caty will create a Teams site and upload available resources.
2. Caty will contact the former chair of the committee for further information and resources.
3. Caty and/or the co-chairs will contact HR to determine who should attend a committee meeting to share information about communication with retirees and how retirees will fit into the new framework.
4. The committee will meet again after Thanksgiving to discuss the survey report.