January Updates from University Governance

Dear all,

With a new semester and a new year starting, we want to update you on some of our activities and opportunities for your participation.

Shared Governance Advisory Group

We hope you received the invitation yesterday to participate in the visioning exercise organized by the Shared Governance Advisory Group (flyer). We are excited to hear your voices and have them woven into the values-based vision statement we create for the university. Because the phases of this initiative overlap, as we are crafting that language, the group will also carry out an internal visioning process to discuss roles and responsibilities at the university and how each of these enters decision-making processes. We will then report out the outcomes of that process for input.

Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Survey of Faculty Job Satisfaction

In the coming weeks, faculty will receive invitations to participate in campus engagement in connection with our institutional response to the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey of Faculty Job Satisfaction. We feel these opportunities are important to give you all an opportunity to be part of the solutions to the problems that the survey has elevated. The engagement will be launched with an open forum with the Provost and Governance leaders on Feb. 17, at 2 p.m. (further details forthcoming). This forum will be followed by lunch hour engagement opportunities in each of the academic units at KU.

Strategic Alignment Sessions

KU held strategic alignment sessions for the first time this year intended to promote closer collaboration between the different academic units on campus (CLAS, School of Engineering, School of Music, School of Journalism, etc.) and central administration (the Provost’s and Chancellor’s Offices). Governance leaders were also included in these meetings. We appreciated being able to hear the stories of the outstanding work that our staff and faculty colleagues do throughout the university in areas of student success, faculty development, and impact for the broader community and others. We have said this before, but it is worth repeating, as we learn about different aspects of the work going on in units far outside our immediate expertise in our governance roles, we have been and remain proud to be your colleagues.

Update on General Research Funds (GRF)

In December, the Faculty Senate held an open forum to solicit feedback on proposed changes to the distribution of the GRF funds. We thank all of you for attending and providing feedback during the forum as well as on the website. In response to the feedback we have received, we have decided not to move forward with the proposed changes. We will work on a revised solution that incorporates as much of the feedback as possible to ensure that the GRF funding is used in the most equitable manner to support the diverse research of KU faculty. Thank you again for the valuable participation and feedback during this process.

RPK Final Report on Academic Portfolio of Kansas Universities

The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) contracted with RPK Group to conduct a statewide review of the academic portfolio of degrees offered at Regents’ Universities. RPK has now released their final report, which consists of recommendations concerning programs across the state. KBOR will be discussing actions and recommendations based on the report at their March 22, 2023 meeting.

KBOR is soliciting comments and feedback on the report: https://ksbor.jotform.com/230033942402039. Feedback will be accepted until Friday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. Please note that the feedback is limited to the academic portfolio review section of the final written report (pages 5-11) because the Board will not take action on the teaching workload section of the final report (pages 12-16). The teaching workload section of the final written report is for campus review only. We encourage all faculty to provide their feedback on these important issues concerning the degrees offered across public institutions in Kansas.

Update on Excused Absences Policy

We communicated out to campus about the approval by University Senate of proposed changes to the University Senate Rules and Regulations (Articles 1 and 2). The policy has been drafted using language from other AAU institutions as a guide and edited with help from Student and Faculty Senate members, including input from the Academic Policies and Procedures and Faculty Rights, Privileges, and Responsibilities Committees. The changes replace the current policy sections that deal with exams and final exams and cover all work missed by an excused absence. The policy language is out to campus for comment, then it needs to go through approval by the provost and chancellor. We do not expect the policy to change the aggregate number of absences we have, and if you are already accommodating students in this manner, we expect the policy to support your existing efforts and foster greater uniformity across units. We will have an informational session later this semester to walk you through the policy provisions and answers all your questions.

Upcoming Opportunities for Your Involvement

We will have two speakers at the University Senate Meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 3:15 p.m. on Zoom. All are invited.

• Karla Leeper, Vice Chancellor, Public Affairs
• Jessica Chilcoat, Staff Senate President, will address the Staff Satisfaction Docking Survey

Zoom Topic: University Senate

https://kansas.zoom.us/j/97871612506

Meeting ID: 978 7161 2506

Passcode: 956978

Finally, in partnership with the Faculty Affairs, and Graduate Studies, we want to bring to your attention the following virtual professional development opportunities to develop a public voice for faculty, graduate students, and interested staff with academic background who wish to write for the public. These workshops have been sponsored by the Hall Center and will be conducted by Dr. Brian Rosenwald (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Kathryn Brownell (Purdue) who are editors for the "Made by History" blog with The Washington Post. If you are interested, please contact govern@ku.edu.

• Feb. 23, 12-1 p.m.
• March 24, 1:30-2:30 p.m.

How to Write for the Public

This session will dig into why to write for the public — and how to do it. It will cover everything from the benefits of writing for the public to how to write various types of op-eds, to how to pitch editors and how to publicize your work both within and outside of the academy. This session will address the differences stylistically between academic and public writing and how to adapt to the new form, the benefits and downsides to social media, citations, and other elements of public scholarship as well.

Thank you for all you do,

Ani Kokobobo, University Senate President

Nate Brunsell, Faculty Senate President