Approval of Previous Minutes —

The minutes from Oct. 21, 2025, November 4, 2025, and December 2, 2025, were sent before the meeting. Brendan Mattingly motioned to approve. All were in favor. The minutes were approved. 

Faculty Senate Report

FacEx committee members are also on the Provost Search Committee, and possibly over extended. The fourth and last candidate is tomorrow and Thursday. The search committee will then come together to discuss recommendations for the Chancellor. If people have opinions about the provost options and want to be heard, please go to the provost search site. The videos are up through the weekend. There is a choice to provide feedback to the search committee. The committee wants to hear from all-faculty, staff and students. The committee has been efficient, so a quick recommendation is expected. 

Unfinished Business —

Proposed Amendment to USR 2.3.9.7 Grade Replacement Update. A proposed amendment was sent to FacEx chair for consideration. Honors students take honor classes to be challenged, but if they do not do well, and want to retake the non-honors course, the current policy restricts them. Is this going to be a problem for the Registrar’s Office? The paper trail could be a problem. The spirit of the change is fine, but implementation could be a problem. We will seek input from the Casey Wallace in the Registrar’s Office.

New Business —

Technical update to the FSRR for the name change of the Graduate Studies Office. The proposed technical update email message was shared before the meeting and in the meeting. 

Faculty Senate restructuring. Misty discussed the need to restructure faculty senate to get more engagement in the senate. The discussions on this can start this semester, but may go into next year, and fall under Brendan’s role as faculty senate president, if not finished in March. Misty discussed a potential new format. Identify the smallest unit within each School or department. That unit would vote for someone to be a faculty rep for Faculty Senate. The voting will take place in the spring. Every unit would feel represented. The second part is of offer units in Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC) seats on Faculty Senate. KUMC has their own Council, which they would keep. This would align with OneKU. How many units are there? We need to identify and see if that would be a manageable number for the Senate. 

Comments:

• We need a new structure that makes faculty think they have a voice.
• The smallest unit idea could be difficult, but the OneKU incorporation could work. We should offer seats on Faculty Senate to KUMC, we can emphasize that they can join Faculty Senate if they want.
• Paying people for service work is always appreciate, but not practical now.
• Units could report to faculty senate what is happening at their units.
• We can email the departments. Departments may have time at their department meetings where Faculty Senate could attend and give an update.
• There needs to be educational efforts. Educate faculty on what Faculty Senate does and communicate the benefits of participating.

Hearing no objections, Misty returned to approval of the minutes and technical edit to FSRR.

FSRR technical update for the Graduate Studies Office name change. Brendan Mattingly motioned to approve the technical edits. Francesco Carota seconded. All were in favor. Motion approved.

Misty will approve the committee vacancies. The appointment of a faculty senator for a vacancy will be sent for an electronic vote. 

Meeting adjourned.