Approval of Previous Minutes —

The minutes from January 23, 2024, were distributed with the agenda before the meeting. Victor Gonzalez asked if there were any changes. Hearing none, the minutes were approved.

Faculty Senate Report

Victor met with Ed Hudson, chief information officer, to go over w happening at the University. They are modernizing the system at KU including facilitating ID management for faculty. We are using multiple ways to validate our identity. In the future, it will be faster. They ae offering duo for students. Staff and faculty use this and the same will be implemented for students. Students are receiving phishing emails, and the new systems will help protect their accounts. It will be completed by the end of the year. Ed’s office will educate students in this.

Victor gave an update on the KBOR award to recognize faculty. FacEx will lead the selection process for this. Each university will manage this differently. We can discuss how KU will do this once the other details are settled. Governance will organize the Qualtrics survey. There is discussion about moving beyond just tenure and tenure track to represent the more current make-up of faculty.

Victor and other leaders s met with the Chancellor. They discussed the leadership positions that are open. Josh was elected as the new University Senate president-elect.

Question. How many KBOR awards are there?

Answer. There are two, one for tenure and one for tenure track.

This is a recognition award, and currently not a monetary award. This will be the first time in 10 years this award has been given.

Question. If we are trying to seek nominations, should we have departments on campus nominate people? It is time consuming for faculty to complete an application. Departments could coordinate the gathering of information. How can we encourage representation from departments across campus?

Answer. This has been discussed. We want to make it easy for applicants. We want to involve the departments. We do not want faculty to spend a lot of time applying. We can change the guidelines at the end.

University Senate Report

The big item is the community petition on KU Core 34. It will be the main agenda item for the next University Senate meeting. The Athletics Committee will talk about the Excused Absences Policy at the next committee meeting. Other committees are meeting on this too. We will need a consistent message. Josh is speaking with faculty advisory group in the Business School with an update on the Excused Absences Policy.

We are working through the president-elect role and what contributions Kevin will be providing.

New Business —

Moved to closed session to discuss faculty appointments.