Approval of Previous Minutes —

The minutes of November 12, 2024, were sent before the meeting. Hearing no changes, the minutes were approved. 

Faculty Senate Report

Sam reported he attended the KBOR meeting. 

The Faculty Council is working on a project. They want the faculty award to apply to staff too. 
They are working on KBOR adopting a tuition assistance program. 
KBOR had an interesting discussion with the reduced credit bachelor’s degree. It was not clear what reduced means. A reduced time to degree differs from reduced credit degree. 
Josh and Sam met with the university level AI working group. Kathryn Conrad and Doug Ward are on the committee. They are looking widely at the use of AI. Their aim is modest with an outcome of producing guidelines. 

Question. Are community colleges part of this discussion with KBOR?
Answer. Nothing was proposed. A staff researcher did a presentation on this topic. There was no discussion of proposed applications. 
Sam will be meeting with Shelley Hooks, VCR of Research, about the federal funding issue. The impact is occurring, but we are not sure how lasting it will be. 

 

University Senate Report

• Excused Absence Policy will be on the next SenEx meeting agenda. 
• This week we will have Callie Long speak on the master plan initiative. 
• KU implemented the dual employment restrictions. You cannot have an hourly student and salary position. Josh said he is not sure why the change was made. Is it because of federal changes or KU administrative request?
• Josh is developing a letter to the Chancellor’s Office about the Gateway District and asking some tough questions about what the impact will be on students, faculty and staff. We do not know where the profits are going. 
• The Environmental Committee will get moving. 
• The calendar proposal to start the semester a week earlier has been approved. 
   

Unfinished Business —

CORE 34 was not presented at KBOR. Do we want to invite a Regent to come? Feedback was that it would be useful to have a Regents come. It would be nice to get information on how they may or may not be able to support us. 

New Business —

HR Plans for Orientation   Jeff Chasen was invited to present the new HR Plans for Orientation. This a comprehensive program for new employees. KU does little onboarding. This will be voluntary and allow people to develop mentorships and relationships. This is built to be immune to the political environment. It was built to develop connectivity. Some key components of the plan include: 

• Welcome. This is before the first day of employment. There will be a swag bag and an introductory video, 
• Essentials-of onboarding. Forms, IT support. Within the first month of employment there will be mandatory training. Support for completing benefit enrollment.
• Develop a first-year experience for KU employees. There will be a meaningful orientation session. There will be a campus tour. People should understand what an amazing place KU is. There will be quarterly engagements. 

KU does not measure well in employee appreciation. 

Masterplan. University Senate and Faculty Senate both have speakers on this topic. Could we get a presenter at the Faculty Senate about ICE and other issues such as funding? By next Thursday, there will be a solid position on these issues. Sam will let Bonnie off the hook as speaker next Thursday. 

SPPT Chair report. Sam Brody received a message from the chair of SPPT. Sam read the message about the committee’s charges.

Though the SPPT committee is ready to do this, they are not aware of the ongoing development of guidelines. 

In summary, the charge was big, and the committee is doing what they can.

Sam thinks their ideas are good. 

Proposal to Update SPPT Membership

This will allow the AVP from Faculty Affairs to be the representative at SPPT. This will be a CODE change. 

The proposed changes were shared.

Brendan Mattingly motioned to approve. Josh Arpin seconded. The proposed changes to the CODE, Article 9 SPPT Committee Membership, were approved. 

Current Events

An idea for strategies to be vocal about the freeze to funding for research was shared. Faculty and staff on federal funding who could be affected by the executive order should reach out to let people know how they are affected. The Union might get this message out. Sam is going to reach out to the administrators and see what they are thinking. If they are thinking along similar lines, we can move together. Misty suggested that those faculty and staff whose livelihoods will change reach out as a voting constituent. 

• Sam opened the floor for discussion on what issues FacEx should be focused on. Comments made were:
  • Visual Art has an issue with facility space. Where should this issue be brought up? We are unsure what is happening with the building they occupy. It might be related to the new building the School of A&E is building. 
  • There is a massive schedule update going on. 

The Provost joined at Sam’s invitation to give a brief update on the federal funding issue. 

Meeting adjourned.