Approval of Previous Minutes —

The June 3, 2024, minutes were distributed before the meeting and were approved by acclamation.

Faculty Senate Report

Sam reported that he and Josh attended the Provost Retreat where they learned about Matrix Management, which is a method used to have better understanding of other similar units. Sam reported they talked about One Ku things. Sam will attend some meetings on “Student Success” and if anything comes out of these, he will report it. The University is doing great on admissions and will focus on retention. Sam attended his first KBOR meeting. Sam said he would like to approach these meetings as a mandate from Faculty Senate and he plans to ask for opinions prior to the next meeting.

University Senate Report

Josh reported the following. SenEx had the summer meeting to draft the committee charges. We will review and approve those at the University Senate meeting. Recently, Josh attended the Provost Retreat. Josh discussed the proposed Environmental Committee. He made a technical edit to the “Environmental Studies Program”.  Josh reported he spoke with DaNae Estabine about the proposal and the makeup of the faculty. More will be discussed on Thursday at the Senate meeting. This will probably come back to SenEx to revise the language.  We got updates on the Excused Absences Policy with the FAQ document. Josh got feedback from the business school. They appreciate the instructor voice still in the policy. Josh, Sam and Jessica Chilcoat participated in the Mock HLC visit yesterday. They did not get to the last question that they will highlight in the March meeting—what we have done.

Unfinished Business —

Appointments to committees is ongoing. We recently appointed members to the Libraries Committee and Transit. We do not have volunteers for FRB. We still need another FacEx committee member. We are short Faculty Senators. A discussion followed on ways to recruit more Faculty Senators. We can make a pitch to Faculty Senators. We could make this more appealing to Faculty members. We are short in University Senate. We will figure out the relationship between this and the Union. Part of the process is creating a mission for the Faculty Senate. Should the position be formalized with a Union rep? An invitation could be sent to the Union. Should Union people be on Faculty Senate was discussed. It seems they could be involved in both. It was reported that the Union will be providing something on shared governance soon. Should there be a Union rep on committees? Is a Union appointed liaison recommended? We could encourage faculty to get involved in Governance, as Union negotiations will end at some point. More targeted invitations to volunteers would be good. Also, asking the Union for volunteers could be good and Sam will think about it. Governance can share information at New Faculty Meetings offered by Faculty Affairs. There are two orientations. One is in January, as well.

New Business —

Governance Leaders meet with the Provost once a month. The first meeting is September 27. Does FacEx want to generate items for the meetings? Ideas are Athletics, someone to speak on Core 34 and others. At the first meeting someone from the Asian American Faculty Staff Council will speak about Dr. Tao. His conviction was overturned this summer. They may ask Faculty Senate to sign their statement. Sam discussed what he is interested in for his term. We are collecting statements on how it is affecting faculty. The committee will compile the responses from the spring and at some point, make a report for KBOR. Program Evaluation Standards are another issue that we can look at. There is a new program review that may spark some interest. Faculty Senate could start a communication channel with KBOR. Josh proposed having KU Athletics Director, Travis Goff, at Faculty Senate as we have a scheduling issue in October with the Chancellor’s Event. Josh is deciding whether to reschedule Travis Goff. Online proctoring service was another idea for a speaker/discussion at Faculty Senate. The issue is KU offering this service versus a third party offering the service. Could we talk about Haskell at the meeting? Also, people on campus are concerned about the center closures. Sam said we could invite Alex Redcorn, the new director of Indigenous Studies.

There were suggestions on other issues to bring to Faculty Senate. There are parking frustrations and bus schedule changes. The transportation to Edwards Campus is concerning. The late bus schedule to Edwards no longer exists. Finding a parking space on campus is an issue for students and faculty. In the past, titles of different faculty positions at KU were being discussed and this will now be part of the Union negotiations. Online evaluations is an ongoing discussion. A task force has been set up to look at the different concerns of evaluations and will report in March. There will be a discussion on Concur. Sam received an email from someone about the new finance model. A new portal was launched for financials and submissions. The person submitting must now give information that previously was given by the SSC. The Graduate Mentorship Program is being created to give graduate students a pathway to resolve conflicts that come up with advisors.   

Meeting adjourned.