Approval of Previous Minutes —

The minutes from November 6 were distributed before the meeting. Katie Batza motioned to approve the minutes. Mugur Geana seconded. All were in favor. The minutes were approved.

University Senate Report

Poppy and Misty are preparing for the Chancellor’s meeting later this month. If anyone has anything for that meeting, please contact them.

Bozenna had a question on behalf of faculty in Mathematics. Are candidates for the provost position on file? Are the candidates known? What is the status of the Union and when will it be approved by the Chancellor? 

• Misty replied to the question about the provost search. The search committee members are known and posted on the website. Misty talked about the process. There will be public opportunities to interact with the candidates after Winter Break. 
• Kristi gave a UAKU update. The Union is making progress with some proposals. There is a temporary agreement on shared governance proposals covering what Faculty Senate does. The Union is bargaining again today. Proposals are on the UAKU website. We need everyone’s help to support this by attending the bargaining sessions. Kristi said people can check out their membership and confirm if they are members. The bargaining union is made up of all faculty. 

Unfinished Business —

The Provost search is moving forward with the first round of candidates. We will be taking feedback from faculty senators and your departments back to the search committee. The timeline is on track. There is a goal, if there is a candidate that is right, to select someone before the end of January. There will be space for faculty to interact with finalists at the beginning of spring semester. Continue to pass on feedback. 

KBOR Process. We voted earlier on the proposed changes to the workload policy and tenure review. KBOR’s plan was to get policies in place so if tenure came up again in state legislature they would have a response. The way it has evolved is that KBOR had a reduction in staff and the person leading this, Rusty, is retiring in January from KBOR. These reviewed policies have moved forward. We are watching closely. There are discussions in the subcommittees on how to protect faculty being reviewed in an atmosphere where there is disagreement in personality or character that affects the process. This continues to be a discussion within the subcommittee. The distinguished professors at KU have been meeting to discuss how they can inform the process. In the past, KBOR developed policy around post tenure review. This policy has created rigor for ensuring that tenure stays of high quality. The distinguished professors are creating dialogue around this. 

The legislature bill about tenure was not passed last year but was held on a docket. We are waiting to see if it is brought back up. The Faculty Senate Presidents have drafted a letter of things that would like to bring the attention to in the policy. 

There was a comment about the question on having an external person on a tenure review. Does the regents approve the promotions and tenure at KU, as is done in some states? A comment was made. The P&T starts at the department level, and goes to the University level P&T, then goes to final review by Provost and final approval by the Chancellor. We can investigate the exact procedures. 

New Schedule. We talked about this before and we are going to reach out to see if we can have a process for exceptions or exemptions for schedules.

There was a comment about the snow day and the pressure it puts on getting final presentations finished before the end of the semester. 

New Business —

The compensaton committee will come to the January FacEx meeting and we can have an update later. 

Misty thanked the senators for their participation in the Faculty Senate. She hopes everyone has a restful break.