Guest Speaker Presentation —

Jack Kredo, Executive Director, University of Kansas Memorial Unions. Jack Kredo presented on the Memorial Unions, which is a separate corporation. He spoke about updates at the Union, including the efforts to make the Unions more community oriented. He updated on the Bookstore, Programs and Facilities, and Dining. Jack shared the mission. He shared plans to make the spaces more inviting to the KU Community. KU Dining has been adding new items that are more inviting and healthier. 

The presentation was followed with a Q&A Session.

Q. Impromptu was a former space where faculty could have a sit-down meal and a conversation. Wil there be something like this in the possible?

A.  Business and economic decisions are made. There will be space made available in the future, near Jayhawk Ink, which will not be available every day but could be available for such gatherings for faculty and staff.

Q. Is Starbucks the only coffee option?

A. We are focusing on quality and have an agreement for two more years. 

Q. Is there any plan to bring back the coffee shop in Watson?

A. We use an economic model based on traffic patterns to make decisions. This location has not been analyzed. 

Comments were made that we are lacking space for faculty to get together for lunch and collaboration, such as Impromptu. Additional comments were made about food trucks and the request to make these available to everyone on campus. 

Faculty Senate Report

Faculty Senate voted on recommendations for the KBOR new policy of Promotion and Tenure. The Provost and faculty leaders met with KBOR to review all the recommendations. KBOR sent a revised document on the Workload Policy. We have one more chance to review what they proposed. It will then move forward. We had a conversation with KBOR about the intent of this policy. We agreed this was a document for KBOR to decide that there are equitable requirements across the board. This is a parent policy if state legislature later discusses this issue. Also, KBOR is coming to campus next week and governance leaders will meet with KBOR. Misty asked for senator volunteers willing to attend a meeting with KBOR. 

University Senate Report

This week SenEx passed some USRR changes for Research Misconduct, which are mostly legal requirements. We are currently searching for a Retirement Rights Board Chair. We are putting together the Environmental Committee and hope to have a chair soon. The Faculty, University, and Staff Senate president will have ongoing meetings to collaborate and join forces. Poppy elaborated on the pronoun email signature template issue. This is a KBOR initiated policy. There may be overreach or over compliance on the issue. 

Unfinished Business —

New class schedule. This was a continuation of the discussion at the last Faculty Senate meeting. Do we want to pick this up as an action item or just something to monitor? This was open for discussion. Feedback from the Business School faculty was that the 45 minutes lost were previously used to meet with students, or deans communicating with faculty as a group. Study Abroad uses this time to communicate with students about opportunities. The change may be “efficient”, but this removed the needed flexibility for guest speakers and other activities. Another senator sent a message to their department and some concerning comments were received. One was that parking and getting to class on time was an issue. Is there a pathway to petition the current scheduling system? Can we ask for a petition process to be created? 

Levi Russell made a motion to have Faculty Senate inquire about a process to petition to central scheduling or have one established if it does not exist. Brendan Mattingly seconded the motion. No one was opposed. Motion passed. Misty said this could be done in an email message that she and Poppy can discuss.

New Business —

Culture at KU, including pronoun suggestions. There was discussion on what are some issues on campus about the culture and what, if anything, should or could be done. A senator shared that there are ongoing meetings about some issues. There are faculty looking for support and it would be good for administrators to voice some support for diversity points on campus or support faculty who are teaching standard things for their discipline. There was a discussion on recording in the classroom. There is no policy on this. You can request it in the syllabus, but it is not enforceable. There was more discussion on what Faculty Senate can do. Faculty Senators can show their leadership by supporting each other and our students. Poppy brought attention to the documents on care that Marissa Marshall, Staff Senate President, created.

Brendan motioned to adjourned. Najarian Peters seconded. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned.