Approval of Previous Minutes —

• Remove the “s” in Dr. Tao’s name: It should be Dr. Tao instead of Dr. Tsao. This technical edit has been corrected.
• Evanna Dominic motions to approve the minutes. Brendan Mattingly seconds – 9/3/24 minutes approved.

Student Senate Report

• Last week the Student Senate had its second General Assembly meeting. The executive staff is currently working on Student Senate platforms.
• We’ve recently collaborated with KU Grounds in planting 560 different types of native plant seeds around the KU campus including Wescoe and the dormitories.
• Our Chief of Staff worked to get Blue Books available for students in the Student Senate Office.
• We did a joint Kettle Corn Event w/ KU Grounds on Wescoe Beach last week which was a big success.
• The undergraduate appointments have been confirmed so those students will be serving on their respective committees.
• We have outdoor seating projects we’re working on with KU Grounds such as picnic benches, outdoor seatings, and potential renovations to Spooner Hall.
• We recently appointed our Election Commission Representative.

Staff Senate Report

• Staff Senate finalized the charges for Staff Senate Committees.
• Public Relations is still outstanding because we need to consolidate some differences in the wording of what’s online and what’s planned for the committee this year.
• We had our meeting with the Provost. That went well and we shared out some of that information at our last meeting. We covered HB 2105 and training for KU Facilities staff.
• We’re organizing speakers for meetings throughout the year including Ed Hudson to discuss IT strategic changes, Callie Long to discuss operations, and Angie Loving to discuss HR changes.
• Josh followed up with Marissa about LinkedIn Learning access being taken down because he knows students rely on Linked In Learning for some for their professional development. Josh wasn’t sure if that was more of a staff-specific issue or an issue for everyone.
• Marissa mentioned it was a broad-scheme issue. It was taken down because of HB2105. Marissa shared Jeff Chasen thought LinkedIn Learning should be back by mid-October, but the D&I courses won’t be available.

Faculty Senate Report

• Sam plans to virtually attend some of the KBOR sub-committee meetings and will bring back anything significant.
• The first Faculty Senate Meeting is Thursday (Sept 19, 2024) so will have some things to report from that.
• Sam and Brendan Mattingly met with some representatives from the UAKU (United Academics of KU) Bargaining Team. They are working on shared governance as well and the aim is to strengthen the shared governance relationship in a positive way. We plan to keep having conversations on how to do that. They will likely reach out to Josh to have a similar conversation on the University Senate side. Even though it’s a faculty union, they’d like to know what faculty aspects of University Senate would be good to talk about.
• Sam looks forward to future conversations.

University Senate Report

• We had the HLC Mock Visit. This was a campaign to get more people involved for the upcoming spring when we have the real HLC visit for the 10-year cycle.
• We are gearing up for our first meeting with the Provost. Please let Josh know if there is anything that should be including for that meeting.
• Travis Goff was rescheduled from the University Senate Meeting on October 10, 2024 to the Spring. This is so people may attend the Chancellor’s State of the Campus Address that starts at 4pm on that day (at Jayhawk Welcome Center). The October 10th meeting will only be from 3pm - 3:45ish so people may then attend the address in-person or online if they wish.

Unfinished Business —

Article X pending revisions and technical edits for the original proposal of the formation of the Environmental Committee. This went out to campus for a 7-day notice, and there was a lot of feedback from stakeholders:

• Many comments about the committee’s name and adding “sustainability” to the name: Environmental and Sustainability Committee.
• Several comments regarding restrictions surrounding schools the representatives could be from. Josh proposes the committee be open to any 3 faculty members.
• Based on comments received, another suggestion Josh proposes is to include an ex-officio representative from the Department of Environment, Health and Safety on campus. Additionally, have more flexibility for participation. Perhaps the committee could have larger involvement including subject matter experts and broader participation as deemed warranted by the committee.

Since this is a new committee and it doesn’t have charges yet, there’s more uncertainty regarding the composition of the committee.

• Brendan Falen suggested changing the student section: 2 undergraduate students + 1 graduate student. Evanna mentioned the 2 undergrads could be appointed by Undergraduate Student President and graduate student appointed by Graduate Student President.
• After further discussion, the total student representatives increased to 4 : 3 undergraduate and 1 graduate student.

Josh hoping to get more information on the history of the environmental aspects and sustainability on KU’s campus. He is seeking input from the former chair of a sustainability committee that KU used to have on campus. Hopefully obtain more insight as to what has worked well, and why there isn’t a committee now when there has been one previously.

New Business —

Josh received an e-mail from Student Speaker (the Speaker of the Student’s Assembly) regarding a student resolution related to student fees. Over the summer the student fee allocation was changed by KU Administration.

Josh’s takeaway from the e-mail is they were frustrated with the process in which this change was administered rather than the changes themselves. Overall, the changes seemed to be beneficial to students, but the student assembly felt the proposed changes should have come back to Student Senate since the student fee allocation had been approved by Student Senate.

Josh was hoping to get more clarity on the resolution item – or if others had extra insight or perspective. From his perspective, it seems the letter is voicing frustration more with the procedure rather than the changes that were made. 

There has been an announcement of a change in the Student Engagement Center structure. There has been frustration voiced and a “Save Our Centers KU” movement that’s picked up traction. It appears that changes possibly were made without dialogue from the various centers and Josh wondered if anyone had insight or ideas.

Sam suggested possibly inviting someone that is involved with the Save Our Centers KU movement - to voice their concerns at an upcoming SenEx meeting or at University Senate meeting.

The hope is to get better clarification and feedback over the upcoming weeks.