Approval of Previous Minutes —

Minutes from November 19, 2024: Minutes approved by acclamation. 

Student Senate Report

Undergraduate: 

• Student Senate met for first time of the new year. 
• Tomorrow (2/5/25) we will have our first General Assembly meeting of the year.
• Members of Student Senate Executive staff are taking part in Fee Review. This is a yearly occurrence to allocate fees to the various entities that receive a portion of student fees. 
• Josh asks Evanna if there is anything in the fee review that may be unprecedented or a challenge this year. Evanna thinks it’s too soon to predict since they’re still listening to presentations from various entities. Not sure if there will be many requests for increase in funding. 

Graduate: 

• First Graduate Student Advisory Board meeting is tomorrow (2/5/25). 
• They plan to discuss the changes in the dual employment policy and effects on graduate students. 
• They are unsure of what to discuss regarding the current orders and potential impacts. 

Staff Senate Report

• Caitlin Day Wedel presented in December 2024 about the SSC and its function within the University and discussed the Finance Service Portal changes and challenges. Caitlin was able to hear feedback from senators at the meeting. 
• Elections are coming up. More information will be coming soon. 

Faculty Senate Report

• Sam went to the KBOR Council of Faculty Senate Presidents.
• They worked on survey that plans to go out soon regarding tuition assistance programs. 
• The goal is to make a presentation to KBOR from all the Faculty Senate presidents (from all the KBOR institutions) sharing that these are useful programs that they’d like to expand. 
• If you’ve used tuition assistance, will likely be getting a survey soon. 

University Senate Report

• Josh has received several e-mails regarding various proposals and requests. 
• Over the break, Josh finalized the University Senate portion for the Ombuds report to be sent to Chancellor and Provost. 
• Will be reviewing the Excused Absence Policy again. 
• Meeting with Provost in couple weeks for the first meeting of the year 2025. 

Unfinished Business —

• Josh is working on the Excused Absence Policy. This will probably be a bigger discussion for the next SenEx meeting. 
• There are many nuances to the policy so it’s very difficult to write one policy to account for all of them. A larger lecture of over 600 students can’t interpret the policy the same way a class of 40 students can. There are too many nuances so this can be a tricky challenge to navigate. 
• If the policy itself isn’t changed, what changes or requests would be needed?
• The policy may be too long and the language could be simplified. Giving too many details in the policy to make it clearer may cause more confusion. 
• There is also a section in the policy referencing that the first place a student should go (if there is an issue with the policy) is their instructor. This could create greater challenges and difficulties. If students feel they’re being treated unfairly, it seems there should be another resource the student can go to. 

New Business —

Faculty Affairs Ex-Officio Representative on the University Senate Calendar Committee: 

• The Office of Faculty Affairs is requesting to have a Faculty Affairs representative serve as an ex-officio member on the University Senate Calendar Committee. 
• When there are changes to the calendar, it can have significant implications to faculty. 
• Therefore, the request is to have a Faculty Affairs representative be on the committee as an ex-officio member so they may stay aware of these changes. 
• There needs to be a vote on this (poll goes out to the committee for vote). 
• Vote for Faculty Affairs ex-officio representative on Calendar Committee approved unanimously - will now go to University Senate.

Request for Revising the Grade Replacement Policy in USRR: 

• This isn’t ready for a vote by SenEx today, but Josh wants to bring it up to the SenEx Committee for discussion.
• He received a request from the Committee on Undergraduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences to revise the Grade Replacement Policy in the University Senate Rules & Regulations (USRR). 
• Currently the grade replacement policy states that a student must have a C+ or lower to be eligible to retake a course for grade replacement for GPA purposes. 
• This indicates that if a student made effort to get a B- in a class, they are no longer eligible for grade replacement to help their GPA, but if they would have gotten a C+, they would be.

The request is that any grade lower than an A should be eligible to be retaken for grade replacement purposes. There are peer institutions that do this. 

Resolution from Student Senate regarding Reassessment of Dual Employment Restrictions for Undergraduate Student Staff: 

• The Dual Employment policy has been updated so undergraduate students can no longer hold both an hourly and salaried position. 
• The updated policy is due to Fair Labor Standard Act (FSLA) regulations and reporting requirements, and number of hours students may work each week. 
• The Student Senate is asking for a reassessment of this policy and requests if there is anything that can be done so that students can still work both jobs.
• It’s creating dilemmas and tough situations for students in which they must choose one job, and they previously have relied on the income of both jobs to pay bills and tuition. 

Josh and Sam can have a discussion with Provost to see if there are any insights and options

Gateway District Project: If you have questions/comments regarding the Gateway District, please send them to Josh. 

Meeting Adjourned.