Approval of Previous Minutes —

Meeting minutes from Dec. 5, 2023. Motion to approve by Teri Chambers. Motion passed unanimously.

Student Senate Report

No report

Staff Senate Report

The Staff Senate Personnel Affairs Committee is reviewing the Inclement Weather Policy.

Faculty Senate Report

Victor has been working with the Council of Faculty Senate Presidents to finalize the nomination guidelines for the KBOR-sponsored faculty award. The nominations must come from each Faculty Senate. Victor is working on creating an ad hoc group to work on this. There has not been much interest among Faculty Senators in joining this group, so FacEx will likely take this on. The future plan for the award is for each Faculty Senate to nominate 2 faculty members each May.

Victor has also been attending the Provost’s annual strategic alignment meetings. He also met with Amy Mendenhall, Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs, to discuss the results from the Excused Absences Policy survey that was done in collaboration with the University Senate Academic Policies & Procedures (AP&P) Committee.

University Senate Report

No current University Senate President

New Business —

Program Discontinuance

The AP&P Committee recommended that two inactive programs be discontinued: the Undergraduate Certificate in Sports Media and the Graduate Certificate in Social & Emotional Wellness for Inactive Program Discontinuance. Caty Movich added that there have not been any students recently enrolled in either program, which formed the basis of the committee’s decision. SenEx reviewed the recommendations, which will proceed to University Senate for a vote.

International Affairs Committee Membership

The University Senate International Affairs Committee has recommended a redistribution of their committee membership, which was sent to University Senate President Kristin Villa in December:

The University Senate International Affairs Committee recommends to change its membership to be equally distributed across students, faculty, and staff. The committee suggests 4 representatives of each constituency. For the student members, the committee would suggest a preference for distributing the spots both across undergraduate and graduate students and across domestic and international students (i.e., 1 undergraduate domestic, 1 undergraduate international, 1 graduate domestic, 1 graduate international).

Committee Co-Chair, Wyatt Haywood, attended the meeting to present the recommendation. A major focus of the committee’s work this year has been re-evaluating their purpose amongst the other internationalization-focused bodies of the university. They have observed that while the scope of international affairs covers all three constituents, the committee lacks equitable opportunity for student and staff representation. This issue is particularly relevant to discussions of the International Student Fee.

Wyatt also suggested that it would be worthwhile for SenEx and University Senate to reconsider the membership of the other standing committees, given the reorganization of University Senate from last spring. While some of these committees may have specific reasons for requiring greater representation from faculty, others may benefit from equitable representation.

There was discussion amongst SenEx members regarding the details of this recommendation and the logistics of enacting these changes. Several members expressed support for the recommendation, including the suggestion to consider other committees’ memberships. There was consensus that SenEx would discuss this further at a later meeting before forwarding it to University Senate.

University Senate Executive Vacancies: President and President-Elect

The University Senate President and President-Elect positions are both vacant and must be filled by a faculty member. Typically, nominations are accepted and these roles are elected at the organizational University Senate meeting in the spring, but there are numerous issues that the senate must take up before then.

There was discussion regarding what should be on the agenda for the upcoming University Senate meeting. We may need to elect both a President and a President-Elect. Utilizing the Staff Senate Code as precedent, a President-Elect could serve out the rest of FY2024 and continue to serve the entirety of FY2025. We may want to be flexible depending on what interest people have.

There was also discussion of how the senate could function without a University Senate President for the rest of the year. While the Vice President, Kevin Barnes, can preside at meetings, there are other responsibilities. SenEx could support Kevin in fulfilling the additional duties, but that may slow down processes. Teri Chambers voiced reservations about placing this much responsibility on Kevin and reiterated that we should try to find a faculty member to fulfill the President’s role for the rest of the year.

Caty reminded the committee that there are vacancies on Faculty and University Senate, so the President nomination can be for someone outside the senate.