Approval of Previous Minutes —

Minutes from February 4, 2025, SenEx Meeting: Marissa motions to approve. Teri seconds. Minutes approved by acclamation. 

Student Senate Report

Undergraduate Report : Josh Arpin reporting on behalf of Evanna Dominic

• On Wed, March 5, Student Senate will participate in the State Higher Education Day at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. They will advocate for a student seat on the Kansas Board of Regents and additional platforms.
• Student Senate Leadership attended the “Big 12 On the Hill” conference last week in Washington DC. This helped prepare them for the upcoming State Higher Education Day and talking to Kansas state legislators. 
• They will be having Student Executive Council meeting this week. 

Graduate Report: Brendan Falen and Sasha Sharman

• Brendan and DaNae also had HLC review meeting:
  • They were able to highlight the positive aspects of shared governance and the unique opportunities that are provided here at KU. 
  • The HLC representatives seemed engaged to hear about the input that students have at the University. 
• Sasha asks that students spread the word to colleagues who know of students that may be interested in Student Senate. 
• Josh asks if there are promotional materials in which he can also spread the word – he can include them on the video board in the Business School.

Staff Senate Report

• Marissa and Teri met with Chancellor Girod and updated him about inclement weather conversations. He had some helpful suggestions and input. 
• A question that’s arising is “what do we do for weather essential staff that are here campus during inclement weather who don’t have a place to sleep/rest?” Can accommodation be provided? 
• Staff Senate elections are coming up -- nominations are occurring this week and elections will follow. 

Faculty Senate Report

• Sam agrees that HLC visits were positive with good attendance. 
• Faculty Senate meets on Thursday (March 6) with a guest speaker from KBOR, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, to talk about the curriculum changes which have significantly impacted faculty and created concerns regarding how their programs are run. 
• There are a few code change proposals in progress including: 
  • Adding a representative from Faculty Affairs to the University Senate Calendar Committee.
  • Including VP “or the AVP” of Faculty Affairs may serve as ex-officio member on SPPT Committee.
  • Including a FacEx liaison to the United Academics of KU union.
  • Allowing untenured faculty to serve on the Faculty Rights Board. While there may historically been reasons for having only tenured faculty on FRB, there are challenges with staffing the committee if only tenured faculty are allowed. 

University Senate Report

• Josh attended the Pharmacy Dean search lunch – interesting to hear perspectives from other institutions. 
• Josh and Sam met with Chancellor and Provost. 
• Had “HLC Governance” meeting with 2 Union representatives, 2 members from KU Med Center + Josh and Sam.
  • They talked to an HLC panel about Shared Governance. 
  • They were able to highlight areas of progress over the past 5 years. 
  • The meeting went well and there was good discussion.
  • Was helpful to hear how KU Med Center operates.
• Year-end reports are due Friday, April 25th. 
• Jen Roberts is having dialogue about a potential testing center at Price for excused absences. More information and specifics to come. 

Unfinished Business —

Two letters have been drafted by the University Senate Executive Committee (SenEx) to be sent to administrative leaders at KU:

The Gateway District Letter:

• The Gateway District letter voices some concerns that have been shared regarding the initial intent of the Gateway District project and how it appears to have shifted its focus. 
• The intent of the letter is not to create conflict, but to openly express concerns from the university community. 

The SenEx committee agrees to send the Gateway District letter with the addition of including the KU chief architect as a recipient and incorporating concerns about student housing improvements in the letter. Brendan Falen motions and Jessica Chilcoat seconds. The letter is approved by acclamation to be sent. 

Letter regarding The Student Senate Resolution on Dual Employment Restrictions for Undergraduate Student Staff:

• This letter is a voice of support. 
• The background of the letter includes input from students and academic staff in regard to the impact these restrictions will have.
• Josh will be meeting with Provost later this week and needs to discuss what is already in the work, and possible solutions. 
• Graduate students are also greatly impacted so a lot of dialogue is occurring. 
• Brendan Falen motions to send the letter. Jessica Chilcoat seconds. No objections. The letter passes by acclamation to be sent.

Proposed Changes to University’s Grade Replacement Policy:

This was discussed at the University Senate meeting last week (on Feb 27).

• There weren’t direct objections to changing the grade replacement policy but there were questions regarding “clarification” of it. 
• The main take-away is that language should likely be included to encourage students to work with an academic advisor if they choose to retake a course for grade replacement purposes because there are gray areas to it. 
• While KU may allow for grade replacement, there are other academic programs outside of KU that may not. 
• A student may put a lot of time and money into retaking a course which may raise their KU GPA -- but they may apply to a graduate program that does GPA calculation based on transcript, and the application will still reflect both courses taken. 

Josh is going to work on revising the language to include further clarification. 

• This can be reviewed at the next SenEx meeting on March 25, 2025. 
• If approved at the next SenEx meeting, it can go out for 7-day notice and voted on at the next University Senate meeting on April 3. 

Technical Edit:

• Technical edit for job title of the CFO in membership of the University Senate committees to “CFO and Senior Vice Chancellor of Finance” 
• Since this is a technical edit, it only needs to be voted on at SenEx. It doesn’t need to go onto University Senate if approved today. 
• Jessica Chilcoat motions to approve. Technical edit approved by acclamation. 

Survey for Jayhawk Hub: 

• There is currently a University 101 class for new students and transfer students.
• Evanna has been working on a Canvas tile to bring together many resources to one place. 
• The hope is for faculty and staff to also have the option to access the tile.
• Since students use Canvas a lot, it makes sense to have the repository here.
• Evanna and Josh will send out a request to send a survey to the campus community, asking how the community could benefit and use this type of platform. 
• Evanna has been working with Kim Warren in the University 101 space to incorporate the information together.
• Brendan has some insight from the School of Professional Studies. Something that is very popular and helpful is a “key” for acronyms of different programs. 
• Please reach out to Brendan with additional questions or if need some input.

Competency Based Education: Addition to the Grading System (USRR 2.3)

• There is a request for language to be added to the USRR referring to the grading for Competency Based Education programs. The proposal is to include the following: 

  The College or any school may use the letters M (Mastered), NM (Not Mastered), IP (In Progress), only for Jayhawk Flex program competency hours. 

• The other question is where to put the language. It seems to fit best in the 2.3.6 section but  Josh can further review the location. 
• This needs to be passed by June 1st if approved. This can be reviewed by SenEx today. If passed, it will go to University Senate on April 3:
• Motion made to approve the language mentioned and Josh will determine where the language should be placed within the USRR 2.3 section. 
• Jessica Chilcoat moved to approve this language as proposed. Brendan Mattingly seconds. 
• Poll vote goes out -- approved by SenEx. 
• This will go to University Senate and will be reviewed during the April 3 meeting. 

Meeting Adjourned.