Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of Minutes from September 17, 2024. Evanna Dominic motions to approve. Brendan Mattingly seconds. Minutes approved.

Student Senate Report

Evanna Dominic: Undergraduate Student Senate Report

• Student Executive Officers have been working on their platforms.
• Had a General Assembly meeting last week. Having committee meetings this week.
• Josh asks Evanna about the bill activity over the past week regarding the funding of student groups, and potential outcomes.
• There was legislation tabled at the last student General Assembly (GA) meeting regarding the dissolvement of the DEI fund. It was a bill proposed by the student body treasurer. The decision was to postpone voting until the next GA meeting on Oct 9. The dissolvement of the DEI fund would be reallocated into the Wednesday night funding. If this bill does not get passed, then will continue to operate as usual.
• Evanna expects a good turnout for discussion of the bill on Oct 9 and will have an answer after that meeting.
• There will be holiday lights this year on Jayhawk Blvd. The students would like to keep that tradition going.

Brendan Falen: Graduate Student Senate Report

• The Student Senate Constitution is being currently interpreted that there are only 4 graduate senate spots guaranteed + Graduate Student President, which is 5 total.
• The original interpretation is there should be graduate senators for everyone school - which should be fifteen spots.
• Graduate students are one-third of the student body, so the current graduate student representation does not seem equitable:
  • There should be the opportunity for graduate students to be involved to full capacity.
  • Brendan will be proposing legislation to clarify this.
  • Josh thinks getting more involvement from graduate student population will be well-received.

Staff Senate Report

• USS and UPS Council met last week and will be meeting next week with staff senate counterparts at other regent institutions.
• Teri attended the Staff Leadership Summit and there were several employees from KU Medical center there - KU med center staff does not have a governance structure. There is faculty governance but not staff governance. The faculty governance at KU Med has not previously interacted with KU Lawrence campus.
• Teri has been thinking about this since the leadership summit and how the One KU move will impact governance.
• Sam thought similarly when attending the first Council of Faculty Senate Presidents Meeting and the Med Center Faculty Senate president was there.
• Are the needs too different between KU Medical Center and KU Lawrence to have one governance structure or will they mesh in some way?

Faculty Senate Report

• The Faculty Senate is staffing the committees.
• Also staffing the Judicial Board and Faculty Rights Board. These take longer due to requirements.
• During the Provost Meeting, asked about Free Speech policy.
• Committees that have any overlap with Union activity or hypothetical overlap are not being discontinued. There has been a perceived impression of that. Possible or hypothetical contracts would not be for a while, so it is important for the Faculty Rights Board and other committees to still meet.

University Senate Report

Approved the Environmental and Sustainability Committee which will be presented next week.

A couple University Senate Committees may have some things coming the way of SenEx this semester:

• The Calendar Committee may have some proposed policy changes.
  • There is ongoing discussion on stop week and finals week, and what is allowed.
  • The current policy is more applicable to exams but some classes have items outside of exams such as final projects and papers.
• There appears to be some frustration with the timing of the Fall Calendar:
  • Starting late and ending late. Next fall is the same way when looking at the 5-year KBOR calendar.
  • Possibly proposing an amendment to KBOR to change the calendar for next fall.
• Calendar Committee discussing the balance between Fall break and Thanksgiving break. Other peer schools have all of Thanksgiving week off.

Had first Provost Meeting last week:

• The largest Freshman Class once again.
• There was some Save Our Centers discussion:
  • Josh going to try and discuss with Tammara Durham in more detail.
  • Some of the frustration from students is they were comfortable in a certain center and now being compiled into one. How will this affect resources.  
• This is an organizational structure change. It is not changing the number of people that work there or the resources. Josh hoping to get more clarity after talking with Tammara. Possibly can then send out communication.
• Need more faculty participation in HLC Review. Jen Roberts will likely reach out to the Student Senate to see how we can get students involved in the process.
• Still not quite there with Syllabi – a work in progress.
• Will be having meeting in November on excused absences and what falls under the excused absence policy.

New Business —

Graduate Student Appointments: There are some committees that fall under University Senate in which the language just specifies undergraduate students or just says students.

Should there be more deliberate reference to undergraduates and graduate students.

There are a few committees that do not fall under University Senate area – they are under KU Policy and University Core Curriculum. Josh will look at the committees that fall within the University Senate Code.

Evanna proposes to start having a Graduate Student Senate Report at the University Senate meetings. Josh and the committee agree.

Meeting adjourned.