Approval of Previous Minutes —

Teri Chambers motioned to approve the minutes for the SenEx meeting on September 27.  Hollie Hall seconded the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.

Guest Speaker Presentation —

Ani Kokobobo, University Senate President, opened the meeting to Ombuds Office guests, Ada Emmett and Mike Rozinsky. Ada Emmett reviewed highlights from the Ombuds Annual Report. She reviewed the executive report of the annual report.  Page two of the report explains what the Ombuds Office does.  Page four includes primary points and key observations.  There was an increase in visitors last year with 192 people visiting the office with 254 visits, as some people visited more than once.  She reviewed the top six reasons people visit the Ombuds office, with last year peer and colleague relationships at the top of the list.  The survey of the Ombuds office went to 29,000 people and 1,225 people responded to the question of if they were familiar with the office.  More people answered they were familiar with the office than last year.  There was a four-fold increase from last year of respondents who, when asked what they would have done had there not been an Ombuds Office, said they would have left KU.  More people responded in the survey that they were more likely to share their issues with others than in the past. Ada said she is proud of how far they got with the charter revision.  It’s in the last stages of review with provost and general counsel.

Ada opened the discussion for questions.

Question.  What can we do to help you with your priorities?

Reply.  Ada appreciates the regular contact she has with the group.  It’s been responsive and timely communication.  She asked if there are other avenues to reach out to let people know the Ombuds are here. Ombuds are doing Tea at Three, an outreach event for conflict resolution.

Question.  What does it mean that more people are using the office?

Reply.  It signifies that people are finding the Ombuds Office.  They guess the peer relationships issues could be the result of who is remote and who is not remote.  We are coming back to a different working world.

Question.  With the update in numbers, can you make a statement that indicate morale problems?  Are there issues to put on Governance’s radar?

Reply.  Governance can look at where there are gaps and areas to resolve conflict informally.  Where there are tensions, do we have robust enough services that are informal, restorative, and transformative.  It’s a call for a collaborative approach.  What can Ombuds Office do before decisions are made.

Mediators are not overseen by any department.  Where do they fit in?  Governance can oversee mediators, who are just doing service, but could feel supported.  Make space for Governance for grievance in departments—are they uniformly clear.

Ada suggested that University Senate send a report.  The Ombuds Office is happy to receive a report of assessment. Ada offered to send past two years’ reports to Ani to show what has gone in the report in the past, to give her some idea.  It’s a perspective on the Ombuds annual report and how the Ombuds are doing.

Student Senate Report

Hollie Hall said she did not have much to report, but asked DaNae Estabine to report on the recent conference they hosted.  DaNae said 9 schools attended the conference.  She went over the Friday and Saturday agenda: tours of campus, participating school’s presentations on their school governments, networking, activity led by Barbara Ballard of Dole Institute, and keynote by Ken Wilke, KU Health Systems.  About 75 people in total participated.  A takeaway from the conference was that they learned how other senates work.  We have 100 senate seats, which may be too many. Hollie Hall reported that support for Indigenous People and Iranians passed unanimously.

Staff Senate Report

They are struggling to fill committees.  Ani informed her that other senate committees are short, and we should combine a request for staff volunteers with the requests for faculty volunteers for parking and libraries committees.

Faculty Senate Report

The COACHE Survey is being discussed.  We are restructuring committees and roles.  They are working with Lou Mulligan’s office.  Kristin Villa asked is there has been more discussion on the academic faculty who were inadvertently left out of the initial survey.  A discussion followed and resulted in agreement that the best path forward is to survey this group.  Nate expressed that this issue has not been forgotten.

University Senate Report

A Shared Governance email message went out.  The people involved will be meeting to move this forward. 

Unfinished Business —

International Affairs Committee Charges

The charge revisions were reviewed.  Changes suggested were a change to charge 1.  This student association should not be listed.  Another suggestion was to change “should” to “will”.  Ani will reach out to Charlie and the chair to resolve changes to this charge. 

Recommendations from the Calendar Committee

Spring Break was changed to align with other Regents Schools and to avoid overlap with KBOR meeting.  None opposed the changes approved by the Calendar Committee.  Ani said the calendar goes to AP&P next for approval.

New Business —

Next, Ani said that Academic Policies & Procedures committee agreed to approve the discontinuance of the undergraduate certificate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.  The committee acknowledged the merits of work of the department. 

Ani discussed academic misconduct and referenced USSR 2.6.  She shared what is currently in the code regarding academic misconduct and asked if we are satisfied with what we have now.  For the most part, policy is good.  One problem is that several warnings can be given, though this would not be apparent.  Jen Roberts may be able to answer if this will be addressed with the database. 

 Chris made a motion to move to a closed session.   Hollie seconded the motion. All in favor.