Approval of Previous Minutes —

Oct 7, 2025, minutes presented. Casey Soper motions to approve. Brendan Mattingly seconds. Minutes approved by acclamation. 

Student Senate Report

• There’s a new Homecoming Advisory Board. Thinking ahead to Homecoming next year. A few more departments are getting involved for Homecoming 2026 outside of only the Alumni Association.
• On behalf of Student Senate, Casey presented to the Student Digital Experience Advisory Board the work on  “Jayhawk Hub” canvas tile. They were interested and had a lot of valuable feedback. Trying to move the Jayhawk Hub up to the next level and hopefully figure out how we can make this happen.
• Student Senate is planning a “Holidays and Higher Ed” event in December. This will be on December 3rd at Allen Fieldhouse. 

Staff Senate Report

We are continuing to schedule “Feedback Forums” for the USS-UPS Docking Institute Employee Satisfaction Survey. 

University Senate Report

• Poppy is working on securing Governance representation on the Provost Search Committee.
• Appreciated the communication on the Compact Agreement. Chancellor was invited to take a phone call but was not invited to sign the agreement. 

New Business —

• The Environmental and Sustainability Committee had their first meeting and developed some preliminary charges for SenEx review and feedback:  
  • Promote environmental and sustainability on campus including local biodiversity.
  • Promote Green New Deal.
  • Collaborate with Student Senate and partners in Lawrence surrounding food systems, composting, and applicable environmental programs.
  • Reduce waste - composting?
  • Work on water use and water efficiency on campus.
  • Education surrounding sustainability.
  • Work with “One day One KU” - reach out to partners to collaborate for education and funding. The committee asked if they could raise money to create an “environmental and sustainability fund” and use this towards environmental goals on campus.
  • Promote alternative forms of transportation.
  • Develop a policy regarding composting.
• There are several ex-officio members currently listed in the Code under membership of the committee.
• There was discussion about the ex-officio list possibly being too large since the ex-officio members are almost as numerous as the committee members:

• the Landscape Manager and Head of KU Grounds, Director of Facilities Planning and Development, Energy Program Manager, Director of Custodial Services, Director of Transit, a representative from the Department of Environment, Health and Safety, a representative from the  Environmental Studies Program and other subject matter experts as deemed warranted by the committee members. Either a faculty member or staff member may be appointed as chair.

   

• SenEx feels narrowing the charges may be helpful:
  • Narrowing and consolidating the charges would also decipher if the ex-officio members need to be adjusted in the Code.
  • These charges are great starting points – maybe need to be reined in so they’re more specific.
  • While there are several ex-officio members, they all seem relevant. Maybe one of the charges could be to meet with the ex-officio members and review the current states of their area.
  • Developing the charges is likely a bigger priority than concentrating on the ex-officio member list.
• The committee is meeting again in November so Shayla will present this feedback from SenEx and see if the charges can be focused in a bit more -- and will bring the more specific charges back to SenEx.
• The committee agrees that this year will primarily be getting the committee off the ground.
  • The committee mentioned they’d like to raise money – think about how that could be done, and how it could be used.

  • This year is setting the groundwork for hopefully good work ahead. 

     

Retirement Rights and Benefits Committee: 

• This committee is having a tough time this year with staffing and the chair role.
• This may be due to the specificity surrounding the make-up of the committee and the requirements of the “retired” volunteers on the committee.
• Would we want to consider a Code change to broaden the membership and loosen the retirement qualifications so the committee can get back on track and into business again?
  • There is especially difficulty with recruiting 2 retired “staff.”
  • Specifically, the code currently calls for 1 retired support staff and 1 retired professional staff.
• There has been difficulty in reaching out to retired faculty and staff. Could HR help? Other suggestions? Shayla will do another round of reaching out and will check with Endicott Society, and loop in Poppy. 

Academic Computing and Electronic Committee: 

• This is the other committee that we’re having difficulty getting off the ground.
• Poppy suggests the possibility of reformulating this committee, especially now that AI is so prominent. There are many thoughts on campus about how AI is being utilized.
• It may be helpful to incorporate AI more into the charges and get this committee back in business.
• It may be a good time to reformulate this committee to take on the challenge of policy and AI. The current charges may be a little outdated.
• Poppy suggests the possibility of renaming the committee and recontextualizing the charges to integrate AI as well.
• Should Governance touch base with IT to see where everyone is at so we don’t duplicate efforts? There is an AI Privacy and Risk Council. It may be helpful to ask a guest or two to visit with SenEx?
• Marissa suggests someone from IT and Privacy/Compliance – Poppy agrees that a roundtable or informal discussion could help.
• This committee still seems necessary but the charges likely need more actionable items included to “relaunch.”
• The committee plans to touch base again at the next SenEx and try to reach out to representatives in the meantime. 

FacEx Exception to University-Wide Academic Policy Petition Forms Going Online:

•  There is discussion between Governance, Registrar’s Office, and campus partners surrounding making this form fully online instead of routing PDFs for signatures between units.
• We wanted to bring this up to SenEx to share this is coming down the pipeline in the near future.
• This is to help with efficiency and privacy of student information.
• Casey said she’d be happy to help with the writing of the amendments that would be applicable to the USRR and FSRR relating to this.
• Casey can come talk to SenEx but wanted to bring this up today so the committee has background. 

Meeting adjourned.