Approval of Previous Minutes —

Meeting minutes from Sept. 26, 2023. Motion to approve by Teri Chambers. Seconded by Kevin Barnes. Motion passed unanimously.

Student Senate Report

1. A new Graduate Student Body President, Brendan Falen, has been chosen.
2. Freshman elections are this week (Oct. 30th-Nov. 3rd). There has been a slight delay due to technical difficulties.
3. Planning for hosting Big XII on the Hill is continuing, which will be in February (26th-28th) in Washington D.C. The advocacy themes that Student Senate has chosen are college affordability coupled with mental health, and Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) support for student-athletes.
4. DaNae and Turner have been working on engaging more with individual student groups and increasing visibility. More students know what Student Senate is, but there is still a large population who don’t. Student Senate has been and will continue tabling at Wescoe Beach
5. Student Senate has had an agreement with KU Athletics to receive 20 tickets reserved for Pell Grant students. The rates of usage have been low, so they have refigured the agreement to reserve 10 tickets for Pell Grant students, and another 10 will be raffled to the general student body. Students can attend tailgates or participate in other Student Senate activities to enter the raffle.
6. Student Senate hosted a job site for the Big Event at the Spooner Hall courtyard on Oct. 21st. Student volunteers cleaned up the space, and the plan in the spring is to plant more native plants and flowers. Student Senate will work with the First Nations Student Association to include meaningful plants.
7. Student Senate has been utilizing YouTube to post more how-to videos.
8. Student Senate merchandise is still in progress.

Staff Senate Report

1. Chris and other leaders participated in the first Employee Constituent Survey Implementation Team meeting.
2. At the most recent meeting with the Provost, Chris discussed Wellness Week and Juneteenth, the former of which has now been communicated to campus.

Faculty Senate Report

1. Victor was also part of the new constituent survey team meeting. They discussed outcomes of the COACHE and Docking surveys, as well as which teams will be doing what and how to prioritize items.
2. SenEx has met over lunch with three out of the four Engineering School dean candidates. The last lunch meeting is this week. There will be three meetings for the Music School dean search over the next couple weeks.
3. Victor and Kristin attended an honorific award meeting with Academic Analytics. Learned about ways KU can use a benchmarking system to determine most productive faculty in terms of research so that they can be recognized.
4. SenEx met with KBOR when they visited campus. SenEx was able to ask a couple questions but it was mostly introductory.
5. Q: Are the honorific awards limited to faculty or does it include staff?
   1. A: Currently it’s just faculty, but there are thoughts of expanding it. This was primarily a result of the COACHE survey and was the first step of exploring options for identifying high performers.

University Senate Report

1. The Provost held the State of the Campus on Oct. 24th. A video recording is now available on the Provost’s Office website, as well as a survey to gather feedback on how the presentation could be more effective in the future.
2. The upcoming public forum with the CFO will be on Nov. 6th, 2:30-4:30 p.m., in Burge Union Forum C and on Zoom. This will be an opportunity to ask questions about the budget and other financial items. There is also a Qualtrics survey available if you want to submit questions beforehand.
3. Most faculty members have participated in the credential verification process, though there are several still outstanding. If people have questions or still need to provide their transcript, they can reach out to Faculty Affairs.
4. Our Vice Chancellor for Research will be leaving KU for another position. The Provost has accepted nominations for the interim position and will work to appoint someone within the next few weeks. The nominees have been asked to provide background information in response to specific questions, which Governance leaders have access to. The Provost’s Office will move forward with a candidate search soon.
5. Engineering and Music Dean Searches
   1. Engineering – 4 candidates total; ongoing, final candidate on November 2nd
   2. Music – 3 candidates total; starting the week of November 6th
6. The first Constituent Survey Team meeting was primarily about discussing the status of the effort.
   1. We haven’t heard about what issues are currently prioritized, but rather that identification of priorities is ongoing. Governance will continue asking questions about timelines and priorities in this space, as it is important to show the university community that action is being taken.
   2. The Team will meet every 4 months to assess progress on recommendations from the surveys. This process will continue as additional surveys are completed, rotating the focus between students, faculty, and staff. The Great Places to Work survey (faculty and staff) will replace the Docking survey (staff). An additional goal will be to identify similar questions across the surveys for benchmarking across the constituent groups.
   3. Individual members are expected to identify priorities over the next few weeks.

New Business —

Kristin will be attending the upcoming University Senate meeting while travelling, so Vice President Kevin Barnes may have to step in to help facilitate the meeting if Kristin has connectivity issues.

Move to closed session to discuss Engineering dean candidates. Motion to approve by Chris Wallace. Seconded by Brendan Falen. Motion passed unanimously.