Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of Minutes: Approval of Meeting Minutes from September 9, 2025. Minutes approved without objection. 

Staff Senate Report

• The Staff Senate Technology Committee has been approved by Provost and Chancellor. Will be able to vote on a “chair” next month at Staff Senate meeting and the committee can start working for this fall.
• An additional amendment packet has been submitted to Provost and Chancellor for approval. This amendment packet is similar to what Student Senate was doing – clarifying language and processes since parts of the Staff Senate Code haven’t been reviewed in quite some time.
• We have the Staff Senate Leadership Summitt coming up on Thursday, September 25.
• Marissa would like to extend an invitation to all of the presidents (University and Faculty) to attend the Staff Senate meetings or provide a presidential report/update that could be shared at the meetings. 

Faculty Senate Report

• Faculty Senate has been working on some drafts that KBOR sent regarding tenure policy and workload policy.
  • All of the KBOR institutions have been asked to provide faculty input into these policies.
  • Had a meeting with the VP of Academic Affairs (of KBOR) a couple of weeks ago and he sent drafts to review.
  • Sent feedback back to KBOR after the last Faculty Senate meeting. Misty attended the KBOR meeting last Wednesday virtually and there wasn’t any discussion, but KBOR has reached out and have scheduled a meeting on Friday morning for Faculty Senate Presidents to discuss the feedback.
• Also have been making sure we have all the committees filled and searching for speakers for future meetings.
• Brendan also attended the KBOR meeting and one of the big topics was the reduced credit bachelor’s degree, and whether or not Kansas will award reduced credit bachelor’s degree. 

University Senate Report

• We’ll be voting for three separate amendments this coming Thursday at University Senate (on Thursday, Sept 25):
  • The University Committee on Libraries – voting on language change so it aligns with the University Senate Libraries Committee specification in the Code.
  • The Planning & Resources Committee – instead of only a faculty member being able to chair, include that either a faculty or staff member may be appointed as chair.
  • The membership terms of SenEx – the Student Senate vice-president may also serve as “ex-officio, non-voting” members of SenEx if they’re not among the elected SenEx members.
• Ash Wilson will be presenting at University Senate on Thursday followed by Casey Wallace who talk about future KBOR Calendar.

Unfinished Business —

• Poppy wants to check in with Student Senate on the proposed changes to the Student Senate code that were discussed at the last SenEx meeting.
• Casey Soper mentions that StudEx meeting is in a couple of hours and they’re going to go over it at the meeting and then vote tomorrow at the Student Assembly meeting. If anyone has any changes to address, please do it now so the students can get this passed as quickly as possible. 

New Business —

E-mail signatures: 

• Poppy checks in about the e-mail signatures policy sent out a couple of weeks ago.
• Governance received comment that expressed concern about this, specifically about the standardization of e-mail signatures – not just pronouns, but there is implication that publications and land acknowledgements shouldn’t be included.
  • There is exception for academic freedom but this can be unclear.
  • What constitutes academic freedom and how does e-mail signatures fit into this?
• There is discussion among SenEx members about the IT Usage policy which makes it clear that KU owns the devices and employees sign a general technology usage policy when becoming employees.
• Technically the state of Kansas does have authority regarding e-mail usage of state employees on devices but there generally hasn’t been a locked-in approach.
• It is understandable that KU needs to follow the law, but it seems to be almost over-compliance.
• Many e-mail signatures include resource links including scheduling appointments, information about units, labs and publications. If signatures get too locked down, there is concern regarding the barriers it can create in providing resources and connections. 

Role of University Senate Vice President: 

• Historically the role of the University Senate VP is to step in to facilitate the University Senate meeting if the president is absent. 

• Poppy confirmed with SenEx there aren’t additional responsibilities currently. 

   

Meeting Adjourned.