Approval of Previous Minutes —

Approval of minutes from February 27, April 3, and April 17, 2025: Brendan Mattingly motions to approve. Motion seconded. Minutes approved without objections. 

Student Senate Report

• Introduction: Henry is this year’s Student Body Vice President
• Henry and Andrew Murga, Student Body President, took on the Student Senate leadership in late spring.
• Henry and Andrew worked on hiring their Student Senate Executive Board over the summer.
• Had first Student Senate orientation with the new senators to go over quorum and what the expectations are for the year.
• Ryan Edmonds with the KU Alumni Association has been working with Henry and Andrew on Homecoming Weekend for the end of October. 

Staff Senate Report

• Introduction: Marissa Marshall is the Staff Senate President and Business Coordinator for the Audit, Risk & Compliance department.
• Marissa met with Provost a couple of weeks ago and discussed the recent budget announcement and the pronoun policy.
• Recently received the Docking Institute Survey results and are working on next steps for sharing this with campus.
• The dissolution of the Staff Senate Legislative Affairs Committee was fully approved over the summer by Provost/Chancellor and updated in the Staff Senate Code.
• Staff Senate is having a breakout session at the Staff Senate Leadership Summit as well as a tabling session over the lunch hour. 

Faculty Senate Report

• Introduction: Misty Heggeness is the Faculty Senate president for this year and is in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. Misty started at KU in 2022 so both University Senate and Faculty Senate leaders are fairly new to KU.
• Faculty Senate hasn’t met yet, and the first meeting is next week, September 4.
• Worked on filling the Faculty Senate Committees over the summer.
• Faculty Senate is working on providing feedback to KBOR on policy language for workloads and evaluations. KBOR has asked all the faculty senate presidents review the workload policy and provide feedback.
• Collaborating with the Union to get to know each other. Misty met with some Union leadership members. Similar to what Poppy mentioned, would like to have a good working relationship. 

University Senate Report

• Introduction: Poppy DeltaDawn is the University Senate President and in third year at KU so still learning the lay of the land. Looking forward to working with everyone. Poppy is in the Department of Visual Art.
• SenEx has started the process of assembling a search committee for the next Ombuds at KU. Jessica Chilcoat has agreed to be the governance representative. Poppy and Jessica are working on getting the search team going.
• Poppy thinks it would be helpful to work on developing a relationship with the Union this year; and is trying to set up a meeting with the negotiating team so that Governance and the Union can coordinate with each other and stay up to date.
• Amendments for the Competency Based Education programs will be reviewed at today’s meeting.
• University Senate has several guests lined up so far. Ash Wilson with the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX will start us off on September 25.
• Poppy received questions over the summer on the Kansas Senate Bill 125 regarding pronouns, specifically about repercussions that state employees may face.
• Students that receive stipends are not considered employees, and students aren’t subject to the e-mail pronoun signature ban. Therefore, the ban shouldn’t affect students that are not employees.
• There were issues reaching quorum over the past spring semester. Please try to show up, when possible, at governance meetings. Without quorum, we can’t get the ball rolling on code changes. 

Unfinished Business —

Unfinished Business: Policy Amendments 

These amendments were presented last spring but University Senate didn’t have quorum so will review today: 

Competency Based Education Grading Policy USRR 2.3.6: 

• Addition of a Competency Based Education grading system using the letters: 

  M (Mastered), NM (Not Mastered), IP (In Progress). 

• This has been approved by SenEx, but University Senate hasn’t previously discussed it so we need a motion to suspend the rules to discuss this amendment and vote on it at the same meeting. Brendan motions to suspend the rules. Motion seconded and passed. 

• Vote to add the CBE amendment: Brendan motions to vote. Motion seconded. Poll goes out to voting senators. Motion passes unanimously with 28 in favor and no opposition. 

   

Grade Replacement Policy USRR 2.3.9: 

• If a student takes a course at KU and receives a grade lower than an A (including A- and below), the student may repeat the course and the new grade may be used in place of the original grade for the purpose of GPA calculation, subject to limitations further specified in the policy.
• A notification was sent to campus last spring further specifying that students are encouraged to meet with their academic advisors to discuss further implications.
• Brendan motions to suspend the rules to vote on this amendment the same day it’s brought forth at the meeting. Motion seconded and passed. Motion was made to vote on the amendment to the grade replacement policy. Motion seconded and passed.
• Poll goes out for vote. Motion passes unanimously. 
   

New Business —

No new business.

Meeting adjourned.