Attendance: Beth Baca, Paul Farran, Allyson Flaster, Ed Foley, Christine Fosher, Diana Frederick, Megan Gannon, Jeannette Johnson, Danny Kaiser, Paul Liechti, Angie Loving, Jason O'Connor, Kathy Sheldon, Dee Steinle, Susan Teague, Carolyn Thurman, Phil Wilke, Maxine Younes

The meeting was called to order in the Multidisciplinary Research Building at noon by President Jason O'Connor.

•  The minutes of the September 14, 2006 meeting were approved as amended.
•  Brief Standing Reports

a.) President

• Jason O'Connor reported Kansas Board of Regents and Legislatures met in Malott last week. $600 million is needed for Regents maintenance. Reggie Robinson gave a presentation with pictures of dilapidation. Jim Modig explained the reality of fixing problems and then they took tours of Malott labs and Wescoe. In Topeka will be plea for maintenance budget.
• Jason talked about his meeting with the Provost and with governance bodies of Senex – explained roles.
• Danny Kaiser reported on University Senate. Discussed staff evaluation and transit at last meeting. More opportunities for discussion on transit in cooperation with the city of Lawrence . Will send a broadcast email.
•  Jason gave handout from University Relations on accomplishments
•  Today's tour of MRB will be at 1:15 .

b.) Treasurer

• Angie Loving reported that we have a balance of $4,411 and we will have a bill coming for the survey.

c.) USS report

• Maxine Younes reported that staff evaluations are being discussed by USS Senate. They discussed disciplinary board procedures as they are concerned about witnesses not showing up due to intimidation.

d.) Student Senate

• Hannah Love was unable to attend so no report.

e.) Committee Reports

• Governance and Representation
  • 1.) Paul Farran reported the survey was completed 10/22 and only had a 14% response rate which was disappointing. Carrie Towns gave preliminary data and will give raw data to Noelle Kurth for further analysis and reports. The committee will meet to discuss concerns and come up with idea. Annual trip to Topeka will be on 2/13, Paul met with Keith Yehle to plan and will have the next meeting with Keith in December. The committee will make appointments with legislatures after the holidays. Issues to discuss are: deferred payments, new brochure, thank for developing better student health plan and collecting interest from tuition. Jason encouraged the entire group to please go to Topeka on February 13 th .
• Public Relations
  • Thelma Simons reported that the public relations committee and professional development created a flyer of activities. PR is working on updating brochures and they would like to have just one brochure. They will be meeting again on November 22 and will work on updating the website. We will have the new brochure by the February 13 visit to Topeka . They may mail the new brochure to everyone on campus, also give to HR for new employee packets (will require lots of copies).
• Professional Development
  • John Augusto was not able to attend. The committee last week had a fire safety even and an admissions event. Neither were well attended with about 15 at the fire safety presentation and 6 at the admissions presentation. The meeting with the Provost was very well attended. Next week, November 14 th Kathleen McCluskey Fawcett will speak about KU culture and on December 7 th there will be a presentation about cancer research at the Dolph Simons Sr. Biosciences Research Laboratory.
• Elections Ad-hoc
  • Rick Whitmore reported that he will ask for help to get nominations in February – he will request staff extract from OIRP as the first step.

•  Unfinished Business –none to report.
•  New Business

•  Thelma Simons is the unclassified senate representative for the Ombudsman search.
•  Jeanette Johnson clarified the children in the workplace policy – the language has been amended to be more “gentle”.
•  Jeanette Johnson reported that a new policy website will be launched and there is debate about whether oral rules are a policy or a culture. Some debate in this matter – this document management system will be HTML and conversion will be an issue. The system is supposed to be user friendly and will track who reviews and approves the policy. University O&A committee has been asked to review the faculty/staff handbook. The committee is not confident about security of document. The current handbook is very dated and they would like to see it updated with links to appropriate policies. The handbook is currently a “dumping ground.” Some want all policies put into University Senate bylaws so that Chancellor or Provost can't change it.

Having no further business, Jason O'Connor adjourned the meeting.