Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Meeting
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Attendance: John Augusto, Beth Baca, Angie Claussen, Audrey Coleman, Dan Consolver, Ronda Consolver, Kevin Curry, Paul Farran, Ola Faucher, Allyson Flaster, Diana Frederick, Megan Gannon, Jeannette Johnson, Paul Liechti, Angie Loving, Mark Nesbitt-Daly, Jason O'Connor, Kathy Pribbenow, Kathy Sheldon, Thelma Simons, Dee Steinle, Susan Teague, Carolyn Thurman, Rick Whitmore, Phil Wilke, Maxine Younes
President Jason O'Connor called the meeting to order in the Burge Union at noon .
The minutes of the February 8, 2007 meeting were approved.
• Brief Standing Reports
President
i. Jason O'Connor reported that SenEx is currently receiving reports back from all of the committees that detail their recommendations.
ii. At the SenEx meeting this afternoon, they will be voting on the Repeat Policy. There have been a few changes from the current policy in an attempt to simplify and streamline the policy. The policy will be for any course numbered 299 and lower and this will be an automatic policy with no paperwork to file on the student's part. FacEx approved this change and today we hope SenEx will approve.
iii. Jason gave an update on the credit card soliciting policy on campus. The new policy says they will not be able to solicit the week before school or during the first two weeks of the semester. Right now Allen Fieldhouse and Memorial Stadium are the exceptions to this rule. However, in 2010, their contract with Intrust bank ends and they will not be allowed to solicit during this time either. In order to solicit on campus a University of Kansas group or event must sponsor the credit card company.
iv. All misconduct should go to the Provost office so the schools and departments need to be sure to forward all info to the Provost's office.
v. Richard Hale wrote a letter to the Board of Regents regarding Senate Bill 180. This has to do with retirement funds in KPERS or the Kansas Board of Regents fund. He expressed concern regarding this bill and the impact it will have on retirement funds.
vi. Barbara Atkinson, Chancellor Hemenway and Provost Lariviere gave a presentation at SenEx about the benefits of a partnership between KU and the hospital. A question and answer session followed the presentation.
Treasurer
• Angie Loving reported that we have spent $2,365.65 on the survey, brochures, and the mini wheat state whirlwind tour, which leaves us with a balance of $2,145.35. There will be some expense with the upcoming volunteer fair.
USS report
• Maxine Younes reported that they would be revisiting the supervisory evaluation because the Provost is interested in this. They will have an ad-hoc group look at the idea.
• USS is interested in having President's Day as a holiday. This will need to go to the legislature for approval.
• Maxine corrected the information in the last month's notes as the newsletter is not currently on the web but they are working to have this option.
• USS is discussing salaries and merit pay as they feel strongly that merit is not be handled equitably and does not seem to be explainable. A large group is angry so Lindy Eakin has called a meeting of all that give merit increases to discuss that they need to be equal and they need to be able to explain why the decision was made.
Student Senate
• Hannah Love was unable to attend so no report.
Committee Reports
a.) Governance and Representation
• Paul Farran reported that we will be voting on changes to the by-laws today and then during the upcoming election the entire unclassified staff body will be voting on them.
b.) Public Relations
• Thelma Simons reported that her committee is working on a revamp of the Unclassified Senate web site. Robin Bedenbaugh is working on this and hopes to have it in place in the next month or so. They need pictures so that the whole site is not just text. Caroline will take pictures at the volunteer fair and someone should get pictures of the mini wheat state whirlwind tour. If you have any pictures please send to Thelma.
• Thelma will send out an email about the upcoming events as well as talk to the Oread about covering the events.
c.) Professional Development
• John Augusto reported that Wednesday, April 18 th there will be an Open House/ Volunteer Fair for Audio-Reader and KPR from 11:30-1:00 in Broadcasting Hall. Diana and Phil have flyers so please take them and hang them up in your departments and offices. There will be food, music (acoustic musicians in the garden and chamber music group in the auditorium), tours and fun. Please encourage your co-workers to go and check it out, as they will be able to see what goes on and met some of the audio personalities, see the music library, walk the sensory garden, and see eight different places you can volunteer on campus. You can park at JRP or take the bus.
• John also reported that May 2 nd will be the fire and rescue training workshop at KUCE. This event is a repeat from the fall as it was such a hit. There will be a surprise that day regarding a grant they will be receiving as well as lighting some things on fire.
• May 9 th will be the one-day Wheat State tour for Unclassified Staff. There are 39 people going and there are still a few seats open. If you are interested, send an email via the web site. There is a $10 fee for lunch and packets have been sent to all those attending. University Relations will be there first thing to take some pictures. This will be a good learning opportunity to see where our students come from to go to KU.
• John thanked his committee for doing such a great job at getting the spring events up and going.
d.) Elections Ad-hoc
• Rick Whitmore reported that Thursday April 19 th elections will begin. We have 17 candidates right now and the web site will be up for a test in a couple of days. Voting will continue until April 27 th . Jason will send out a voting reminder on the 19 th and 24 th .
Unfinished Business
• By-Law proposed changes
i. Paul Farran and Rick Whitmore have been working on the proposed by-law changes since the fall. There have been updates made to items that included campus name changes (i.e. unclassified professional staff association to Unclassified Senate).
• Paul led the discussion and asked that we go through each change individually and then vote per article to agree or not. Once we approve or deny them, they will go to the entire unclassified staff to vote during the April elections. Many of the proposed changes are just to make what we are doing coincide with what our by-laws say.
• All by-law changes were discussed, voted on, and approved. Please see the copy of the by-laws to see changes that were approved.
• Any additional changes should be submitted at a later time for approval.
New Business
• Human Resources is launching a new web site so be sure to watch for that in the next month. The new site will have a place for new faculty and staff to go and find the benefits chart, campus and community facilities, a checklist for things that need to be done in the first month of employment, various paperwork they need to complete, a list of key policies, and more. There will also be a place for prospective faculty and staff to go and check out information before they apply. If you have any feedback please give this to Ola. If there are new employees in your office, they would be a good person to give feedback. The vacation/leave information is more obvious on this new site.
Announcements
• Jeannette Johnson announced that GTA negotiations have concluded and the fact finder is in so they hope to finalize all this at the Board of Regents meeting next week. This is very exciting because we can finally give GTA's raises at about 11.3% on average. This will be able to be applied retroactively and will show in their last two pay checks. The merit pool is the same for GTA's as it is for faculty. The GTA's have not had an increase in two years and this really hurts our recruitment so this should get us back up to competitive salaries.
• Our next meeting is June 14 th in 502 Summerfield Hall. The School of Business will be providing lunch.
Having no further business, Jason O'Connor adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.
