Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Meeting
Thursday, February 8, 2007

Attendance: John Augusto, Angie Claussen, Audrey Coleman, Dan Consolver, Ronda Consolver, Paul Farran, Ola Faucher, Allyson Flaster, Ed Foley, Diana Frederick, Frederic Gutknecht, Jeannette Johnson, Danny Kaiser, Mark Nesbitt-Daly, Jason O'Connor, Kathy Pribbenow, Mary Ann Rasnak, Kathy Sheldon, Heidi Simon, Thelma Simons, Carolyn Thurman, Rick Whitmore, Phil Wilke

Guest: Heidi Simon

The meeting was called to order in the KU Visitors Center at noon by President Jason O'Connor.

Guest Presentations:

Jason introduced Heidi Simon, Associate Director of Admissions and Scholarships. Heidi talked to us about admissions processes, events, goals, office structure and ways that we can get involved in recruitment at the University of Kansas .

Jason then introduced Thelma Simons, Service Manager for Info Services- Info Technology. Thelma gave us an abbreviated version of the presentation she has been giving to faculty and staff about what her office can do for you. If anyone would be interested in having a presentation within his or her department or area you should contact Thelma.

• The minutes of the November 9, 2006 meeting were approved as amended.
• Brief Standing Reports
• President

• i. Jason O'Connor did a quick look back on our past semester and all of our accomplishments as a group. They include: five professional development events, holding our Senate meetings at different campus locations, Topeka visit planning, by-law review, the new brochure, and the completion of the survey.

• ii. We will have several officer positions open after this spring so be thinking about running for President elect, secretary, treasurer, or a committee chair.

• iii. Ola Faucher and HR have responded to the online survey and are offering financial planning seminars this spring ? which was one of the top three items people were asking for on the survey. HR also has evaluations online.

• iv. FacEx had a presentation by KU Continuing Education to let their credits be fully considered KU courses to count toward residency.

• v. Last fall Lawrence , Edwards Campus and the Medical Center started looking at an advising tool that will affect all campuses. The committee has six weeks to give their report that is all encompassing starting with advising.

1. Treasurer

 i. Angie Loving was not present so there was no treasurer's report.

2. USS report

i. Maxine Younes reported that their newsletter is now online for the staff to view and there are still a few paper copies if there is no email access in their position.

ii. They had talked about doing supervisory evaluations but have decided that they will not do this as there is no way to guarantee anonymity. Therefore, they are going back to the Provost to discuss a tool for this.

3. Student Senate

 i. Hannah Love was unable to attend so no report.

4. Committee Reports

 a. Governance and Representation

•  Paul Farran showed us where we can find the survey results on the web. An email was sent to all unclassified staff to let them know the top five items on the survey and that Unclassified Senate would be addressing these issues. In the email, people were asked to directly contact Paul to give him their ideas on how to address the issues.

•  HR/EO will address the issue of retirement.

•  Paul Farran and Rick Whitmore have been working on updating the by-laws. Updates that were just a change in name or title that did not need to be voted on have been changed online.

b. Public Relations

•  Thelma Simons reported that the new brochures are available and if you would like to hand some out she can get you additional copies. They will be taken to the legislative visit.

•  The next priority is to revamp the web page to make it look snazzier. If you have any comments on what you want or any suggestions let Thelma know in the next two months.

c. Professional Development

•  John Augusto handed out the ?Getting to know Your KU? spring events flyer and asked that we all try to attend the events. The Dole institute event had about 20 people that attended. All of the dates and events are posted online.

•  April 18 th there will be an Open House/ Volunteer Fair for Audio-Reader and KPR from 11:30-1:00 in Broadcasting Hall. John's committee would like to have $500 in order to provide cookies and punch along with musicians playing. Danny Kaiser moved and Paul Farran seconded that we approve up to $500 for the audio reader event. The motion was approved.

•  Early May there will be a one-day Wheat State tour for Unclassified Staff. The event will go from 8-5 and 42 are able to participate. The places they are looking at stopping at Cotton Falls , Z-bar, Brown vs. Board, and Council Grove.

•  There is the expense of a bus ($500) and then have each participant provide $12 for lunch. Danny Kaiser moved that we approve the $500 for the bus expense and Jeannette Johnson seconded. The motion was approved.

•  This will be a mobile classroom with Don Steeples and another faculty member narrating. The committee wanted everyone to know that participants would not need to take vacation ? because this is a professional development opportunity.

•  Jeannette Johnson wanted us to look into how the money is spent for both of these events to be sure that we can use our budget for these purposes. She also recommended getting a written agreement from the bus company.

•  People will sign up for this event via web and the first 42 will be accepted with a few alternates. Thelma will work with Margey Frederick on getting the information on the web site and having a web sign up.

•  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 March 1 st an email asking for nominations for senators will go out. We have ten senate positions open. Nominations will close on the 16 th with elections being held April 19-27. The elected Senators will be notified in May.

•  The full senate will meet again April 12 th and vote on the amendments to our by-laws and the full group will then be able to vote on these during the election.

•  Unfinished Business ?none to report.

•  New Business

•  By-Law proposed changes

• i. Paul Farran 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 then in May, it will go to the entire unclassified staff. Many of the proposed changes are just to make what we are doing coincide with what our by-laws say.

• ii. Article III changes are to be consistent with University EEEO statement. The only difference was to add gender identity to this statement. Ola recommended keeping this consistent with the rest of the University and Jeannette supported this idea. It was moved by Thelma and seconded by Rick that we make the change from his/her to any but not add gender identity. The motion was passed.

• iii. We then realized that we cannot vote at this meeting because there are not enough senators still present to take a vote. Danny moved that we use an electronic ballot that be sent to all filled senate positions but still discuss the changes today. Rick seconded the motion. The motion was approved.

• iv. Discussion continued with Article V section 1. This change was recommended as this is how we are actually voting right now ? for all categories. The reason is that it is difficult to only vote for one area electronically.

• v. Also read were the changes to Article V section 2, Article VI, VIII, IX, XIV with no discussion needed.

• vi. Because of the difficulty in voting Heidi Simon proposed that we change the statement about 2/3 of the filled senate positions needing to be present to 2/3 of those present ? so when quorum is exists a vote could happen.

• vii. The discussion was tabled to be discussed further in executive session.

• viii. It was moved and seconded to strike the previously approved motion to vote online. The motion was passed.

•  Announcements

•  Tuesday is the visit to Topeka

•  Our next meeting is April 12 th in the Burge Union (308 McCook) and we will be voting on the proposed by-law changes.

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