Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Meeting
November 15, 2007
University of Kansas
2007 Unclassified Senate Meeting
November 15, 2007 12:00 noon
Centennial Room, Kansas Union
Minutes transcribed by Angie Claussen
Attendance: Angie Claussen, Audrey Coleman, Dan Consolver, Ronda
Consolver, Paul Farran, Ed Foley, Megan Gannon, Jeannette Johnson, Danny
Kaiser, Mike Krings, Noelle Kurth, Paul Liechti, Rebecca Mayer, Jason O’Connor,
Kathy Pribbenow, Aaron Quisenberry, Mary Ann Rasnak, Lisa Shaw, Heidi Simon,
Thelma Simons, Dee Steinle, Susan Teague, Rick Whitmore, Phil Wilke, Maxine
Younes.
n The meeting was called to order at noon by President
Danny Kaiser.
n We took a group photo, executive board photo, and
president photo on the stairway of the Kansas Union.
n The minutes of the September 20, 2007 meeting were
approved as amended.
Reports
President – Danny Kaiser
University governance: Senex
met with the Board of Regents about the University calendar. KU would like more
flexibility in handling the calendar and would like to see a loosening of the
75 day requirement so that short courses could be offered. Stop day is
determined by each campus so if KU decides not to have one this is acceptable. There
will likely be more discussion about this.
Background checks on
employees were discussed with the Board of Regents. They are not ready to have
a policy requiring this and would rather leave it up to the individual campuses
to put their own policy in place. Governance is talking about background checks,
looking at some standards and policies and then what to do with the information
once the check is done. A few places on campus currently have background checks
in place (childcare, safety officers and money handlers).
Senex is putting together a
task force on Learning Outcomes. They are trying to prevent a “no college
student left behind” situation. KU wants to have a policy in place to measure
learning outcomes before we are told that we have to have these measurements.
Dan Bernstien is the Chair of the task force and our Unclassified Senate representative
is Katherine Nemuth-Tuttle. This is expected to be a project over the next
year. The University wants to be sure that when our undergrads leave KU they are
leaving with a basic set of skills . We have a variety of programs and figuring
out a core set of skills may be difficult. The task force will report back to
University governance and central administration.
Secretary – Angie Claussen – no report.
Treasurer – Lisa Shaw reported that we have a balance of
$3,866.50 after having paid Crossroads Tour $640 for the Wheat State Whirlwind
tour bus and $100 for the photo bill for today.
Governance and
Representation Chair – Phil
Wilke was unable to attend but Danny reported that the committee split into
subcommittees to address the top five outcomes of the survey we did. They will
be looking at parking, professional development, retirement planning, performance
evaluation and professional recognition to come up with one quick solution and
some long term goals. They are also beginning to plan the February visit to the
legislature.
Professional Development
Chair – Heidi Simon reported
that the University Theatre Tour, Brown Bag lunch with Provost Lariviere, and
the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour all went very well. They were hoping for a November
event but it did not come together so they are putting together a government
relations meeting with Keith Yehle and Kathy Damron to hear about current federal
and state regulations. The date is Jan 9th from 10-11:30 in Alderson
auditorium in the Kansas Union. Pass along the government relations info to
your offices and let them know about it. Perhaps we can promote the visit to
the legislature and this event together. The Dec 10th Oread will
have the information about this event so it needs to be in by Dec. 3rd.
Emails will go out right after Thanksgiving, another before finals end, and
then just before the events. The tentative date for the visit to Topeka is Feb
12th. All unclassified staff may attend the event. Thelma will get
this information in the Oread and send an email. The committee is working with
athletics to plan a spring event.
Public Relations Chair – Thelma Simons reported that she will get the
email out and the Oread story done about the Professional Development events. The
committee is working on the web site and have been promoting professional
development events. They are also looking into file storage as Paul would like
to have a repository for committee chairs, presidents, etc. put their information.
Thelma suggested a place on the web where we could log in and see what has been
saved such as records on legislative visits, how to set them up, notes on committees
and any paper notes etc.
Elections Chair – Rick Whitmore reported that since 2008 is an
even numbered year we need to reapportion our senators. He received the roster
from HR and we will add 5 seats to senate. There are 1882 unclassified staff on
campus which means we need 38 total senators.
The senator positions that
will we will be electing this year are:
academic = 6 (4 retiring and
adding 2)
administration = 2 (one
retiring and adding one)
information services = 1
(one retiring)
research = 6 (4 retiring and
adding two)
students success = 1 (one
retiring)
After elections at our joint
meeting in May whoever is elected to president elect position will leave a seat
open and the president will be responsible for appointing a new senator to
complete the vacant seats term.
Senators can run again if
their term is ending.
The numbers used to
determine the number of senators is reevaluated every even numbered year and is
based on currently filled unclassified staff positions. There was discussion
about whether the number used should be filled positions or number of permanent
positions.
It was decided that we
needed to come to a decision about whether we look at filled or permanent
positions at this meeting so that it would be in time.
Since this wouldn’t be a
change in bylaws, just clarification we would not need to vote on the issue.
Current data is not
including open positions, only those that are filled.
Should change by-laws to
coincide with OIRP. The current numbers are not representative of who we are if
we include open positions. 20th day is census info so should we go
with that date for elections. That
way numbers would always tie back to the University.
It was moved and seconded
that we change the way we review numbers for elections to the “20th day of fall semesters in odd years all filled positions” as our census basis.
Approved. Amended by-laws.
n New Business: there was no new business
n Unfinished Business
By – law Change: Phil
Wilke proposed a by-law change to correct wording in Article VII Section 4
Duties and Privileges. Currently it reads: The Senate Executive Council shall ensure that all
functions of the Senate are carried out expeditiously and in accordance with
the provisions of this Code. It shall arrange for and call meetings of the
Senate. It shall act as the elections committee and verify they results of each
Senate election. The Executive Council shall appoint unclassified professional
staff to university and governance committees. The
proposed change reads: The
Senate Executive Council shall ensure that all functions of the Senate are
carried out expeditiously and in accordance with the provisions of this Code.
It shall arrange for and call meetings of the Senate. The Executive Council
shall advise the president on appointments of unclassified staff members to
university and governance committees. The rationale for this change comes from the fact that
Unclassified Senate Executive Council no longer certifies elections, this is
done by the elections committee. The Unclassified Senate Executive Council does
not appoint members to governance boards, rather we forward names to the
Provost and other entities for final approval and appointment. This would bring
the Unclassified Senate wording in line with other KU governance bodies.
Jeannette moved to adopt,
Angie seconded. No further discussion. All in favor 21. None opposed.
Motion to adjourn at 1:25