Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Executive Board Meeting Minutes
October 18, 2007
Kansas Union, Alcove C

University of Kansas

 

Unclassified Senate Executive Board Meeting Minutes

October 18, 2007 12:00 p.m.

Kansas Union, Alcove C

 

Attendance: Angie Claussen, Paul Farran, Jeannette Johnson, Danny Kaiser, Jason O’Connor, Lisa Shaw, Thelma Simons, Rick Whitmore, Phil Wilke

 

The meeting was called to order by President Danny Kaiser.

 

• The minutes of the August 2007 meeting were approved as amended.

 

• Standing Reports:

 

President: Danny Kaiser

SenEx – the intent of the email that was sent is to fix a glitch that is occurring since we have gone to four senate bodies. We need to shorten the period for voting because there currently is an issue of length of time passing between initial vote and final vote. Public comment time is going to be shortened because something proposed now would not be passed until February.

There was a meeting with the Board of Regents a couple of months ago and one of the topics was the calendar. The group talked about what the issues are regarding the calendar and asked why we cannot control the calendar ourselves. It was requested that KU be given more flexibility in scheduling i.e. shorter courses, inter-sessions, not start the Friday before MLK day etc. Other topics discussed were deferred maintenance, international study, and more. It was a very good conversation.

SenEx is creating a task force to come up with our own plan for learning outcomes. It will be our version of no college student left behind.  We will need to submit names of unclassified staff to get a broad representation on the task force. Kim McNeley, and Katherine Nemuth-Tuttle are two names that have come up as possible members. Dan Bernstein will chair – he was at Senex to discuss.

 

       Secretary: Angie Claussen asked about the members that we have on University committees giving a report back to Unclassified Senate. We have representation all across campus but we never hear what they are doing or give them input on how Unclassified Senate feels about the issues being discussed. There was talk of asking them to provide a written report back to the group at the end of each semester or perhaps a summary twice a semester. We should let them know that they are welcome to come to our monthly meetings and ask for feedback from the group. When they are appointed the president will sent them a letter congratulating them on their appointment and list their duties or responsibilities to Unclassified Senate. We need to keep them in our loop. A list of all committee members can be found on our web site.

 

     Treasurer: Lisa Shaw reported that we paid a $640.50 bill for the bus for the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour. That leaves us with a balance of $3,866.50.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Governance and Representation: Phil Wilke

The committee met the first of October and split into five subcommittees based on the survey recommendations of professional development, retirement planning, performance evaluations, parking, and professional recognition. There are three people per subcommittee and each brainstormed some seed ideas. They have been asked to meet between now and mid-November to come up with ideas and then the committee can start narrowing things down and determine where to go from here.

Phil will talk with Keith in about 2 weeks to start planning our visit to the legislature in February. University Support Staff (USS) will be going about the same time – should we combine the visit? Paul thinks no, Danny wonders about Keith talking to both groups to give his planning ideas – combine planning but not the day on the hill.  USS has not been there for a couple of years and they feel like it would not be a bad thing to get out there. Legislators are curious how the move from civil service has gone. Phil will check with USS and Keith about doing a combined meeting. Paul has concerns about taking the same messages – Jason felt that Keith didn’t share information that would make a big difference. Jeannette’s understanding was that we would gain direction from the Board of Regents at their next meeting. Kathy Damron has primary responsibility for lobbying – Keith is working more on the federal level. Phil will find out from Keith what his direction is and will go from there. Dennis and Danny have talked about trying to do as many things as possible together so a joint meeting might be good.

 

The by-laws change will be voted on in the full Senate next month. We  tried to vote in the last meeting but we had a lack of quorum. However, with the recent change the bylaws now say that 2/3 of the present senators have to approve. Article 11 – Where necessary to ensure the orderly and proper function of the Senate, regulations to accompany this code may be proposed by a Senator(s) at any Senate meeting and passed upon affirmative vote by a two-thirds vote of the Senators present. This will be put back on the agenda for the next full senate meeting and we will vote at the beginning of the meeting in an effort to have more Senators present.

 

        Professional Development: Heidi Simon was unable to attend. The group concurred that  the Wheat State tour went well there were 35 people that went and the highlights were the Gordon Parks exhibit in Fort Scott, Trading Post, Mine Creek and the Louisburg Cider Mill. Another tour in the spring? We have the interest and the money, perhaps doing something north would be a good next trip. Perhaps a two day would be possible. The Theatre tour also went very well with about 20 people attending.

 

        Public Relations: Thelma Simons

She needs the details for the November event so she can send out an email.

 

The web site is still a work in progress. Ian Cahir from the Lied Center and Mike Krings from University Relations will help with the web site and transition.

 

Thelma sent news releases to UDK and LJW about Wheat State tour but didn’t ever see an article.  

 

The committee is pursuing some volunteer activities that would help promote Unclassified Senate. She will contact the volunteer center to see about doing “make a difference day” as this would get us out into the community. We should be sure to take pictures of staff helping the community.

Mike Krings mentioned that there is a new Jayhawk Roundup newsletter for the legislators and we may want to get an article in there before our visit. The October 8^th Oread has an article about it.

 

The committee is meeting monthly and they talked a little about the certificate project they are doing. No one is aware of a current KU certificate for outgoing senators.

 

Past presidency list on the web is coming soon.

 

Elections:  Rick Whitmore reported that his committee is meeting tomorrow to finalize our census for this year’s election.

 

University Support Staff: Maxine Younes was unable to attend.

 

 

• New Business:

The census data was discussed to be sure that we had the information needed.

Unclassified Senate photo: Full unclassified senate at our next meeting will have a pictures and then a picture of the Executive committee and then one of the president. The cost is $150 Paul Farran moved to approve and there was a second by Rick Whitmore. It was approved and Paul will get this set up for us in November.

Our by-laws state that if you have two consecutive unexcused absences you will be removed from office. We need to send a message to those who have missed letting them know of their status. The Secretary will send a message to those that have one unexcused absence as a warning.

 

• Unfinished Business:
  
  Professional development funding: There are a couple of people looking at this via Governance and Representation. We discussed how this was done in the past – with a small number of people on first come first serve basis and was not effective. We need data on where money is being spent currently, and can we figure out who is allotting money for professional development and who is not. Lindy Eaken told Jeannette that we could get at the information for out of state travel for each department. Jeannette went to a meeting with directors to learn who was getting the opportunities for professional development. Diana thought they were able to do an analysis of data to see who is spending money in this area. Many offices on campus have organizations with others in the state that get together once a year. Diane thinks we can track the in-state travel because there are often registration fees and there are codes for those fees. Some offices taking advantage of webinars via professional organizations. There may or may not be cost associated with these so we may be able to look at what money is being spent in this area. One problem is that many national organizations target people who are directors or registrars, etc. not always a lot available for entry or mid-range people on a national level. Once we had a better idea of needs it might be better to offer professional development ideas that are sponsored by a separate entity. All felt like we need some data on who is currently getting money and also poll our membership to get more details about who has professional organizations and if so do they offer training or seminars at their meetings that would help you where you are in your career right now. If not what are your needs and how can we meet them. Kate Ames-Oliver knows about what is out there so once we saw what needs were not being met she could work with us to help us identify how to meet those needs or offer courses on campus. Maybe via KUCE – Marvin Hunt working to do some courses for industries and tailor to their needs. Ola said that HREO gets lots of information about things that are in the area. William-Jewel is now offering a leadership program that has received great reviews. That might be an option for people – may need to analyze the programs that Ola gets info about. Did not talk dollars and cents – they realize as Unclassified Senate that the most cost effective way is to bring people in to us. There is also the ability to travel to a meeting to hear from others in other states so they understand the long term needs for funding for professional development. Didn’t push as they were willing to gather data and did not think it would be difficult to get the information. Awareness to Deans, Directors, etc. so that they start thinking about money for their staff. We do not want this group getting back into the habit of distributing money for professional development. Ola said if we found a need that many would benefit from HREO would help with some funding. Danny brought this up with the Provost and Dennis and he didn’t flinch – Danny got the sense he would be willing to talk to upper level managers on campus.

File Sharing: Referred to Julie Loats – space reserved for departments that are sharing policy related documents. Do we need to talk with others? Where are we with licenses for Zygos. Should Paul pursue this further? What about archiving? Can you restrict access in scholar works? New web site – could have staff log-in for file share but if Paul is not on US what happens.  Would be nice to have one place that is not paper to keep information to pass along to the next person. A place where all executive committee members could access information. Right now we have email and the President is an owner, Thelma is an owner, and committee chairs.

 

• Announcements:
  Planning and Resources – numbers are down over 400 students. However, only 1% lost in credit hours it seems that students are taking more hours.

Don Steeples – questions about space allocations.

Student Success creating a group on transfer student issues.

Next meeting December 13^th in Alcove C, Kansas Union at 12:00 noon.

 

Having no further business, Paul Farran moved to adjourn and Angie Claussen seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 1:35 p.m.