Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Meeting
March 13, 2008
Relays Room, Kansas Union
Minutes transcribed by Angie Claussen
Attendance: Angie Claussen, Audrey Coleman, Dan Consolver, Ronda
Consolver, Dan Coonfield, Paul Farran, Allyson Flaster, Ed Foley, Frederic
Gutknecht IV, Jeannette Johnson, Danny Kaiser, Mike Krings, Noelle Kurth, Paul
Liechti, Angie Loving, Rebecca Mayer, Jason O’Connor, Aaron Quisenberry, Mary
Ann Rasnak, Lisa Shaw, Thelma Simons, Carolyn Thurman, Xinkun Wang, Rick
Whitmore, Phil Wilke, Maxine Younes.
The meeting was called to
order at noon by President Danny Kaiser.
The minutes of the November 15,
2007 meeting were approved as submitted.
Reports
President – Danny
Kaiser
Staff fellows program is a
great program that was started this year and we are all encouraged to pursue
this opportunity. You can find more information including members of the first
class online.
There has been a task force
formed to revise the Faculty and Unclassified Staff handbook. Right now we do
not know the structure, we do not know if the task force will be University
Senate or under Faculty Senate and Unclassified Senate would have
representation. We would have no ownership if this happened so Danny will be
meeting with Bill Crowe and Rick Levy to decide how to structure this group.
Please think about if you are interested or know others who might be please
email names and information to Danny. They hope to have this group start
meeting this semester and continue into next year. Jeannette Johnson added that
this handbook is from the 60’s and is currently in paper format only. She
envisions this to be more of a narrative with links to resources online for the
new version. There are some who would still like to have a full document so it is
unclear at this time how it will end up. This may be a much longer project that
will start with just the key sections. Danny added that we share some policies
with faculty and have many of our own so there may be some sub-groups that
develop and then come back to the larger group to report.
An activity that has been
assigned to the faculty committee is staff benefits which is an issue that
effects Unclassified Senate and University Support Staff so there will be
discussion on how to broaden this committee to all groups. Perhaps another task
force will be developed for this as well. The will be looking at what is
happening at other universities and other employers and how to recruit and
retain employees with benefits. They will look at whether the state is keeping
up and wee what changes if any are needed. There will be some movement with
this group late this spring or early next fall for sure.
There are some revisions to
the University withdrawal process coming down from AP&P so keep your ears
perked if you are interested in this. It has to do with having a W versus a
WP/WF option and which drop period this is available. Each of the schools may
be able to have their own policies. CLA&S wants to have W be the only
option while many of the professional schools want to have the WP/WF option
because they want to have a faculty signature be required. More information on
this will be posted on the web site and Kim McNeley in CLA&S is our
Unclassified Senate representative on AP&P.
Secretary – Angie
Claussen
Angie asked that everyone
please remember to sign the attendance sheet today.
Treasurer – Lisa
Shaw
Lisa reported that we have a
balance of $3,821.55. We still have an outstanding photography bill for $45.
Governance and
Representation Chair – Phil Wilke
Phil reported that the day
at the Kansas Legislature was a great success. There were 16 Unclassified Staff
members that went and talked to 50 legislators and were able to get good
information into the hands of those that make decisions. We gave out the “What
KU accomplished” handout and various other information. We will go again next
year so be thinking about helping out with that visit. Thanks to all who
participated.
The committee, over the past
year, has been dealing with the staff concerns that surfaced during the 2007
survey. There were five areas that emerged and subcommittees have been working
on ideas to address the concerns. There are both short and long term ideas that
will be given to the senate at the end of the semester for review and implementation
next year.
There was a job performance
survey sent out mid-February to all unclassified staff asking about the merit
pay performance evaluations and if they were satisfied with them. There were
373 responses which is a 19% response and very good. It was a short survey and
was relevant to the pocketbook plus there was a catchy title in the subject
line so that may have been why the response was so good. The committee is now
working on parsing down the information and if you are interested in helping with
this please see Phil. They hope to use these results to impact what they do in
the coming year. Phil handed out the raw data with each of the 184 comments
that were given on the survey. It appeared that there was about a 60/40
satisfaction with the current process.
Professional Development
Chair – Heidi Simon
Heidi was unable to attend
but sent a report that her committee hosted three events during the spring
semester with Athletics, Watkins Health Center and the Recreation Center. There
are no other events planned at this time, thank you for your participation and
support of these events.
Public Relations Chair
– Thelma Simons
Thelma reported that the
committee is working on getting the online voting ballots in place and there
will be a test run in the next couple of days and then it will go out to all
Unclassified Staff after spring break.
Thelma is working on
certificates for those senators that are going off of Unclassified Senate after
this term. She received some information on certificates and how to get it
approved for funding.
Elections Chair –
Rick Whitmore
Rick reported on the current
ballot for elections. We have had a 40% rate of decline or people that have
never responded. We are able to continue adding to the ballot up until it goes
live. If you want to add anyone let Rick know the name, department and a
biography. The test ballot will go out Monday and then elections start on March
24th. We need one more person from Academic and we are short people
in Research. If we end up short some people the President appoints senators. We
need more names so please send them to Rick. Please let people know that the
time commitment is just two meetings each semester to be a senator but can be
more if they want to be more involved.
University Support Staff
– Maxine Younes
Maxine reported that they
have elections coming up and they had a big discussion about the lack of
nominees this year.
They discussed Senate bill
2016 which may do away with the longevity bonus. Since they are no longer part
of the Classified Staff system this may not impact them because they are
University Support Staff and the University could decide to continue the
longevity pay.
The group also discussed
Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) group and whether to join. This
group doesn’t really represent Regents Institutions so it may not be an
advantage to those employed by Regents schools.
USS is considering doing a
mini Wheat State Tour as well.
There was a salary study
done and they increased the pay ranges at KU to fall in line with the public
sector. USS would like to see if HREO would be willing to check these ranges in
Lawrence and in the public sector on a regular basis to adjust the KU pay
ranges to match.
New Business:
Nomination of Officers
President – elect, this
is a three year commitment and includes being a University Senate voting
representative. The first year you are President elect, then President, and
then past President on Unclassified Senate Executive committee. The President
is an ex officio member on University Senate and SenEx and the past President
is a voting representative on both of these groups.
Phil Wilke was nominated and
accepted.
Angie Claussen was nominated
and declined but later accepted.
Jeannette Johnson was
nominated and tentatively accepted and later accepted.
Nominations will be taken up
until the ballot goes live.
Secretary – this
person is on the executive committee and takes minutes at both senate and exec
meetings. The person is also responsible for sending reminder emails to those
senators that miss meetings.
Angie Claussen was nominated
and accepted.
Aaron Quisenberry was
nominated and declined.
Treasurer – this
person is on the executive committee and is responsible for running DEMIS
reports, reporting the balance at each meeting and approving expenditures and
routing them to Kathy Reed.
Lisa Shaw was nominated and
declined.
Noelle Kurth was nominated
and accepted.
Nomination of Committee
Chairs – the current committee chairs gave a brief overview of their
committees. The vote for these chairs will come from the 2008-2009 senate. We
will take nominations today and then table this until May when Paul opens the
first meeting of the new senate and then we will take additional nominations.
Chairs must be continuing senators and not new senators.
Governance &
Representation
Aaron Quisenberry was
nominated and accepted.
Professional Development
Heidi Simon was nominated
but not present.
Public Relations
Mike Krings was nominated
and accepted.
Elections
Rick Whitmore was nominated
and accepted.
Megan Gannon was nominated
but not present.
Computer for the Secretary
– several senate members will look into seeing if they have an old laptop
that could be released from their inventory. We can also look into purchasing
one if needed.
Unfinished Business
We have a positive balance
in our account and we will ask to carry this money forward to next year. Danny
was asked if we needed an increase in funding for the upcoming year and he told
them no.
The group voted to approve
annual funding for a photograph of the new Senate estimated at $70.
Some of our other money will
go toward the spring 2009 mini wheat state tour.
Danny asked Lindy Eakin to
trade some of our money for private money for refreshments for the May meeting.
Motion to adjourn at 1:00.