Minutes from
Unclassified Senate Executive Board Meeting
November 20, 2008
Minutes transcribed by Jason O’Connor
In attendance:
Excused: Danny Kaiser, Angie Claussen, Allyson Flaster, and Megan Gannon.
The meeting was called to order at noon by President Paul Farran.
There were no minutes to approve as the October 30 meeting was cancelled.
Reports:
President: Paul Farran
Paul had a meeting with SenEx this week and they received a report from the Calendar Committee. The committee is reviewing the classroom hours required by the Big 12 schools. The classroom hours vary across the schools from 141-153 with an average of 148. The Kansas Board of Regents requires at least 150.
A conversation about the Chancellor’s budget email message was discussed. The governor requested a 3% cut for this current FY 09 and 2 % would come from the various units and 1% from the administrations budget.
Academic Computing and Technology committee will make sure they have representation from all the constituents present at their meetings.
Organization and Administration will be evaluating all the University Senate committees to determine if they add value to the governance system.
Paul requested that everyone review the recommended by-law changes under review before our next full senate meeting in December.
Secretary: Angie Claussen is excused and Jason O’Connor transcribed the minutes of the meeting.
Treasurer: Noelle Kurth
Noelle reminded the board that we must get prior approval before hiring students. Due to last minute cancelations, we had to acquire the services of 2 students to perform music at the Behind the Scenes at Audio-Reader and Kansas Public Radio staff development event.
We have a balance of $ 5,562. Projected future expenses include $2,000 for Unclassified Staff Development Scholarships and $1,500 for the Mini Wheat State Tour in the spring.
Consideration has been given to share the cost of the Corporate Challenge between the Staff and Faculty Senates, Edwards Campus, HR/EO and possibly the Provost’s office.
Governance and Representation Committee: Phil Wilke
Phil reports that construction on the capital is continuing and we will not be able to reserve any tables in the rotunda. No other outside groups have scheduled times at the capital to date because of the construction.
Paul recommended that we look at our annual visit being on 2/10/09. This will be discussed at our full senate meeting in December.
Aaron Quisenberry has contacts with Kevin Yoder and recommends that we have Kevin who was a Student Body President at KU and is currently serving a term for the Kansas Legislation to attend our Legislative update meeting. Jeannette also recommended that we in invite our local delegations.
Professional Development Committee: Allyson Flaster
Allyson was excused today and the report was provided by Amanda Ostreko.
Concerns about the wording of the Unclassified Staff Development Award were brought to attention. When the word “award” or “scholarship” is used then this monetary award amount is taxable. Ola will provide feedback about our application and also the implication of taxing this award to Paul. It was also discussed and agreed that the Professional Development committee would be in charge of selecting the winners of the scholarship.
Ola reported that HR/EO had the first Unclassified Staff Evaluations workshop and it was well attended. Ola also noted that the University Support Staff is looking into the possibility of creating a lactation policy at the university for employees. There is currently no lactation law in the state of Kansas.
Public Relations Committee: Mike Krings
Mike reported that the new website will be launched on 2/12/09. New information will be posted about the number of unclassified staff; years of service will be available in the new format. A big thanks to Tom Ryan from the Kansas Geological survey will be doing the technical work on the site. Please send pictures of staff development or of current staff to load to the web. There will be link to recommend an employee of the month.
Elections Committee: Megan Gannon absent and no report was provided.
University Support Staff: Maxine Younes was absent and no report was provided.
Student Senate: Mark Pacey was absent and no report was provided.
Faculty Senate was not present and no report was provided.
Unfinished Business:
President’s Working Group Update – Rick Whitmore spoke about the use of Zythos for our document repository. Jacquie Matney is the NTS Project Manager who provides the license to users. Only individuals that are saving or changing information need to be licensed. Three questions that came up about who makes changes to working documents, who can move things around and also how long do we keep the information. After this discussion, Paul asked Rick and Audrey Coleman to look at the definitions of what is the process to use Zythos. Look at guidelines for what we store and how. How and what do we archive. Who should have the authority to use this for the Unclassified Staff? After listening to the complexity of licenses and processes, Jason O’Connor recommended that we look at using blackboard as our document repository and the working group will also look at this tool.
New Business: ACTC Discussion with University Senate Executive Council. This was addressed in the President’s report.
- Meeting was adjourned at 1:27 PM