University Governance
UNIVERSITY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
February 3, 2009
Provost’s Conference Room – 3:30 p.m.
Approved 02/10/09
PRESENT: Mary Berry, Nancy Kinnersley, Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Ben Eggleston John Staniunas, John Stratton, Lisa Friis, Mary Ann Baker, Paul Farran, Adam McGonigle, May Davis, Eric Foss, Dennis Constance, Bill Walberg, and new member Jeannette Johnson (replacing Danny Kaiser).
EXCUSED: Liz Kowalchuk
ALSO PRESENT: Molly Mulloy and Kathy Reed, Governance; Bill Crowe; Prof. Barbara Phipps
SenEx chair Mary Berry called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. She announced that the usual order of items on the agenda would be modified today to accommodate our two guest speakers.
MINUTES for 11/18/08 were approved, with thanks to Kathy Reed for doing a wonderful job in Molly Mulloy’s absence.
INTERIM REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Mary Berry welcomed Bill Crowe, chair of the Task Force on Employment Benefits, who was present to discuss that group’s interim report. Crowe summarized the work of the task force since it was appointed at the end of FY08.
Crowe stated that the first phase of the task force’s work has been to review various national benefit studies and surveys by businesses and other large research universities, to discuss data collected by Deb Teeter, Office of Institutional Research and Planning, and Madi Vannaman, HREO, and to review a report commissioned last year by Kansas state government to compare benefits offered to state employees with those offered by like employers in the public sector. He stressed that there is no data about which benefits would be most desirable in regard to recruitment or retention of KU employees. He added that it would be useful for the University to hire a faculty member in Public Administration whose specialty is the impact of benefits on employment to conduct an opinion survey at KU. Lisa Wolf-Wendel added that national research exists on which benefits most affect employee retention.
Crowe noted that about half of the universities surveyed offer some kind of domestic partner benefit, and the benefit most requested at other universities is tuition waivers for dependents. Jeannette Johnson said providing tuition waivers for dependents would have very significant costs for KU.
It was pointed out that the term “domestic partners” in a household could also include a disabled child over the age of 21, or the child of your partner, or a partner, any of whom might need health insurance. Paul Farran pointed out that the Kansas Health Care Commission defines “family” in a specific way that would need to be modified by the Regents and the state legislature in order for domestic partners to receive health insurance. Faculty Senate President Nancy Kinnersley offered to contact the faculty presidents at the other Regents’ universities to gauge their support for a potential request that the term “family” be redefined in Regents and legislative policies. Farran and Wolf-Wendel stated that published research indicates that adding domestic partner insurance coverage has only increased the cost of health insurance to other states by ½ to 1%.
Crowe pointed out that a list of possible benefits is included in the task force’s September minutes. He offered to meet with the leaders of the Unclassified, Support Staff, and Student senates to solicit and prioritize which benefits would be most useful to KU employees. Johnson suggested that SenEx could then take a prioritized list of possible benefits to the administration and ask them to do a university-wide survey.
Mary Berry asked Bill Crowe to talk to the three constituent senates to develop a priority list of 6-7 benefits and to return to Senex in six weeks with a specific strategy to implement the recommendations. She thanked Crowe for meeting with SenEx today.
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE CALENDAR COMMITTEE
Mary Berry welcomed Barbara Phipps, chair of the University Calendar Committee, who led a discussion of proposed changes to the academic calendar. Berry noted that Phipps chaired the committee last year and agreed to chair again this year, and thanked her for this contribution to the continuity this provides to this issue.
Phipps said the committee recommends that 1) classes start on a Monday in the fall and a Tuesday in the spring; 2) Fall Break possibly be moved from a Thur-Fri in October to the Mon-Tue of Thanksgiving week, 3) instructional days be reduced from 150 to 148 --- this would require approval of the Board of Regents; 4) Stop Day be eliminated and replaced with the “15th Week” policy; 5) Winter and Summer interim terms be specified.
In regard to Fall Break, Phipps observed that the committee was divided on whether to move Fall Break to Thanksgiving week, though many schools are combining Fall Break with Thanksgiving week in order to have a full week’s break in the semester. The student members of SenEx all spoke against moving Fall Break to later in the semester, citing the benefits of two down periods in the semester.
Referring to the Regents’ requirement of 75 instructional days, Phipps said that 74 instructional days in the semester are more the norm among KU’s peer schools; some have 69-70 days. Student member Eric Foss asked if the committee had calculated how the academic year could be shortened if KU’s class times were increased from 50 to 55 minutes, as was done by the Law School last year. Phipps said no, that the committee’s data is based on the current 50 minute class period. Jeannette Johnson observed that a 5-minute passing period is possible in the law School but would be difficult for those students whose classes take place all over campus. Bill Walberg asked if the committee had considered requesting that the Regents change their rule of 75 instructional days to a specific number of instructional minutes each semester. Phipps said they did not look at that except to count the number of minutes in the current 75 instructional days.
During a lengthy discussion about Stop Day, student members Adam McGonigle, May Davis, and Bill Walberg spoke against the elimination of Stop Day, stressing that students needed that Friday as well as the weekend to prepare for final exams.
Following much discussion, Mary Berry called for a special meeting of SenEx at 3:30 next week, following the 3:00 p.m. FacEx meeting, to continue discussion of the Calendar Committee’s recommendations.
TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS TO THE UNIVERSITY SENATE CODE AND RULES
John Stratton/Lisa Friis moved that the following technical amendments be approved and forwarded to University Senate: 1) USRR 2.2.9 (course repeat); 2) USRR 6.2.1 (mediation); 3) USRR 6.4.12.1 (housing); 4) USRR 5.1, 6.2 (ombuds), 5) CODE, 12.1 (libraries committee). Passed.
NEW BUSINESS
Adam McGonigle stated that the chair of the Academic Policies and Procedures Committee had asked him to provide specific language for the Student Senate’s Resolution to add a requirement in the USRR about grade notification. He distributed a handout with proposed language. McGonigle/Lisa Friis moved that this be sent to the AP&P Committee with a request to send a recommendation to SenEx by 02/16/09. Passed.
No further business.
Respectfully submitted,
Molly Mulloy