University Governance

UNIVERSITY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
February 17, 2009
Provost’s Conference Room – 3:30 p.m.

Approved: 3/03/09

RESENT: Nancy Kinnersley, Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Ben Eggleston, John Staniunas, John Stratton,  Liz Kowalchuk, Mary Ann Baker, Paul Farran, Adam McGonigle, May Davis, Eric Foss, Bill Walberg, Dennis Constance, Jeannette Johnson

EXCUSED: Lisa Friis, Mary Berry, Ben Eggleston

ALSO PRESENT: Molly Mulloy, Governance; Prof. Barbara Phipps, Prof. George Bittlingmayer,  Debra Dearing, and Mason Heilman, all from the Calendar Committee.

            In Mary Berry’s absence, SenEx vice chair Bill Walberg called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

MINUTES for 02/10/09 were approved.

STANDING  REPORTS
Faculty Senate President.
            Nancy Kinnersley reported that the Board of Regents will have a conference call on Thursday to approve the job description for the KU Chancellor position. The Governor is holding a press conference today to discuss the state budget impasse and will meet with the state finance council tomorrow.

Unclassified Senate
            Paul Farran reported that his group was approached by several unclassified staff about a possible public statement concerning projected budget cuts.

RECOMMENDATION OF THE CALENDAR COMMITTEE ON THE ACADEMIC CALENDAR
            Bill Walberg suggested that each component of the recommendation be discussed separately today.

Re Fall Break:  Eric Foss/Lisa Wolf-Wendel moved that Fall Break remain in October but be moved from a Thursday-Friday to a Monday-Tuesday.  Passed without dissent.

Re Starting Classes on Monday in the fall and on Tuesday in the spring semester:
            In response to a question, Calendar Committee chair Barbara Phipps pointed out that this change cannot take place unless an instructional day is eliminated each semester.
            Adam McGongle proposed that KU submit two separate proposals to the Board of Regents, one calendar that would include a reduction to 74 class days and a change in BOR policy, and a second calendar using the current rules with 75 class days.  Jeannette Johnson responded that after the last SenEx meeting she and Mary Berry visited with the Provost about approaching the Regents about a possible request to have more flexibility in determining instructional days.  The Provost discussed it with BOR CEO Reggie Robinson, who is soliciting feedback from the BOR academic staff and will get back to the Provost. Consensus of SenEx was to postpone further discussion about fewer instructional days or instructional minutes until feedback is received from the Regents. 
May Davis/Lisa Wolf-Wendel moved for SenEx to submit a temporary 75-day calendar for 2012-13 that would include Fall Break on a Monday-Tuesday. Passed.  Calendar Committee chair Barbara Phipps will prepare a new academic calendar and send it to Molly Mulloy before next week’s University Senate meeting.  

Stop Day:
            Several members spoke in favor of retaining Stop Day, especially if it were moved to the Monday or Wednesday of finals week.  Barbara Phipps responded that the Registrar would need to be consulted to see if it were possible to shorten the final exam schedule from 5 days to 4 days since we would not want finals on a Saturday. Adam McGonigle reiterated his concern that most students have told him that two days is not enough time to study for final exams. He suggested that after SenEx hears back from the Regents that the Calendar Committee be charged to prepare several possible schedules that would preserve the current Stop Day or move it to the middle of final exam week. 
In response to a question, Phipps noted that Stop Day is not typical at other universities and none of the other Regents’ universities have a Stop Day. Lisa Wolf-Wendel said she polled her graduate students, all who work in Student Success, and they unanimously said Stop Day should be eliminated. She added that data from the hospital and police department indicated that the night before Stop Day produced the highest number of alcohol-related incidents of the entire school year.  Bill Walberg suggested that KU’s data on the night before Stop Day be compared to hospital/police data for the last night of classes in cities where the other Regents’ universities are located. A member suggested that Vice Provost Marlesa Roney might have this information.
Adam McGonigle disputed Prof. Phipps comment about favorable feedback from the students on the Calendar Committee, adding that students reported that they were not present for some of the committee’s discussions. Phipps agreed that students were absent because she could not reach them about the meeting.

The “15th Week Policy:”
            Bill Walberg noted this policy referred to the recommendation that no exams except regular quizzes accounting for less than 10% of the grade may be given in the last week of the semester. McGonigle said that no students with whom he has visited support the 15th Week Policy as a fair trade-off for eliminating Stop Day.
           
Bill Walberg stated that further discussion about the academic calendar would be put on hold until SenEx receives feedback from the Board of Regents on the question about instructional days. 

NEW BUSINESS
Amendment to the University Senate Code.
            Members reviewed a request to add a representative from the Provost’s Advising Leadership Team to the Academic Policies & Procedures Committee (AP&P) as an ex-officio, non-voting member. Jeannette Johnson/Nancy Kinnersley moved to approve an amendment to the University Senate Code and to make a temporary ex-officio appointment until the Code change is effective. Passed.  The amendment to the Code is:

ARTICLE    XII.   STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY SENATE 
Section 1.   Committees Identified
Section 2.  Membership
The Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures shall be composed of seven faculty, and one representative each from the unclassified and university support staff serving three-year terms, and three students serving one-year terms. A representative of the Provost's Advising Leadership Team, appointed by that group, shall serve as an ex-officio, non-voting member.
 
Recommendation from the ACTC Committee
            Members discussed a recommendation from the Academic Computing and Telecommunications Committee that KU adopt a policy “that all employees are required to have access to technological equipment.” In the discussion that followed, members made the following observations: 1) the policy would apply mainly to Facilities Operations staff; 2) the memo should be shared with Human Resources before it is sent to the administration; 3) many departmental computers contain student information and other confidential data that would need to be protected from public access; 4) access to computers might be abused; 5) there are already a number of public access computers on campus.  Dennis Constance/May Davis moved to approve the recommendation but to eliminate the second to last paragraph. Passed.  The final recommendation is:

The Academic Computing and Telecommunications Committee recommends that the University of Kansas adopt a policy stating that all employees are required to have access to technological equipment (such as computers) in order to
Obtain information relevant to their job functions (such as university policies)
Perform personnel functions (such as signing up for health insurance)
Departments may either provide the equipment at the employee’s work location or provide the employee time to go to another location on campus where such equipment is available for use by the employee or by all University staff.

Staff who require training to use the technological equipment to perform the functions listed above should be allowed time to attend University run computer classes.  Note that hiring supervisors can include ability to use specified technological equipment in their list of required qualifications for a position.  

All departments on campus are encouraged (although not required) to provide access to selected technological equipment at times when it is not being used by department employees to employees of other departments. 

The University will make available to all employees necessary technological equipment to perform the functions listed above at selected locations around campus.

Appeal to the Faculty Senate about the State Budgetary Crisis
            Members reviewed a request from a faculty member for Governance to take immediate action to support Governor Sibelius position to veto the budgetary bill.  A member pointed out that the Governor is holding a press conference right now and that the state finance council will meet tomorrow.  Consensus was to not take action at this time.

No further business.
Respectfully submitted,
Molly Mulloy