University Governance

UNIVERSITY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
April 21, 2009
Provost’s Conference Room – 3:30 p.m.

PRESENT: Nancy Kinnersley, Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Ben Eggleston, Liz Kowalchuk, Mary Berry, Paul Farran, Mary Ann Baker, Jeannette Johnson, Adam McGonigle, Dennis Constance, May Davis,

EXCUSED: Lisa Friis, John Staniunas, Eric Foss, Bill Walberg, John Stratton 

ALSO PRESENT: Molly Mulloy, Governance

            SenEx chair Mary Berry called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

MINUTES for 03/24/09 were approved.

STANDING  REPORTS

University Senate President
            Mary Berry welcomed SenEx Basketball Committee (“SBC”) members Susan Twombly and Kathy Reed. She noted that the Chancellor’s brown-bag presentation on the budget at noon this Friday is being sponsored by Faculty Senate, Unclassified Senate, and USS Senate.

Faculty Senate President.
            Nancy Kinnersley reported that the Board of Regents’  Gary Alexander spoke to COFSP (Council of Faculty Senate Presidents) last week about the Regents’ Strategic Question #4 concerning learning outcomes.  COSFP voted to change the academic calendar to 146 days; the request will now go to COCAO (Council of Chief Academic Officers) and the Regents for approval. The state legislature has approved requests from the Regents to allow tuition waivers to legacy students, to set admission standards for the Regents’ schools, and to allow the universities to build projects without going through the state architect if non-state funds are used. The Board is concerned about unfunded mandates such as non-budgeted longevity bonuses. T
Kinnersley announced that a modified version of the Open Access Policy will be presented to the Faculty Senate this Thursday.

Student Body President.
            Adam McGonigle reported that Mason Heilman and May Davis were elected as Student Body President and Vice President during the Student Senate elections last week. There are a few obstacles to resolve concerning the election. Student Senate approved all of its fee requests for FY2010 at its last meeting without increasing the overall percentage.  The fees were kept at zero because tuition may have to be raised for the tuition compact agreement. He invited members to the planting ceremony of the new rain garden at the Student Recreation Center tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

Unclassified Senate
            Paul Farran reported that a subgroup of unclassified staff on the Faculty Handbook Task Force is working on changes to the policy on unclassified performance evaluations. He announced that Phil Wilke is is the new president-elect of the group. He is looking forward to the discussion today about the proposal to increase the membership of the Unclassified and USS Senates on the University Senate.

University Support Staff.
            Reporting for Dennis Constance, Mary Ann Baker said that the USS will have a full retreat in July, with the executive committee meeting throughout the summer. Data from the supervisory evaluation proposal is being analyzed.

SENEX BASKETBALL AGREEMENT FOR MEN’S BASKETBALL TICKETS
            SBC (SenEx Basketball Committee) chair Susan Twombly distributed two documents, the new six year contract between SenEx and the Athletic Director, and the revised SenEx Basketball Policy with implementation procedures. She noted that just 1,450 seats were purchased by faculty/staff last year, and the new contract provides for a reduction in seats from 1800 to 1508. The Athletic Department will provide additional seats if the demand is above 1508, and faculty/staff seating will be in the same specified sections as in the first contract. She pointed out that there is new language in the contract to restore the discount if the university restores the subsidy to Athletics Corporation. Twombly stated that the Athletic Department has operated in good faith with the SBC Committee during the last five years. Members agreed that “2009” in the first paragraph was a typo that should be deleted.
Following discussion, Lisa Wolf-Wendel/Ben Eggleston moved to give Mary Berry the authority to sign the contract on behalf of SenEx.  Passed without dissent. Berry expressed appreciation to Susan Twombly, Kathy Reed, and Jason O’Connor for their work on the SBC committee.

STAFF REPRESENTATION ON UNIVERSITY SENATE
            Members referred to a 04/16/09 memo from US president Paul Farran and USS president Dennis Constance requesting that membership on the University Senate from their respective groups be increased from three to six members.  Lisa Wolf-Wendel/Jeannette Johnson moved to approve the proposal and forward it to University Senate.
In the discussion that followed, Student Body President Adam McGonigle said his group would also like to increase its representation by adding the Vice President of the Student Body and the chair of the Student Executive Committee as ex-officio, voting members of the University Senate and several other voting members as well. McGonigle also said he would like to amend Article I and Article IX of the Code to state that the existing “20% rule” for student representation on policy making committees be modified to include University Senate and SenEx.
Following much discussion, consensus of SenEx was for the leaders of the Student, USS, and Unclassified senates to meet as a group to recommend a “package proposal” for increased membership from all three groups on the University Senate. The proposal will be presented to the joint SenEx meeting on May 5th and forwarded to the University Senate next fall for early action.  The original motion was tabled.

OLD BUSINESS
            Mary Berry will check on the status of the Task Force on Employee Benefits and the Task Force on Learner Outcomes.

NEW BUSINESS
            Mary Berry announced that the joint meeting of the incoming and outgoing SenExes on May 5th will be moved to a room in the Kansas Union and will not begin until 4:00 p.m. Several SenEx members are participating in the Employee Recognition Ceremony from 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. that day in the Union.

            Berry distributed copies of an email communication she received from Jerry Niebaum, the president of the Endacott Society, concerning the loss of Lied Center tickets for retirees. Niebaum requests SenEx’s support of the Endacott Society’s proposal to request reinstatement of the free Lied center tickets.  Consensus of SenEx was that this would be inappropriate for SenEx to do since the Endacott Society is not a governance entity.  However, Berry will invite representatives from the Committee on Retirees Rights and Benefits to attend the University Senate meeting this week to discuss the retirees’ concerns and will inform Jerry Niebaum also.

            Jeannette Johnson/Nancy Kinnnersley moved that SenEx go into closed session for the purpose of discussing the annual review of the University and Faculty Ombuds. Passed. The open meeting reconvened after fifteen minutes.

No further business.

Respectfully submitted,
Molly Mulloy