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KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday, May 3, 2007
Engineering Library – 10:00 -11:30 am

Present: Monica Claassen-Wilson (FY07 Chair), Jill Becker (FY07 Vice-Chair), Angie Rathmel (Secretary), Kevin Fussell (Group 2), Nishon Hawkins (Group 3), Denise Swartz (Group 1); Robert Szabo (Group 4); Erin Kidwell (Diversity Committee); Jeff McAdams (PRC)

Approval of previous meeting’s minutes
DONE

Approval of previous meeting’s action items

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
Robert		Thank you to Merc presenter (see G: template) DONE
Monica	Friday, Apr 20th	Call for KULSS-Exec 07-08 nominations  DONE
Angie		Ask Donna to switch time of student picnic to 11-2. DONE – no change.
Group Reps		Send out request for questions about Merit process. – Group 3 only. See Action Items.
Kevin	Tuesday, April 24th	Make sure announcement of SSEYA is photographed. – DONE.

 

Group Reports:
Grp 1:  Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

• Carpet samples being reviewed
• Libraries are looking at purchasing flat plasma screens (like at the Union) to put in Watson/Anschutz. Small committee formed to work on this.  Quarter of screen dedicated to Union stuff.  Other to Library updates, reference services, instruction services, highlight special collections. $12,000 total estimate and hope to get some donor money and hope to get it this year.
• Art in the Park Sunday. Joel Cooper (Acq) will have a booth.

Grp 2: Cataloging

• Continue with some computer upgrades
• Annex 1 off 23rd/Haskell will hopefully be emptied by August.  Still need to move some items back into Anschutz for cataloging problems before they move to the real Annex.
• Large macro to relink Voyager records.

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

• Recreational reading area of best-seller list fiction and non-fiction.  Leasing books from the company, but their will be no fines. Kick off party May 10th.
• Letter to faculty re: new policy on E-reserves – new early deadline as a result.
• Copyright done before e-reserves are posted
• More complex passwords
• One chapter f/ book and one article f/ journal and/or small portion
• Small portion of the entire course readings (left to professor to determine)

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

• ANSCHUTZ
• ANNEX
• ART

• ENGINEERING
• 3 plants relocated from Anschutz.
• Engineering Advisory Board (area engineering advisors on curriculum) meeting annually in Spahr.  This year a US Senator will sit in on these meetings.
• MUSIC (submitted by Nancy Hawkins)
• Well, it's been a pretty exciting month in Lake Gorton....the energy audit recommendations have been implemented and the lights in our outside hallway flicker on and off to some unknown control that entertains Jim and me when we look up from our toil and see darkness descending in the hall. Other than that, not much else to report except the students who need their last-minute report researched and written yesterday--what else is new anywhere in academia?!
• RCL
• SPENCER (submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
• We currently have Harmony School kids visiting in various droves to learn about Quantrill and his raid on Lawrence
• May 10th -- the KU Libraries Student Assistant picanica (as Yogi would say to Boo-boo) will be held either on the terrace or in the North Gallery
• May 11th -- George Gibbs will give his presentation on his work with the Centron films in the Johnson Room
• May 18th -- we will hold a celebration for Kathy Lafferty's graduation from KU and Karen Cook's promotion & tenure

 

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
Drafts of minutes for the April USS Senate and Executive Committee meetings are attached (written by Kathy Stiers).  mab

University Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
Minutes from latest University Senate meeting, 26 April 2007 (written by Molly Mulloy):

REPORT OF THE UNIVERSITY SENATE PRESIDENT
            Rick Hale reported that no problems were reported last week when the second drop period ended.  He commended Registrar Cindy Derritt for her fine job in publicizing the deadline and in provided SenEx with historical data that will allow us to monitor the effects of the new drop deadlines.
He noted that discussion was tabled at the 4/14 Faculty Senate meeting on the proposed change to FSRR 4.1 (the resident/non-resident rule) that would allow students to take Continuing Education courses in their last 30 hours at KU. This issue will be revisited again next year.
SenEx has received the final report from the Organization & Administration Committee (O&A).  O&A did not see any problems with the new reorganization of governance this year except in regard to the extended discussion/comment period required for changes to the Rules and Regulations.
Hale cautioned members not to use their state computers to contact legislators about deferred maintenance for the state’s universities.

REPORT OF THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT 
            Ruthann Atchley reported that the Board of Regents is reducing from 32 to 16 the number of companies authorized to sell voluntary retirement accounts to state employees. The Council of Faculty Senate Presidents (COFSP) will ask the Regents next year to review SB180 in regard to adding university employees to the legislation that excludes state taxes from roll-over retirement plans.

REPORT OF THE STUDENT SENATE
            Jason Boots announced that the Student Senate held its joint meeting last night and elected members to serve on SenEx and University Senate for next year.

REPORT OF THE UNCLASSIFIED STAFF
            Mark Nesbitt-Daly reported that the Unclassified Senate’s volunteer fair was held last week at KPR and Audio-Reader.  Their mini-Wheat State tour will be held on May 9th.

REPORT OF THE UNIVERSITY SUPPORT STAFF (USS)
       Mary Ann Baker reported that the USS is planning its annual organizational meeting.

DISCUSSION: AMENDMENT TO USRR 2.2.9 (COURSE REPEAT/GRADE REPLACEMENT)
            Rick Hale explained that the College’s Undergraduate Advising Committee originally proposed that the course repeat policy be streamlined and made automatic. The Academic Policies & Procedures Committee agreed and worked with CUSA on the final language.
Jeannette Johnson noted that the current policy clarifies that courses with A, B, and C grades may be repeated, with the two grades averaged, whereas courses with D and F grades may be repeated with the second grade replacing the first. She asked why the statement about A,B, and C grades was eliminated in the new policy. Hale responded that CUSA felt the sentence about A,B.C courses was not needed since a student may already repeat those courses with the consent of the dean. 
Tony Rosenthal asked why the phrase “first 60 credit hours at KU” was changed to “courses numbered 000- 299.”  CUSA member Chris Crandall said this change was made to eliminate problems with differing interpretations as to whether the “first 60 hours” includes CE courses, or CR/NC courses, or AP courses taken while in high school. Following discussion, Hale reminded members that the proposal will be voted on at the 5/4 Senate meeting.

DISCUSSION: AMENDMENT TO UNIVERSITY SENATE CODE, ART. XII (MEMBERSHIP ON ATHLETIC COMMITTEE)
            Rick Hale stated that the role of the Athletic Department’s Athletic Advisory Committee changed significantly in 2004 when the Athletic Corporation’s Bylaws were rewritten.  The new Executive Committee took over many of the responsibilities formerly held by the advisory committee. SenEx proposes revitalizing the Governance Athletic Committee so that there will be a forum for discussing various issues between athletics and academics. The recommendation includes adding one representative each from the University Support Staff and Unclassified Senate, adding the Chancellor’s Big XII representative as an ex-officio member, and appointing rather than electing the six faculty members on the Governance committee. Hale said this amendment to the Code will be voted on at next week’s meeting.

TASK FORCE ON ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING AND LEADERSHIP
            Hale welcomed Dan Bernstein, chair of the Task Force, who led a discussion of the recommendations of the task force report distributed prior to the meeting. The recommendations include peer review of the faculty member’s intellectual work, student ratings in five key dimensions of teaching, and the faculty member’s perception of how teaching skills have developed over time. He noted that the task force has been asked by FacEx to generate a set of specific guidelines that will aid academic units with implementation of the recommendations.
During discussion of Recommendation #2 (student ratings of teaching), Bernstein said that KU faculty with research expertise in survey instruments are testing several versions of a form in pilot studies this semester.
In regard to Recommendation #3 (open-ended student comments), Bernstein said the comments should be used by the faculty member for the improvement of his/her teaching, and that reporting the comments for evaluative purposes should remain the option of the instructor. Several members mentioned former Provost David Shulenburger’s memo stating two instances when he believed a department could override a faculty member’s rights regarding comment sheets. Bernstein said the task force did not revisit the basic policy on open-ended questions, but addressed the issue by recommending that that comment sheets should be on a separate piece of paper apart from the numerical ratings questions, and be framed in ways that maximize constructive comments. The task force consulted with KU faculty whose research includes the analysis of the content of comments and came up with general recommendations regarding open ended comments.

Diversity Committee
Diuguid “Diversity : what’s in it for me?” Workshop about media, how it portrays or doesn’t portray race/diversity went really well and both sessions were full, could have filled another workshop.  Rebecca Smith helped to make this a success. Feedback forms were made available (half returned).  Biggest complaint was that it wasn’t long enough. Potential for a repeat of this workshop.  Lots of NTS and IT staff attended.

Next event Monday, May21st, 3-5pm : Prof. Kevin Willmott, filmmaker, director of “CSA Confederate States of America” and upcoming “Bunker Hill”.  2 hour event at Computer Center Auditorium.  Will show clips from his films and talk about diversity in his filmmaking.  Formalized publicity with Rebecca.  Donna to send IS-wide email of event.  Blurb in InfoMatters for May 7th.   Email from Denise Stephens on May 10th to encourage IS-wide people to go.  RSVP to Rita by May 18th.

Rebecca suggests opening events up campus-wide (keep pre-registration to IS first). This would allow for advertising in Oread and Kansan.

Professional Development Council
Not yet met.  Donna did request members to update calendars in order to schedule a meeting.

 

University Committee on Libraries (UCL)
No report

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC)
Charges are changing. Proposed to the Dean more specifically the committee charges.  Reiterated her desire that PRC not be involved in the budget.  Will still hold a meeting where Shannon goes over the budget annually.  Considering a name change but decided not to.  Will be more Ad Hoc.

Orientation Program survey.  Assist Donna in developing an orientation program. Results and recommendations have been given to Donna.  Perhaps PRC can take the development of this program on.

Propose providing a reporting mechanism as part of the Libraries organizational chart. 

SSEYA

Report went to the Dean a week and half ago.  Check should be ready in the next couple of days. 

KULSS 07-08 Election
Try to complete before May 31st general meeting. Ballot out by next Wednesday, May 9th  in by the 23rd -24th.

KULSS Spr07 General Meeting
May 31st (June 14th back up)
Merit Discussion – invite Shannon and Dean
Staff Development Workshop overview

Staff Development Workshop Follow-up
Jill and Monica will be developing this.

Agenda Items for the Dean
Issue of getting concerned parties included on input or major decisions

• Recreational reading room
• Student picnic
• E-reserves workflow

Transparency of reporting lines (proposal to PRC)
Follow up on consistent supervisor evaluation feedback

Action Items for next meeting:

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
Group Reps		Send out request for questions about Merit process. – Group 3 only. See Action Items.
Robert		Ask Kathy about submitting her graduation  to InfoMatters
Angie	May 9th	Get ballot together by and send out May 9th
Group Reps		Send reminder to submit nominations for Elections by May 8th

Next meeting will be on May 17th, 10-11:30 am in Watson Library Conference Rm B.