There are two ad hoc committees being formed, one to discuss qualities ideal for the university’s next president and another to propose strategic planning and vision statements for  the staff senate. Chairman Will Armstrong encouraged senators to get involved in these committees.

Armstrong then reiterated the purpose of the executive committee, which is outlined .��

Committee reports were introduced by Vice Chair Vickie Tencer and included:

Credentials and Nominations: There are six committee spots open. Staff are encouraged to apply via unit calls

Policy, Economics and Development: The committee is close to finalizing a RIF recommendation and hopes to present it for a final vote at the next senate meeting. Members also continue to discuss plans concerning staff development as it aligns with the 21^st Century initiatives. The December report is .��

Services and Facilities: Did not meet

Grievance: The Staff Grievance Committee finalized a document that outlines the grievance process. Senator John Smith said many staff members are not aware of this process. They anticipate an increase in grievances filed during the performance appraisal period. It was discussed whether or not the new FLSA process moving some employees from exempt to non-exempt status qualifies as a grievance. It does not.

SHARE: No applications were received for SHARE in this last time period. The committee is increasing its fundraising and marketing efforts, including with advancement to ensure SHARE is on the list of donation options for that department’s UofL Cares and CARDS All In campaigns. The committee report is .��

Staff Morale and Community Outreach: The committee report is . The committee finished its service project with the Ronald McDonald House Adopt-a-Meal, raising more than $275 worth of food and contributing more than 50 service hours. The committee is also working on a new Staff Senate brochure.��

Treasurer’s Report: The budget for Staff Senate has been approved and includes officer x-pay, money for a senator refresher, network-based infrastructure, a gift for the outgoing president, name tags, a holiday reception, a brochure (new this year), Day of Service t-shirts, meet your senator events on each campus, and $150 for each committee to support out-reach, staff interaction, or programming that benefits staff.

The total budget is $23,543, not including the $2,500 technology fund. The balance for December is $13,189.96. The balance for SHARE in December is $12,632.80. The balance of the technology fund is $1,674.

Lauren Greenwell provided a report from the Student Government Association and thanked the senators for supporting the students, especially during the accreditation news. The SGA has been mobilizing students to contact the Governor’s office and express their concerns about this new probationary status, and the SGA has also received support from WKU, UK and Murray State.

In January, the SGA is starting a lobbying group called Cards in Action. Students will lobby for higher education in Frankfort. Chair Will Armstrong applauded the students for their advocacy.

Report: Patty Payette provided an update on the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan. The focus of this project is to enhance student learning and the student learning environment. It is part of the accreditation process.

“SACS asked us to improve something our student data has told us to improve. It is supposed to be innovative and that makes it exciting,” Payette said.

The committee to achieve this goal was formed two years ago and included constituents from across campus. The focus will be on students in their second year of college. Patty said the committee noticed a drop off of students from their second year to their third year, particularly among pre-unit students and undecided students.

The proposal is to launch a seminar-like pilot course for second year students. It will be named “Find Your Fit in the Second Year.”

“We’ve never focused on second-year students before,” Payette said. “That’s the innovative part.”

She asked senators to provide feedback on the program, which will be piloted in the spring of 2018. The launch is expected to take five years.

Report: Jeanell Hughes, Executive Director, HR, provided a handful of updates, including:

• Dependent Verification Audit. The audit has wrapped up, though a small group of employees did not complete the audit and some have put forth an appeal through Aon Hewitt, the third party company conducting the audit.
• FLSA changes took effect 1. About 700-plus employees were converted from exempt to non-exempt status. While some have requested re-evaluation or a change in job duty, most of the original determinations remained unchanged.
• Staff Equity adjustments will be made in January. The university will use $1 million to advance positions closer to market pay. Not all positions will be affected by this allocation.
• Hughes will be the Associate Vice President of HR starting in Jan. 1. In her new role, she plans to set some expectations for the first 100 days, including six focus areas such as whether or not HR is aligned strategically with the 21^st Century initiative, if HR is adding value to the university, and using best practices and effectively delivering its services. As HR assesses these areas, Hughes will be pulling people into groups and conducting surveys to create a roadmap that will be relevant for the next 3 to 4 years.

Report: Lee Smith, AVP for Process Improvement and Business Analytics, provided an update from his department, including self-service direct deposit, which is set to launch Jan. 12. His team is working on some changes with the core functionality of the system to avoid the possibility of any minor mistakes affecting pay.

• In March/April, the travel and expense process will be updated to be more robust, streamlined and mobile-friendly.
• Two-step authentication is also close to launch, which requires a second authentication beyond user name and password before accessing sensitive data. This extra step was added to keep data and financial information more secure.
• Smith’s office is working with the SGA to develop a better mobile app. Right now, he said, there are three or four different apps that students use and they’re hoping to make this process more streamlined, including the incorporation of RAVE alerts.
• The new web-based time keeping solution is live. More information is .��

Report: Harlan Sands, SVP for Finance and Administration/COO, thanked senators for their work. Sands will be leaving UofL in January for a job at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Report: Dr. Bob Staat provided an update from the Faculty Senate meeting, held Dec. 4. A recap is .��

Report: Will Armstrong’s Chair’s Report is .

Report: Linda Leake provided an update from the Academic Technology Committee, which is . The committee has held discussions about spaces around campus that could be refurbished to be more modern. Funding is in place to name a new vendor for Lecture Capture. There have been a couple of virus attacks reported on campus, and IT is working on investigating these attacks in cooperation with the police, FBI and Microsoft.��

Report: Cynthia Jeffery’s UPAC Committee . There are police officer vacancies on campus. The Police Department has also received positive feedback on its shuttle service, transporting 909 students in the past month, which is an increase.

The Staff Senate does not meet in January. The next meeting is Feb. 13 at 2:30 p.m. in the Chao Auditorium of Ekstrom Library.

Senators approved an endorsement of the resolution and offered a moment of silence.

Meredith Cooksey provided an update on the Student Government Association, including the passage of next year’s budget. The election for next year’s leaders is in February and the SGA is aiming for a 20 percent voter turnout. Typically, turnout is under 10 percent.

Finally, the SGA has submitted a proposal to have a student representative on the UofL Foundation board.

Angela Lewis-Klein provided an update from the Staff Senate’s November meeting, which included a presentation from Justin Mog on sustainability initiatives at UofL, as well as Harlan Sands, COO, who provided construction updates around campus.��

An extensive conversation took place with HR Executive Director Jeanell Hughes about the FSLA changes affecting many staff members. And, in response to the news about UofL’s probationary status from the SACS accreditation body, the Staff Senate has reaffirmed its statement sent to Governor Bevin earlier this semester.

Faculty Senate Chair Enid Trucios-Haynes provided the chair’s report, noting her attendance at a Nov. 29 Board of Trustees meeting and the upcoming Executive Committee meeting. Trucios-Haynes also attended a new board member training held by the CPE, which included a discussion about the relationship between foundations and boards. Best practices for boards were discussed, with the suggestion of setting fundraising priorities.

Best practices also suggest foundation board representation be reserved for fundraisers, but it is important to include faculty, staff and students as ex-officio members “at least.” 

Planning meetings are underway for a campus-wide unity event in January. Trucios-Haynes said the objective is to bring together everyone on campus to reaffirm our commitment to /diversity and providing a safe and welcoming environment in response to fears about policy changes from a new administration.

A discussion was held on the growing sanctuary campus movement and a letter about DACA that has been signed by 495 university presidents throughout the country. All ACC presidents have signed the letter except for UofL, Clemson, NC State and Georgia. Trucios-Haynes noted that the letter essentially supports non-citizen students, of which there are about 2,500 in Kentucky. .��

Discussion items

An extensive discussion was held regarding UofL’s new probationary status for SACSCOC Accreditation. Many senators expressed their concerns about the status. Acting Provost Dale Billingsley said a handful of students have also asked about the effect this could have on their degree.

“There are obligations that SACS expects us to fulfill and that will require more than a lengthy report from us,” Billingsley explained. “That means a substantive change in university governance and control of external influences.”

He said SACS typically provides a warning and then a sanction before probation.

“Probation is the last step before removal of accreditation, so that they went right to probation sends a message about the gravity of the issue,” Billingsley said. “This is mostly an issue with board governance and in our case it’s related to the governor.”

The objective in the next year is “to remove as much external influence as possible.”

“We have to resolve these issues to continue reaffirmation,” Billingsley said.

One senator noted that he is “scared” mostly because of Governor Bevin’s reaction to the news about UofL’s probation status.

“He said we haven’t done anything to threaten accreditation, which is different than what SACS has said,” he said.

Billingsley said it’s important for UofL to lobby heavily that this accreditation is crucial to our operations.

UofL has until fall 2017 to remedy failures of compliance at which time SACS will clear or continue probationary status. A university cannot be reaffirmed accreditation if it’s on probation.

“The soonest we can go off probation is December 2017. The soonest our accreditation can be reaffirmed is December 2019,” Billingsley said.

He added that the administration does not expect this to affect UofL’s student recruitment efforts. Faculty recruitment, however, could be affected.

“Students are remarkably indifferent about this. Parents are concerned. But the recruitment of faculty could be an issue,” he said.

Finally, probationary status does not affect financial aid for students, but does affect some grants.

This recent development spurred the Faculty Senate to reaffirm its statement sent in early October, “endorsing the Student Government Resolution of September 13, 2016,” .   

The Faculty Senate further states that it “emphatically opposes any action by Governor Bevin or the Kentucky Legislature that threatens the university’s accreditation with SACS or represents external influence of the Board of Trustees in violation of SACS standards.”

Faculty senators also discussed Board Chairman Larry Benz’s recent letter to the campus community explaining why a presidential search to replace Dr. James Ramsey has not started yet. Although the Redbook requires faculty consultation on the hire of a new president, the board can adopt its own procedure.

Faculty senators discussed the election of a faculty committee for this presidential search, to aid in that consultation. Senators agreed to ask each dean to conduct a search using the same procedure they use to identify faculty senators. The committee should be in place sooner than later, so when the search starts, those members are involved right away.

Interim Provost report

Billingsley provided a report in addition to the SACS updates, including an update on the Salary Equity model that was initially developed in 2015 and distributed to deans for their input in July. Since then, library faculty has been added and other adjustments have been made. Most increases are small ($100 or so) but together they add up to a large number, Billingsley said.  He also reported that that the equity adjustments would not be retroactive to July 1, 2016.

Staff salary equity has been delayed by FSLA, with a projected range expected sometime in January. Staff members benefiting from this initiative have not been notified yet.

On the personnel front, there are two dean searches – College of Business and Brandeis School of Law. The College of Business recently had a “promising visit” from one of its finalizes, from William and Mary, and Brandeis has received about 20 applicants. Also, Dean Fox, from University Libraries, is up for his 5-year review.

Harlan Sands, COO, is leaving for another opportunity. Acting President Neville Pinto will provide recommendations to the Board of Trustees on how to proceed with this search. The search for ombudsman also continues as Dr. Bob Staat fills in in the interim. The goal is to have the job posted by March 1 and the position filled by July 1.

Billingsley ended his report by encouraging faculty senators to attend December graduation on Dec. 15 to send a positive message to the graduates and their families and the public.

Committee reports

The meeting concluded with the following committee reports:

Academic Programs: Did not meet

Committee on Committees and Credentials:

Redbook and Bylaws: Documents have been reviewed for Dentistry and Engineering and hope to be ready for review by the January meeting.

Part-Time Faculty: Members met with Hughes to discuss health insurance issues with some part-time faculty. Hughes plans to bring business manager procedures to HR to help with any other issues for this group. Members asked Hughes to help create a manual for part-time faculty, an idea she liked. Part-time faculty are eligible for the employee assistance program.

Planning and Budget: No report

Executive Committee:

Faculty Athletic Representative: No report

The next Faculty Senate meeting is Jan. 11 in Chao Auditorium at the Ekstrom Library.

“I appreciate everyone’s support for the past three years. I’ve loved every minute of it,” Lewis-Klein said.

She will remain in an ex-officio role, will still be present at committee meetings and will remain a strong advocate of UofL’s staff members.

Armstrong called Lewis-Klein a passionate leader.

“There isn’t a moment she isn’t thinking about us. She wears her heart on her sleeve,” Armstrong said, promising to follow Lewis-Klein’s example and maintain the tenacity she brought to the role.

The Senate presented a gavel with her name and years of service to Lewis-Klein before approving minutes from the June 13 meeting.

The new vice-chair, Vickie Tencer, called for committee reports, which included election results that will be available on the .

A vote to seat at-large members was approved to accommodate the new, larger number (99) of senators approved at the June meeting.

Committee preference sheets for those spots will be available online via Survey Monkey.

Other committee report updates include:

Policy, Economics and Development: Did not meet

Services and Facilities: A group was put together to meet with city officials about the Chestnut Street parking garage delays many have had grievances about.

Staff Grievance Committee: Four grievances were filed this semester. Dr. Robert Staat was announced as interim ombudsman.

SHARE: No requests

Staff Morale: Susan Jenkins retired from the Senate. The committee did not meet in June.

Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer’s report was given by new secretary/treasurer Sabrina Haug and includes:

• June expenses were $1,626.38, with an ending balance of $2,518.69
• The Staff Senate is under budget for the year
• SHARE did not incur any expenses, and the balance is $11,404.72;
• All balances carry forward into next year

Other Business

A Staff Senate retreat survey will be administered soon, according to Armstrong. All meetings moving forward will be recorded digitally in order to better follow Robert’s Rules of Order with regard to maintenance of minutes.

A compensation work group has been formed and it includes two staff senators. The executive committee minutes will be made available to the group.

Faculty Senate Representative Report

Dr. Robert Staat provided the Faculty Senate Report, including a special meeting that was held a week before the regular meeting, where senators drafted a policy statement in response to their concerns about Governor Matt Bevin’s executive orders and new board of trustees.

Interim Provost Neville Pinto provided information about the incoming class and fall enrollment. UofL has 432 students more than last year at this time (21,450 students).

Holds – such as parking tickets or library fines – will no longer prohibit students to register. However, they must be paid in order to graduate.

Projections for the incoming freshman class include 2,925 students and an average of a 3.68 GPA and 25.4 ACT score.

Dean searches include: Law and Speed will start soon. The College of Business will also need to start a search soon. The new deans of Dentistry and Kent are expected to start Aug. 1.

Report from the CFO/COO

CFO/COO Harlan Sands provided an update on a few business items, including searches in his area. He said there has been a $100,000 cut in the administrative budget through efforts such as hiring an AVP instead of a VP. There are four finalists for the chief human resources officer. Three candidates will be interviewed in person for the AVP of finance position.

He also listed recent “small victories,” including:

• The employee self-service website now includes K-4 and WH-4 tax forms for both Kentucky and Indiana.
• The travel partner has been switched from Pan Am Travel to Anthony Travel.
• We are “moving forward” on the new Business Operations Center, with onboarding as the first process to transition.
• A dependent verification audit is underway.
• We are moving services provided by the iTech Xpress Store to the new bookstore. This, Sands said, is a long-term vision that will provide a one-stop shop for everyone’s technology needs, including ordering, encryption, service and delivery. “I think the university will be well served if you only have one place to go for all of this,” he said. “It’s advantageous for pricing too because we’ll be buying in more bulk.”

Sands then fielded questions about parking, saying a natural progression is happening to move to much of the parking spots to the “fringes” of campus.

He also did not rule out a future price increase for permits.

“We haven’t had a parking price increase in six years. We’re far below market on this,” Sands said, adding that there are no plans to increase prices next year.

Sands also discussed the SAC renovations, which will include new academic spaces, a new bookstore, a Student Services annex and a Starbucks. Everything, he adds, will be state-of-the-art.

“Ninety-five percent of the SAC will be touched by this renovation. We are including students in this process,” he said. “Everything will be state-of-the-art. There is also the new academic building that is a once in a generation building. It will be a first-class teaching facility.”

Report from the Interim Executive Director of Human Resources

Interim Executive Director of Human Resources Jeanell Hughes provided an update from her area, which includes RFPs underway for a dental and vision insurance provider. We should have these in place before open enrollment in October. The university’s health insurance is staying the same.

Hughes also mentioned her team is “knee deep” in FSLA and OT regulations and is working with deans in every unit to provide an assessment on their workforce. These recommendations are expected next month for the regulations, which will be fully implemented by December.

There will be no Staff Senate meeting in August. The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12 at 2:30 p.m.