Bendapudi informed senators that as of April 12, the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Cardinal Stadium will be open to anyone over the age of 16. Information on vaccination appointment scheduling at any of the four Louisville area locations can be found through the UofL Health website .

“We have the capacity to give about 4,000 vaccines a day. As we look at the registrations, there are still plenty of openings. Receiving the vaccine is something that I strongly recommend,” Bendapudi said.

Senators voted on two certificate proposals from the Academic Programs Committee. A graduate certificate in Family Business Management and Advising from the College of Business was presented to senators, as well as a post-graduate certificate in Pediatric Acute Care Nursing provided through the School of Nursing. Both certificates received unanimous support from the Faculty Senate.

Tracy Eells, vice provost of faculty affairs, presented senators with the proposed faculty accountability policy. In December 2019, the provost charged a committee to make recommendations regarding expectations of faculty behavior and appropriate disciplinary actions. The proposed policy is intended to add consistency and equity in disciplinary actions across all departments and will be independent of the faculty grievance policy. The Faculty Senate will respond to the proposed policy at the next senate meeting in May.

Findings from the 2020 Part-time Faculty Survey, which was administered to part-time faculty between Oct. 27 and Nov. 11, were shared with Faculty Senate. While over 70% of respondents reported being either satisfied or very satisfied with their employment at UofL, the results also identified some concerns for part-time faculty members. Results indicated that some part-time faculty were not receiving, or were not made aware of, annual performance evaluations. Respondents also voiced concerns about the lack of compensation for course preparation time when those courses are later cancelled. Roy Fuller, chair of the Part-time Faculty Committee, indicated that additional research and part-time faculty surveys will be employed to address these concerns.

Members of the W2 committee provided senators with the preliminary findings of the fall 2020 cultural wellbeing survey. The survey boasted over 2,300 responses from faculty, staff, students and alumni. The survey gauged cultural wellbeing using three metrics for inclusion among UofL community members: hope, belonging and trust. The W2 committee plans to align the data from the survey with each of the nine Cardinal Principles, then identify and recommend the lectures, workshops and other ongoing university programs that can improve cultural wellbeing across the university community.

Theo Edmonds, who presented the preliminary findings to senators, stated, “the survey allows us to show that the culture of our organization has empirically improved and improved in a way that supports an increase in inclusive innovation. Using this culture change process, we can support more innovation in the university by finding new ways to unlock the latent potential in all the different groups that are a part of our UofL family.”

Committee reports and a video recording of the virtual meeting can be accessed on the . The next Faculty Senate meeting is scheduled for May 5 via Microsoft Teams.

Senators were joined by Executive Director of Campus Health Services Phillip Bressoud, who provided information on the positivity rate of COVID-19 on campus. Bressoud reported that positivity rates declined from 4.1% on Jan. 4 to 1% as of March 1.

Bressoud also informed senators of the new guidelines issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The guidelines state that fully vaccinated individuals should still wear a well-fitted mask and practice physical distancing when in public, adhere to preventative measures when visiting with unvaccinated individuals, avoid medium and large in-person gatherings, and get tested if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Other CDC guidelines about vaccinated individuals can be found . At this time, all the university’s health protocols and the required testing program, are still in effect.

The commonwealth, in cooperation with Campus Health and UofL Health, will be opening a in the purple lot of Cardinal Stadium on April 1. Vaccinations will be more readily available to faculty and staff as a direct result of this new vaccination location.

Bressoud stated, “Our plan is that all university faculty and staff who have not been vaccinated by April 1 will participate in the first couple days of that operation, and we will finish vaccinating faculty and staff at that time. If you can get the vaccine somewhere else, you are free to do so, but you will be able to receive that vaccination there if you have not already.”

Katie Partin, director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and V. Faye Jones, senior associate vice president for diversity and equity, presented senators with information on the Employee Climate survey. The survey was redesigned in 2017 and is divided into two modules that are administered to faculty and staff on an alternating annual schedule. Data collected from previous surveys has been used to measure improvements on campus, create and implement action plans and increase accountability and transparency to the campus community.

The survey was initially planned the fall 2020 semester; however, it was postponed until spring of 2021 due to overlap with the Wellbeing and Resilience Survey. For this reason, invitations to complete the survey were sent out by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness via email on March 15. The survey is scheduled to close on March 28 but could be extended past this date depending on response rates. Findings will be available approximately 30 days after the close of the survey. Previous results from the Employee Climate Survey can be found .

Committee reports and a of the virtual meeting can be found on the . The next Staff Senate meeting will be held on April 13 via Microsoft Teams.

The second round of the COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey will close July 13. .

The previous survey, conducted in May, showed that the pandemic resulted in Kentucky’s equine businesses cutting costs and postponing capital improvement projects. However, the survey indicated that the vast majority of respondents did not have to lay off employees.

Since the last survey, horse racing has resumed in Kentucky, although without spectators, and historical horse racing facilities have reopened with limited capacity. The second round of the COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey will capture how this is affecting the equine businesses across the state. Churchill Downs announced last week that the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, scheduled for Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, will occur with a limited number of spectators.

Survey participants will not be identified in the published results.

“Since we completed our first survey in May, the state has lifted some of the restrictions on the horse industry, which should provide a boost to equine business across the state,” said Elisabeth Jensen, KEEP’s executive vice president who oversees the daily operations of the organization. “However, we have yet to see the impact of how the pandemic is affecting horse sales and what that means for Kentucky’s equine economy. We hope that this second round of our survey can, when combined with the data from our May survey, paint a clearer picture of the challenges the industry will face.”

“The UofL Equine Industry Program educates and trains the next generation of leaders for Kentucky’s signature industry,” said Sean Beirne, director of the UofL Equine Industry Program in the . “The COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey provides us with an incredible up-to-the-moment view of the challenges that the industry will face in the coming years. In addition to helping inform policymakers on the status of the industry, we can also use this data to prepare our students for the challenges of the industry they will be entering.”

The is a not-for-profit grassroots organization created in 2004 to preserve, promote and protect Kentucky’s multi-breed horse industry.