June 26, 2020
USS Senate accomplishments in fiscal year 2020
From the USS Senate president:
As I start my term as USS President, I wanted to thank Cyreathia "Sam" Reyer for her strong leadership this past year. Closing out a fiscal year is a great time for reflecting on all of our past achievements. And I wanted to share with you the many positive successes USS Senate has had under her leadership.
USS Senate’s activities have been abundant and successful over the past year. In addition to our committee activities, we have partnered on specific projects with Faculty Senate and Student Senate. We have collaborated on projects with our University Professionals Staff council. We have made positive forward-thinking choices and changes to address our constituents' concerns and brought them to the university administration.
Actions of the past year include the following:
USS President Reyer, President-Elect Slover, Ex-Officio Bohnenblust, former senator Carrie Fink, and the co-chairs of the Faculty Senate’s UPS Committee met with President Myers and members his cabinet to present the Docking Institute findings of the USS UPS Climate Survey conducted in spring 2019.
USS Senate Communications Committee updated the USS Senate website and continues to aid the senate throughout the year to keep the website current.
Successful Coat Drive for all of our campus community to participate in donations and coat selection. This was a joint effort with Faculty Senate and Student Senate.
USS Senate University Affairs Committee successfully held the Fall Open Forum
USS Senate University Affairs Committee participated in the Benefits Fair for our employees.
Successful Qualtric Survey on what USS employees would like to see communicated to them and how often employees wanted to hear from USS Senate.
Successful collaboration with USS Council and UPS Council groups consisting of the Kansas Board of Regents Cohort schools to develop a presentation to the Council of Presidents and Regents on the 2019 USS UPS Climate Survey results.
USS President Reyer, President-Elect Slover, Ex-Officio Bohnenblust, and Governmental Affairs Co-Chair Ryan attended Board of Regents meeting where the Docking Institute findings of the USS UPS Climate Survey were presented to the Council of Presidents and supported the presentation to the Regents.
USS President Reyer and President-Elect Slover met with University President Myers to update him on concerns of USS employees. President Myers asked that USS President Reyer revitalize the Employee Suggestion Program. USS Senate leadership will be working with Faculty Senate leadership to house the Employee Suggestion Program as a university committee.
USS President Reyer and President-Elect Slover met with Sue Peterson to discuss how to bring the survey results to our legislature's attention.
Senate increased communication to USS staff.
Conducted listening sessions with USS and UPS employees based on Climate Survey results to draw out specifics to create a plan of action to improve employee climate at KSU with the help of DCM.
Hosted the USS Spring Open Forum — New and Improved Format allowing our top administrators to briefly tell us what they are doing for USS employees and then the traditional respectful question and answer as in past forums.
Another USS Senate activity you may not be aware of is that each month the USS Senate President, President-Elect and co-chairs of the USS Governmental Affairs Committee meet with the Kansas Board of Regents USS Senates Council cohort to discuss what is happening on each other's campuses. This allows us to work together and as one voice present our joint concerns to the Kansas Board of Regents each year. This year we have also started a conversation with the KBOR UPS Council cohort and have discussed meeting twice a year as a USS/UPS group to discuss common concerns between both groups among our respective campuses.
All of this in addition to the regular attendance of monthly USS Senate meetings and participation of your senators on various USS Senate committees, university committees as well as selected Faculty Staff committees.
USS Senators FY 2019 -2020:
Executive Council: Cyreathia "Sam" Reyer, president; Cynthia (Cyndi) Slover, vice president; Vickey Grochowski, secretary; Kelly Ingalsbe, treasurer and co-chair, Recognition Ceremony; Dennis "Denny" Ryan, at-large officer and co-chair, governmental affairs; Jane Cleveland, co-chair, communications; Mary Oborny, co-chair, university affairs, Debra Wilcox, co-chair, Recognition Ceremony; and Becki Bohnenblust, ex-officio and past president.
Senators: Teresa Adams, Roxann Blasi, Penny Crawford, Monica Curnutt, Sandy Emme, Thomas Fish, Brittany Green, Georgia Perez, Kylie Rethman, Mike Seymour, Debbie Webb and Barb Wells.
Looking to the Future:
As we begin our new Senate year, we would love to have you attend our monthly senate meetings scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month beginning at 1 p.m. They are open meetings and anyone is welcome to attend. The exact dates and rooms can be found on our website after July 1. So check our website to see what USS Senate is all about. We also want to encourage you to think about becoming a senator. If you are interested in becoming a USS Senator please send an email to usssenate@k-state.edu.
In the interests of keeping staff safe and healthy, we are holding our July meeting via Zoom. The meeting ID will be available on our website after July 1.
Respectfully,
Cyndi Slover, USS Senate President FY21
University Support Staff Senate
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas