LFA General Assembly - Minutes - December 8, 2016

MINUTES

Library Faculty Assembly

General Meeting

2016-2017

2016-12-08, Thursday

9:00-10:30am

Watson 455

  1. Library Faculty Assembly (LFA) Chair, Sara Morris, called the LFA Fall General Meeting to order at 9:03am.
  2. Attendance
    • Present LFA Members
      • LFA Officers – Chair: Sara Morris, Vice Chair/Chair Elect: Karna Younger, Secretary: Rebecca Orozco, Member 2: Sherri Brown, Member 3: Josh Bolick, Member at Large: Andi Back
      • LFA General Members – Lars Leon, Beth Whittaker, Amalia Monroe-Gulick, Musa Olaka, Jill Becker, Corinne Forstot-Burke, Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, Marcella Huggard, Kevin Smith (Dean of KU Libraries), Scott McEarthon, Judith Emde (Assistant Dean), Angela Rathmel, Kent Miller (Associate Dean), Sherry Williams, Whitney Baker, Jon Giullian, Scott Hanrath (Assistant Dean), Lyn Wolz, Miloche Kottman, Sarah Goodwin Thiel, Karen Cook, Elspeth Healey, Becky Schulte, Mary Roach (Associate Dean), and Deborah Danridge
    • Present Library Staff Assembly Members (LSA): Leah Hallstrom, Micki Lubbers, Marianne Reed, Mike Broadwell
    • Absent: Member 1: Ada Emmett
  3. Reports of Officers, Board, Committees
    • LFA update by LFA Chair, Sara Morris
      • Sara Morris introduced members of LFA Executive Board.
    • Committee Chair, Scott McEathron, gave the Library Committee on Promotion and Tenure (LCPT) update
      • LCPT has reviewed one file for promotion to Librarian, one file for promotion to tenure, and met with six promotion and/or tenure candidates.
    • Sara Morris added that LFA Executive Board will create a Faculty Evaluation Plan (FEP) Working Group
      • The Vice Provost for Faculty Development has a template for promotion and tenure documents. The FEP Working Group will work on filling in the template from existing documents. LFA Executive Board will wait to form the working group until the template is available.
      • There are parts of the promotion and tenure process that are not documented anywhere in our current documents (e.g. the new discipline expectations and criteria documents).
        1. The undocumented process components are in the Overview Document, but that document is out of date.
        2. The FEP working group will decide what parts of those documents should be incorporated into the template and what can be left out.
  4. Sabbatical Leave and Post-Tenure Review Committee (SLPTR) Committee Chair, Lyn Wolz, gave an update SLPTR
    • There were no requests for sabbatical leave in the fall 2016 semester.
    • In 2016 Fall semester, the committee is setting up for post-tenure reviews happening for KU Libraries faculty in the spring semester.
  5. Reports of Special Committees and Dean Update
    • Remarks from the Dean of KU Libraries & Update on Academic Unclassified Staff Transition
      1. Dean Kevin Smith has tenure files on his desk from LCTP. This is the first time he is involved in tenure process.
      2. Dean Smith has met with all 9 of the Unclassified Academic Staff (UAS) promotion-track KU Libraries faculty about transitioning to tenure-track positions. All 9 individuals have indicated their desire to move to a tenure-track position. He was working with Mary Lee Hummert, Vice Provost for Faculty Development, to navigate the process so that he knew what she would accept for the transitions. They have arrived at a transition plan for each of the 9 individuals. The only thing left in the process is to complete the official paperwork. The paperwork is accepted to be drawn up in the in next several weeks (end of December 2016).
      3. A member of the assembly asked if KU Libraries plans to use the UAS classification going forward. Dean Kevin Smith said he doesn't want to lose the option of the UAS promotion-track classification. The classification could be good for positions with heavy administrative responsibilities as well as other positions. The KU Libraries administration is not at the point of drafting specific criteria for the use of the UAS promotion-track classification.
    • New Discipline Expectations and Criteria Documents (Andi Back and Committee)
      1. Sara Morris introduced the working group and explained the need to have our discipline expectations and criteria documents approved by Faculty Senate's Standards and Procedures on Promotion and Tenure (SPPT) and in the KU Policy Library.
      2. Andi Back read the charges of the Promotions and Tenure Documents (PTD) Working Group.
        • Charge 1: Update the Discipline Expectations for Library Faculty at KU and Criteria for Academic Ranks of Librarians to reflect the new requirements for Unclassified Academic Staff as requested by the Vice Provost for Faculty Development.
        • Charge 2: Combine the Discipline Expectations for Library Faculty at KU, Criteria for Academic Ranks of Librarians, KU Libraries Code of Governance, and procedural aspects of the P&T process into one document as requested by Standards and Procedures on Promotion and Tenure Committee.
        • The PTD Working Group decided that the procedure acceptations document seemed out of the scope of the working group. Therefore, the working group made the recommendation that the document be updated in Spring 2017 by a new working group.
      3. Promotion and Tenure Procedures for the Faculty of The University of Kansas Libraries (Promotion & Tenure Procedures)
        • Andi Back sent out a color coded document to LFA before the meeting.
        • The Promotion & Tenure Procedures will replace the language in the University of Kansas Libraries Code of Governance in order to adhere to KU university policy.
        • The documents were presented to the University Committee on
        • The Promotion & Tenure Procedures document has some addition from the Overview Document. Sherry Williams asked for an example for additions from the Overview Document to the new discipline expectations and criteria documents. Andi gave the example of Line 307 and Line 316 in the Promotion & Tenure Procedures.
        • Sherry Williams asked for the line of approval for the discipline expectations and criteria documents. Sara Morris told her it goes to the Dean of KU Libraries, then to the Office of the Provost, next to SPPT, and finally to live in the KU Policy Library.
        • On line 129, Jon Giullian suggested the addition of the phrase “that is” after “…to develop a research program…”. Line 129 would then read as follows: Librarians are encouraged to develop a research program that is sustained and strengthened over time… Scott McEathron, seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.
        • Scott McEathron, asked if Line 336 for the mandatory review year was in line with Article VI of Faculty Senate Rules and Regulations. If someone goes up earlier then they can choose to resign or can try again, but if they go up for promotion in a mandatory year and do not get promoted then they have to move forward to a new position. Judith Emde said it was consistent with Article VI. If candidates predicted they would receive a negative review in their mandatory year, they could resign; but the PTD Working Group did not want that in the documentation.
        • Sherry Williams moved the document as amended be put to vote by ballot, Jon Giullian seconded the motion, the motion passed unanimously.
      4. Criteria for Academic Ranks of Library Faculty (Criteria)
        • The red font is what was deleted or changed. The color coding highlights do not have any meaning.
        • Andi Back brought to the attention of the assembly the only comment received after sending out the Criteria for Academic Ranks of Library Faculty to the assembly at large. It was to include a phrase for foreign degree equivalents to an American Library Association (ALA)- accredited master’s degrees in the first paragraph of the document (Line 13).
        • On Line 13, to match the language used in job advertisements, Beth Whittaker moved to add the phrase “or equivalent from a foreign institution.” With the addition, Line 13 would read as follows: "...accredited master’s program in library and information studies or equivalent from a foreign institution." The motion was seconded by Sherry Williams and passed unanimously.
        • Jon Giullian moved to insert the exact phrase, “or equivalent from a foreign institution,” into line 119 after “…Library/Information Science or terminal degree…”. This was seconded by Amalia Monroe-Gulick. Angie Rathmel moved to amended the motion to include parenthesis around the phrase “or equivalent from a foreign institution.” Thus, Line 119 would read as follows: ...Libraries/Information Science or other terminal degree (or equivalent from a foreign institution), or a master’s degree and a minimum of… The amendment was accepted by Jon Giullian and Amalia Monroe-Gulick, and the amended motion passed unanimously.
        • The Criteria seem to have a contradiction between the descriptions of degree requirements and years of experience for UAS positions and tenure-track positions.
          1. UAS positions have a degree requirement of an ALA-accredited degree or master's degree and minimum of two years of academic library experience by time of appointment. The question of whether the UAS and tenure-track position criteria need degree requirement descriptions to match was posed.
          2. The assembly discussed UAS positions needing an equivalent degree and experience requirement description for archival staff. An archivist's field experience may not come from an academic library and an archive could hire someone without a master's degree. With the University of Kansas all UAS positions have a terminal degree requirement. A master's is the terminal degree for library science, but this is not true for other fields and so there needs to be a years of experience requirement. The Dean of KU Libraries negotiated this down to a minimum of two years of academic library experience by time of appointment. The language for the UAS degree requirement description was given from the Office of the Provost.
          3. The assembly discussed whether the 2 years of experience needed to be full-time employment or whether part-time employment would count.
          4. Kevin Smith suggested approving the document as is and furthering the discussion of matching UAS and tenure-track positions, archivist experience, and full-time verses part-time at a later date. The assembly agreed.
          5. Jon Giullian moved to send the Criteria for Academic Ranks of Library Faculty to ballot with amendments, Judith Emde seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
    • Unclassified Academic Staff (UAS) Working Group
      1. The working group members include: Karna Younger, Sherry Williams, and Angie Rathmel.
      2. Charge 1: Gather, review, and analyze KU Libraries, University of Kansas, and Kansas Board of Regents policies and related documents concerning unclassified academic staff. Identify gaps and discrepancies in pursuit of potential transition to tenure track positions and the future use of faculty classifications.
      3. Charge 2: Propose list of recommendations for LFA executive related to the libraries support and usage of unclassified academic staff.
      4. The UAS Working Group met and discussed its charge and will have a report to LFA Executive Board in January 2017.
  6. New Business
    • Organizational Development (OD)
      1. Lars Leon announced opportunities available for research support within KU Libraries.
      2. Jamene Brooks-Kieffer has a writing group that meets regularly. Sharon Riley has reserved a room for individual writing time. Please look for announcement from OD and for other research support events that will take place in 2017. The topic ideas for the OD events came from a previous survey.
    • Committee on Research and Scholarly Activity (CRSA)
      1. CRSA has $4,000 left for this year to support research and still has money in the KU Libraries General Research Fund (GRF) (allotted by KU).
        • There will be a short survey to see if anyone has intent to apply for the CRSA and GRF funds.
        • Dean Kevin Smith encouraged to the LFA General Assembly to ask about funding for projects.
        • The deadline to apply for GRF monies is in February. KU Libraries faculty need apply and use the money to keep our allocation for next year.
          1. GRF can be used for collaborations. Not all the team members need to faculty, but there does need to be a faculty sponsor.
    • College and University Libraries (CULS), a section of Kansas Library Association (KLA)
      1. Its spring meeting will be at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence KS. The theme is "Building the Future on Strong Foundations."
  7. Adjournment: Beth motion to adjourn, second by Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, motion passed unanimously at 9:52am.