LFA Exec - Minutes - February 15, 2017

MINUTES: 2016-2017 Library Faculty Assembly Executive Committee

Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 1-2pm

Watson 440B

  1. Attendance: Present – Chair: Sara Morris, Secretary: Rebecca Orozco, Member 1: Ada Emmett, Member 2: Sherri Brown, Member 3: Josh Bolick, Member at Large: Andi Back, Absent – Vice Chair/Chair Elect: Karna Younger
  2. Minutes for 01.04.2017 and 01.18.2017 were approved as is.
  3. Chair/Vice-Chair meeting with the Dean
    • Sara Morris, LFA Chair, and Karna Younger, LFA Vice Chair, met with KU Libraries Dean, Kevin Smith, on Monday (02.13.2017). They discussed where the Faculty Senate, Standards & Procedures for Promotion and Tenure (SPPT) was in the approval process for the Promotion and Tenure Procedures for the Faculty of The University of Kansas Libraries and revised Criteria for Academic Ranks of Library Faculty documents. Dean Smith has not heard from SPPT on the documents. The documents need to be approved by June for the next round of promotion files submissions.
  4. Travel Plans
    • The LFA Executive Board (LFA Exec) discussed the travel plan in regard to timing, the form, the platform, policy and procedure of travel plan submission and update, and general pain points.
    • After discussion, LFA Exec decided to have the LFA Chair and Vice Chair meet with Dean Smith and Associate Dean Mary Roach about the above issues, focusing on policy and procedures.
  5. Update from UAS Working Group
    • Please see the email update from Karna Younger, UAS Working Group member, below:
      1. Since LFA Exec.’s last meeting, the working group has completed the survey of the deans and directors. We received 13 responses. The majority of respondents do not use the UAS classification in their units, but those who did provided some insight into how it is being used in their division, giving us needed material to benchmark the Libraries against. We will follow up with respondents for more insight into their use of the classification if needed. As each working group member has become versed in policy and use of the classification, we are now starting to draft our final report and recommendations to LFA executive. While we do not think we will be able to address each point raised by Amalia in her original request to LFA, we believe that we will have enough material to make some recommendations about the future use of the UAS classification in the Libraries.
    • Question from Sherri Brown, Member 3:
      • Did the UAS Working Group ever find out which entities use the UAS classification [outside of the survey]?
    • General Questions from LFA Exec:
      • What was the process for gathering information about the various units (i.e. percentage of UAS vs. tenure-track faculty, organizational structure, etc.) and for the report?
      • What is the timeline for the finished report?
    • LFA Exec will discuss these questions in the next meeting when Karna is present. LFA Secretary, Rebecca Orozco, will email the questions to Karna before the next meeting so she can prepare for the discussion.
  6. Other
    • Ada Emmett, Member 1: Asked who was involved in University/Faculty Senate and stated it was nice when librarians are involved with University governance.
  7. Adjournment