LFA General Assembly - Minutes - April 29, 2020

Library Faculty Assembly (LFA) Spring General Meeting

April 29, 2020

This LFA meeting was held via Zoom.

Present

  • Present were all LFA officers.
  • 21 members are required for a quorum
  • 34 members (including Dean Smith) were present (see Appendix I)

Agenda

  1. Introductions of new colleagues
  2. Approval of LFA fall general meeting minutes
  3. Report on Ad Hoc committee on Governance website and SharePoint site
  4. Changes to the SLPTR documents
  5. List of open positions for LFA ex. and other LFA committees
  6. Reports from other Governance committees
  7. New business

Minutes

Betsaida called the meeting to order.

Introductions of new colleagues

No new colleagues at this time.

Approval of LFA fall general meeting minutes

Minutes were approved without revision.

Remarks from Dean Smith

To support the Libraries’ efforts and goals around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), all faculty and staff should integrate one DEI-related goal, beginning this calendar year. An email was sent from the Dean with more details.

  • Goal could be a training course, integration into work should follow.

Comments on the Provost’s April 27 remarks on her vision for KU’s response to the coronavirus.

  • Fall semester will likely be a hybrid (in-person and online) approach. Moving as many courses as possible into a flexible format to allow for changing situations. Planning teams will be meeting soon to explore and facilitate this, re-entry to campus, etc. The Libraries are expected to be included in these teams.
  • This approach will have some consequences for the Libraries, including a potential increase in online instruction, instructional design support, and others.

Report on Ad Hoc committee on Governance website and SharePoint site (Sara Morris)

Ad Hoc committee has completed their review of the KU Libraries governance websites.

See report distributed by the committee for full details and membership, as well as an inventory of existing content and a website for depositing missing documents (linked in the report). (see Appendix II)

All committees from LFA/LFSA/LSA from the last two years are asked to submit minutes and annual reports.

Betsaida noted that the Webmaster will be an official position in the code, requiring a code change. This is proposed to be an LFSA Exec committee member (non-voting, not required to attend governance meetings). This is proposed to be a 3 year renewable position to aid in continuity. There will be training and support for this position.

This should happen quickly, with the webmaster in place by the summer, with the intention to get documentation largely in place by the fall. The suggestion was made to appoint an interim position to allow time for the position to be created/voted on, code amended, etc.

This will need to discussed during the LFSA general meeting, which should be scheduled before the end of the semester

Changes to the SLPTR documents

Some changes have been made to the PTR documents. The structure has been changed to separate the form from the documents (rather than one long document), number of evaluations has been change to match the University policy, and remove gendered language. See documents distributed via email on April 20, 2020.

Motion to send these changes to a ballot for approval, which should be put out before the end of the fiscal year.

List of open positions for LFA Exec and other LFA committees

SLPTR needs two members with tenure. LCPT needs one member (at Associate rank).

LFA Exec needs five members (Chair-Elect, Secretary, Librarian, Associate Librarian, Assistant Librarian).

A list will be created and requests for self-nominations will go out soon.

Reports from other Governance committees

Update from Whitney Baker on University Senate International Affairs committee:

This year our charges were to 1) evaluate the FY2019 Final Report regarding the Graduate Studies Admissions Policy for international students, which, as it was written at the time, provided flexibility for language skills but not for academic criteria; 2) to evaluate how international student retention rates compare between students admitted under the Shorelight recruitment program and those who apply directly to KU; and 3) provide an assessment of the restructuring of the various departments within KU International Affairs a year after its implementation. Despite not having our final meeting, we did complete our analysis of these charges.

Faculty Senate Research Committee (Lea Currie)

  • Standing with AAU has decreased, but KU is still above average and not in danger of losing
  • Looking into the standardization of the distribution of GRF funds. Waiting for another KU report to come out to move forward.
  • Created a report looking at usage of Endowment funds among departments. Findings varied greatly both in terms of reporting and of usage.
  • Brief update on effects on KU Research during the COVID-19 time (interruptions to research, access to students/Libraries, grant extensions, new research on COVID-19, etc.)

University Senate Planning and Resources (Sara Morris)

  • Their charge was to create a report on budget needs for the university, which included a looming enrollment drop predicted for 2026. They completed this report with the caveat that the entire financial picture has changed due to COVID-19.
  • Dean Smith notes that KU is actively looking at upcoming enrollment, budget changes, shortfalls, and other financial issues prior to making major .

 

KU University Governance meeting and minutes

  • Nominating and Ballot committee – brief update

New business

No new business

Betsaida thanked everyone for participating. Meeting adjourned.

 

Appendix I - Attendees

Erin Wolfe

Betsaida Reyes

Kevin Smith

Amalia Monroe-Gulick

Andi Back

Angie Rathmel

Brian Rosenblum

Carmen Orth-Alfie

Elspeth Healey

Fran Devlin

Geoff Husic

Jamene Brooks-Kieffer

Jill Becker

Jon Giullian

Josh Bolick

Karna Younger

Kent Miller

Karen Cook

L. Marie Avila

Lars Leon

Lea Currie

Letha Johnson

Marcella Huggard

Michael Peper

Miloche Kottman

Mary Roach

Neal Axton

Rebecca Orozco

Sarah Thiel

Scott Cossel

Scott Hanrath

Scott McEathron

Sara Morris

Appendix II – Web Taskforce

Library Faculty and Staff Assembly Web Taskforce Final Report 3/20/2020

Taskforce members: Sara E. Morris, Chair, Mathew Torres, Ann Snow, Sarah Goodwin Thiel

Overview: The Taskforce investigated why the Library governance bodies had two websites and to a lesser degree why little had been updated on either platform in the last two years. Given that using SharePoint does not permit University Archives to harvest automatically, it is not a good choice for our Assemblies. The Taskforce downloaded all files from SharePoint and uploaded most of them to the CMS. The Taskforce also completed an inventory of the CMS and created storage locations for missing documents to be uploaded by the membership. The Taskforce recommends the following:

  • The SharePoint site be taken down and all content be moved to the CMS. Those items that must remain behind passwords or that utilize SharePoint features (calendars) may remain there and just be links on the CMS. All governance related materials need to be on the CMS.
  • Begin posting current Assembly documents to the CMS ASAP.
  • Gather missing minutes, annual reports, and other materials. We have lost two years of records.
  • Delete out of date/not working materials/links from the CMS.
  • LFSA must determine a system that gives one person authority over the website. This might require re-writing the Code and changing the Secretaries’ responsibilities. This person needs to work with Libraries’ HR and Library Governance to keep our pages up-to-date.
  • Each year when the Assemblies change leadership there must be a formal program to explain to All Committee Chairs and Secretaries their responsibilities of taking and submitting minutes. Also included in this should be an overview of record retention by University Archives.
  • Insure that in the future loading materials up on the websites in a timely fashion is a priority and not neglected. The Code indicates that minutes must be up within two weeks of being approved. This applies to all Committees.

 

Committee Activities and Further Required Actions:

  • The Taskforce met a total of 9 times and conducted work via e-mail.
  • We gathered Letha Johnson, Andi Back, Marianne Reed, and Scott Hanrath along with members of the Taskforce to talk about the current websites. We learned that there was never an official decision that the site was to shift to SharePoint. It just grew up from one person’s desire. Hence, we have had two sites running at the same time—neither current. SharePoint does not allow University Archives to automatically harvest—which makes it less than optimal. Also, there is no reason for Assembly information to not be accessible to the general public.
  • The Taskforce discussed our findings and determined that SharePoint is not a viable option for the Assemblies. The Assemblies should use the CMS. Action: Declare that the CMS is the official website of all three Assemblies.
  • We completed an inventory of the CMS.
  • We downloaded all files in SharePoint. There were many that had been loaded in a fashion that only Matt could access/see them. After we downloaded both the public and “hidden” files, we sorted them by committee. A Taskforce member posted them to the CMS. Many of the files were name incorrectly so this took far longer because each file had to be verified.
  • We have a collection of materials that we did not post because we did not know where they should go or if they belonged on the website. They are organized by the committee that needs to review the contents. Action: These need to be reviewed by relevant committees and either posted or sent to University Archives.
  • A Significant amount of materials (minutes/annual reports) are missing. These need to be gathered and loaded on the webpage. The inventory should help with this. Action: Make calls for Committees and former Committee members to gather and submit missing materials. Once located they can be deposited in the MissingGovernance Documents document library on SharePoint.
  • Action: Use the Inventory to identify missing materials and pages/links/files that needed to be deleted from the Assemblies’ CMS pages.
  • Action: All FY2020 Assembly minutes, membership, and other relevant information need to be updated immediately.
  • Action: Make someone responsible for the website. This might require re-writing the

Code to change the Secretaries’ responsibilities.

  • Action: Create a training process for Committee Chairs and Secretaries so they are aware of their responsibilities to both take minutes and make them available.