LFSA Exec - Minutes - August 22, 2018

LFSA Exec  

8.22.2018 

Present:

Neal Axton, Marla Schleuder, Lars Leon, Betsaida Reyes, Emily Beran, Sunita Gandhi

Agenda 

1. 7/24/18 LFSA Exec meeting minutes  

2. LFSA Committees liaison reports 

3. Staff Senate update 

4. LFSA Fall meeting planning  

5. Salaries & Benefits special charge 

6. Governance and SharePoint update  

7. Emergency Management 

Minutes from last meeting 

After 1 grammatical change to page 3, the minutes were approved by unanimous consent.

LFSA Committee Liaison Reports 

Nominating & Ballot: Betsaida 

Number of Executives – 7 too many?  

Felt it should be sent to LFA Exec, and would support reducing down to 5 

Committee on the Code: Neal  

Still planning to set up the meeting. Neal will look at last year's annual report to see if there is an  operational question to be determined before first Assembly. 

Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities (CRSA): Marla  

The Committee has asked LFSA to add wording to the code requiring the first meeting of the  year be set up for the 1st week of July. This is because they have a fiduciary duty and they need  to review applications for LRF and GRF funds (from office of research on campus). 

Governance website for their page has not been updated. Confusion as to what the group is  supposed to do now. The Code is not clear if they only support tenure track faculty or they  should also support research and development for staff. 

Faculty have a fund for research and development. Do faculty have a duty to use all of the funds  available to them in an advantageous way. 

Code said guidelines for dispersal of funds is set by the Dean. A meeting has been set. There is a requirement to write a report if you use LRF funds but this has not been enforced. 

Suggestion that a requirement for getting CRSA funding is that you present locally before you  give your conference presentation. 

Andi Back is chair and Scott Cossel is secretary.

Codes can write up a draft proposal and put that in front of the Assembly and then given to  Nominations and Balloting for the voting by the Assembly. 

Discussion of first week vs first half of July. First half of July is preferable due to recruitment  comments. 

CRSA is concerned about running out of funding by Spring. Thus the push to use funding in a  thoughtful way. 

Would a change of the application form be helpful? 

Salaries & Benefits: Emily 

Carmen Orth-Alfie is chair and Samantha Bishop Simmons is Secretary. 

Planning to have LFSA sit down with S&B (on September 10), since clearly more clarification  between the groups is still needed. While discussion leading up to the charges being called was  focused on gender, it was not the only factor discussed, and the initial charge was vague in that  it called for addressing “these concerns and issues as a standing charge.” This has led to a lack of  progress on the project, and S&B has requested LFSA clarify the charge.  

Emily has sent all the documentation she has encountered to S&B. She is also reaching out to  Faculty Senate to determine how they evaluate salaries. Carmen has found a website that does  a comparison of salaries by industry. 

“gender” “sex” or “gender identity” ? The committee wants to find an authoritative definition of  sex vs gender. We could ask Mike Broadwell for the term that HR uses. Are we using the term  that was from the original charge and that aligns with the University's mission of inclusivity? 

Lars wonders if a democratic process is the best way to select the research methodology. Marla  encourages using a democratic process to determine the research methodology. Betsaida  suggest giving people multiple options will create a better outcome. Marla suggests that  bringing in the Assembly gives members the opportunity to weigh in and feel involved and staff  who are more knowledgeable will weigh in more heavily. Sunita suggests soliciting input from  the faculty and staff before the Assembly. Marla thinks the committee should be able to come  up with the methodology and allow the Assembly to review and provide feedback. Sunita  suggests providing input and then having S&B review the feedback before the Assembly. Lars  suggests committee will choose some models, provide them to the staff and faculty, request  feedback and then the committee will consider it before the the Assembly. The committee will  then pick a model based upon the feedback. 

Changes to the Salaries & Benefits Charge: 

Wording from original charge: 

“1. Salaries and Benefits will determine the methodologies, criteria, and other factors to  conduct a study of KUL faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities. 

2. Using recommended methodologies, criteria, and other factors, conduct a study of  KUL faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities. The committee's final report should  contain recommended action items for LFSA executive and the administration to be  more transparent and to resolve any found inequities.” 

With proposed changes:  

“1. Salaries and Benefits will determine applicable methodologies, criteria, and other  factors to conduct a study of KU Libraries faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities with regards to Gender.  

2. The Committee will distribute the possible methodologies to LFSA General Assembly. There will be a comment period where LFSA (the entire library) can provide feedback.  The S&B Committee will determine the methodology that will be used for the study.  3. Using recommended methodology, criteria, and other factors, conduct a study of KU  Libraries faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities with regards to Gender. The  committee's final report should contain recommended action items for LFSA executive  and the administration to be more transparent and to resolve any found inequities.” 

Staff Senate: Emily 

Staff Fellows Program Report: The need for development, being supportive of staff rather than  providing higher salaries. The libraries represent one of the largest staff and faculty groups  throughout the university organization here, so Emily will send out a survey to see what people  are interested in.  

Spousal-independent tuition-assistance is still being discussed, but will likely not happen this  year, or until they figure out the budget situation. 

LFSA Fall Meeting Planning 

Dr. Hamer to come speak, we will want to schedule her separate from the S&B discussion. Need to pick  dates soon. 

Lars: maybe we co-host with DEI to have her come?  

Lars and Emily to confer and determine a time and date.  

Governance and Sharepoint 

We aren’t using Sharepoint this semester, since it’s not working the way it should. We are still planning  to post the minutes on the CMS and email Letha Johnson for University Archives. We will check in with  Matt Torres to look at the Governance Sharepoint in the Spring. 

Emergency Management  

We will put this on the Agenda for our next meeting, due to limited time this meeting.

Adjourn 

Emily motion to adjourn, Sunita seconds.