LFA Exec - Minutes - April 14, 2026

LFA Executive Committee Meeting        
April 14, 2026 

10:00 AM -11:00 Am   

Attending: Exec: Josh Bolick (Chair), Elspeth Healey (Chair Elect), Amanda Schlumpberger (Secretary), Scott McEathron, Angie Rathmel, Samantha Bishop Simmons; Observers: Jason Dean, Jon Giullian, Kate Steward

Absent:    N/A  

Minutes:  

Approve minutes from 3/12/26 LFA Exec Meeting [LFAexec_minutes_2026.03.12.docx]
- Minor edits made
- Motion: Scott
- Second: Elspeth
- Motion carried
Liaison reports:
- LCPT (Elspeth)
  - New standing charge for LCPT approved by LFA; pending approval by Dean
  - Latest version of Academic Appointments to be presented at Spring Assembly has been shared with Elspeth and Josh
- SLPTR (Scott)
  - none
- Ad Hoc Committee for Review of PT Criteria (Elspeth & Josh)
  - They will be packing their findings and will present them at Spring Assembly, but not recommend any changes immediately because they will do that along with changes coming from Union contract changes
- University Senate Library Committee (Josh)
  - Met a week or two ago
  - Josh gave a mandated 3 year status review of Open Access Policy
  - The committee presented a one-page talking point document to use as engaging with others
  - They also met with the architect folks, briefly
- LSA (Josh)
  - Had their session with Carol
  - They talked about strategies for pursuing salary increases w/in university salary bands
- UAKU (Scott and Kate)
  - 92% voted to ratify contract
  - KBOR will meet April 15 to approve
  - There will be a celebration soon
  - There will be a steward training next week
  - Election for officers won’t happen for a while
Report on LFA Chair and Vice Chair/Chair Elect 3/12/26 meeting with Dean (Josh and Elspeth)
- Discussed April 6th meeting
- Discussed Listserv moderation, we were told a report was coming, but now the report will not be shared with us (privacy concerns). Josh will follow up on the confusion around this
- Annual Evaluations (debrief)
  - Evaluations are done, and it seems to have gone well
    - Union contract will have an impact on evaluation language, but not process
- Ad Hoc PT Guidelines (placeholder; update provided in liaison reports above)
  - Law library connections: structural barriers that are presenting issues here, and it is unclear where leadership stands on what they would support moving forward with. OneKU may address some of this.
- Climate survey was discussed with Carol
- Spring Assembly was firmed up with Carol
- Discussed feedback on faculty feedback on hiring priorities
  - In the future it seems like leadership would like to hear feedback on hiring priorities earlier and from us without leadership coordinating it. Elspeth will make a note for next February to reach out about input on faculty feedback on hiring priorities
  - Question raised on if what we were given in the call for feedback went forward w/o our feedback due to timing. It is unclear on this time what actually went forward
  - Goal is to have opportunity align with institutional priorities
- Discussed budget model
  - Student fee
  - Cut of grants
- Discussed concern about culture
LFA Spring Assembly
- Draft Agenda – feedback solicited: LFA Spring 2026 Assembly Agenda DRAFT.docx
  - Fall Assembly minutes: LFAassembly_minutes2025.11.17.docx and other minutes will need approval
    - Josh will encourage folks to review minutes before the meeting to make this go smoothly
- Actions From Fall Assembly:
  - LCPT new standing charge to be sent to ballot: “When requested by the Dean of Libraries, review new-hire faculty files to determine if awarding tenure and/or elevated rank is appropriate.”
    - Approved by ballot; sent to Carol for final approval
  - Plan to assist Nominating & Ballot re: strategic selection of candidates for service on faculty committees (in particular)
    - Josh in touch with N&B to assist
    - Elspeth and Josh will assist them
      - Coffee and information on April 22nd
  - One of the main items: Work with LCPT towards next steps for proposed revisions to Academic Appointments in University Libraries document
    - Jill shared tracked changes document with LFA Exec; ready for LFA Assembly
    - Elspeth will forward the document to us
- Josh will encourage everyone to review this before the meeting
- Time for Carol
  - Discussion on if we want to ask her to talk about transparency and the gap between Faculty and leadership understanding of transparency and current state of it
  - Josh will draft something and send to Exec. For feedback
- State of UAKU and shared governance to be discussed at Spring Assembly, potentially Amalia can give us insight into this
  - Elspeth asked Scott Hanrath provide information as we receives it
- Josh will consult the code, clean up the agenda, give exec. a heads up, and get it sent out when it needs to per the code
Debrief 4/6 Conversation with Carol
- Questions that came up were not what we necessarily expected
- Seemed like there was a hesitancy to speak at the meeting
  - No one has communicated why they may have been uncomfortable
- Exec. discussed role of Union in salary discussions and communication and the confusion around it
Debrief Faculty Climate Survey
- How was the culture: results in the middle
- What’s going well: support, collaboration, respect w/in faculty, positive towards various initiatives
- What’s not going well: Transparency, leadership accountability, structural issues
- Governance: lack of clarity of the role of governance, request for longitudinal transparency with active governance
- Discussion on what can be done moving forward
New Business?
- Review of what’s left for shared governance this FY
  - Assembly
  - End of Year of Reports
  - 2 more meetings with Carol
  - Elections
  - Transition
Conclude
- Motion: Josh
- Second: Scott
- Motion Carried
- Meeting ended at 11:03 am