LFA Exec - Minutes - March 12, 2026

LFA Executive Committee Meeting       
March 12, 2026

11:00 AM -12:00 PM  

Attending: Exec: Josh Bolick (Chair), Elspeth Healey (Vice Chair), Amanda Schlumpberger (Secretary), Scott McEathron, Angie Rathmel, Samantha Bishop Simmons; Observers: Jason Dean, Kate Stewart, Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, Milton Machuca-Galvez, Jon Giullian

Absent:    N/A 

Minutes:

Welcome
Approve minutes from 2/17/26 LFA Exec Meeting [minutes_2026.02.17.docx]
- Motion to approve: Samantha
- Second: Elspeth
- Motion carries
Liaison reports:
- LCPT
  - Elspeth: meeting again March 26th to discuss academic appointment policy to have ready for vote Spring assembly
  - They are also reviewing LCPT Tips document and Supervisor guide for P&T
- SLPTR
  - Scott: nothing to report
- P&T criteria
  - Josh: tentative agreement for union, will be learning more. PT criteria will require some adjustments based on the Union contract.
  - Group is currently writing report based on changes and feedback
- University Senate Library Committee
  - Josh: subgroups formed
    - One is doing one-sheet on advocacy for library
    - One is on space and design
  - Josh is on agenda next month to do 3 year review of open access policy
- LSA
  - Had meeting with Carol on next steps after full meeting with the Dean
- Union
  - Tentative agreement reached. 6 years in the making!!
  - Info. session in the library next week
  - The week after 3 union meeting. Voting will take place the week after spring break
Report on LFA Chair and Vice Chair/Chair Elect meeting with Dean
- Happening this afternoon
Report on LFSA Exec meeting on 3/9/26
- Plan for $1200 in budget, currently being budgeted
  - Thank you lunch
  - Coffee and donuts info session on serving on committees
    - Making sure people are there to answer questions will be ask
  - Zine party
    - Syd and Mack working on this. Idea is create a library newsletter
- LFSA will reconvene once we have budget for everything
Updates on LT hiring priorities feedback
- Elspeth emailed feedback to us and leadership team
- The potential is there to share the results to everyone, but we would need to redact names in comments first
- Discussion on if sharing it with everyone is a useful step to take. Concern was raised about if people would have had a presumption of privacy with comments. Support for sharing to faculty list was agreed on. Elspeth will send the redacted survey out to faculty list after LFA reviews
- Thanks extended to Elspeth for the work she’s done on this.
Evals
- Have been (almost) completed, and they seem to have gone well
LFA Spring Assembly planning, Fall Assembly follow ups
- Josh shared a proposed agenda
- Proposed times: 5/7 1:30 to 3:00 or 5/11 1 -2:30. Agreement was reached on confirming the 5/7 1:30 to 3:00
Current state of ongoing discussions on salary and transparency/communications issues within the libraries 
- Not a lot to report on until meeting with Carol this afternoon.
  - Mike B. will be joining the Chair/Dean meetings from now on. Josh and Elspeth will confirm parameters of these meetings and Mike’s involvement today.
- Carol has proposed for the continuing dialogue that the April 6th, 3pm chair/dean meeting be repurpose time to continue the dialogue due to her schedule—Josh and Elspeth will have more info after meeting with Carol today
- We haven’t seen List mediation report yet. Leadership team has. Josh has it on agenda for today with Carol. The expectation is that we will be able to see it.
- Discussion has occurred with Carol and via LFA exec email on conducting a climate survey to get a since of the differing opinions in the library on the situation.
  - Discussion on value of the survey: things seem calmer, so we can move forward with this, sit on this, or continue to provide a space for people to raise concerns. Others raised that folks are waiting to see how this plays out and that is why it appears quieter. Additionally, it is useful information to move forward with the survey to get a sense of the pulse and what is actually happening.
    - Question raised on goal: for us, or to persuade leadership? The understanding is that it is our survey for our purpose that we would share with faculty and Carol.
    - Question raised on if this will include leadership faculty. Intent and agreement is that it would go to faculty list, which includes them.
  - Current state of questions:

Likert scale: How would you assess the current climate within the Libraries among KU Libraries faculty (from poor to good or similar)
What do you feel is going well within the Libraries?
What do you feel is going poorly within the Libraries?
What would you like to see happen through shared governance to improve/address the current climate in the Libraries?
If you are willing to be contacted about your responses, please provide your name.
- Josh motions to advance questions above in Qualtrics to be distributed to faculty list.
  - Discussion: no additional discussion on questions. Request made that the survey needs to make clear that results will be shared with Carol
  - Vote: Majority approves, carries.
  - Action: Josh will get the survey together and sent out by end of week

New Business
- One question that remains: the conflict between the Dean saying no raises to cannibalize the library budget, but still raises in leadership happening. There is a request about the Dean addressing that contradiction in conversation and actions taken.
  - Discussion occurred on the timing on the raises versus when the conversation about the library budget occurred
  - Samantha shared notes from the Dean/LSA special meeting around this topic:
    - from LSA meeting: "When we were asked to make budget cuts last year, we were able to save half the money that we proposed cutting and Carol put that back into pay equity raises directly for staff"
    - Further discussion occurred on how these actions have played out and been addressed how inversion seems to only be discussed at admin level but not at faculty and staff level
Conclude
- Motion to adjourn: Josh
- Seconded: Scott
- Motion carried; meeting adjourned at 12:04pm