LFA Exec - Minutes - September 17, 2025

LFA Executive Committee Meeting
September 17, 2025

10:00-11:00 AM

Attending: Josh Bolick (Chair), Elspeth Healey (Vice Chair), Amanda Schlumpberger (Secretary), Scott McEathron, Angie Rathmel, Samantha Bishop Simmons

Absent: N/A

Minutes:

Welcome
Approve minutes from 8/13 LFA Exec Meeting [link]
1. No changes
2. Scott moved to approved, Elspeth seconded, motion carried
Housekeeping:
1. Encourage nominations for faculty awards!
  1. Reminder from Sharon to nominate faculty for awards.
  2. Scott reported that there are some rollover nominees, but there are new ones and more nominees are welcomed.
  3. Josh requested we all help get the word out and encourage people to nominate.
2. Still need to identify date of Fall Assembly in coordination with LFSA, LSA, and Dean/Leadership Team availability
  1. Carol is working with staff to identify available times
    1. Options provided on 9/16: 10/31 9-12; 11/10 1-4; 11/17 1-4
      1. Will meet with LFSA to discuss possible time too
      2. There are some concerns with the 10/31 and 11/10--there was consensus in the group that the 11/17 will likely be the best
  2. Next steps are to talk with LFSA on 9/18
  3. After confirmation on date from LFSA we send save the date to KU Lib-L, with calendar invite ideally, when available
  4. Josh has started to keep a running document on what we need to address in the Fall Assembly. We will continue to plan and update through Sept/Oct. [planning doc]
    1. Josh encouraged LFA to add to doc
    2. Elspeth brought up that the Code might allow for SPLTR member to be someone who previously served when a member can’t serve rather than holding an election
    3. One meeting before Assembly—Josh will work on firming up agenda
Liaison reports:
1. LCPT (Elspeth)
  1. LCPT have reviewed “KU Libraries: Academic Appointments in the University Libraries” policy. They will get Elspeth language revisions soon and she will pre-circulate to potentially talk about it at next LFA meeting
2. SLPTR (Scott)
  1. The committee received sabbatical leave application, we think.
  2. They are set for having the numbers squared away for doing that review this fall
  3. They may need more members in the Spring to review PTR files (2) in the spring. They would be down members in the spring because one is on sabbatical and one will be up for review, and others might not be able to review too. They will likely need at least one more person.
    1. The code says LFA will nominate people for a special election, but we could also explore having someone from previous serving members stepping in before moving forward with a special election.
  4. Immediate steps are Scott will talk to the committee and raise the question with them
3. Ad Hoc Committee for Review of PT Criteria (Elspeth)
  1. Previous conversations—the table and the confusion it creates in the current version
  2. The next step is how to incorporate feedback from a larger group. Could be focus groups or survey.
    1. Plan is to start that work before the Fall Assembly and have something to share in the Spring Assembly or a special assembly
4. University Senate Library Committee (Josh)
  1. No update
5. LSA (Josh)
  1. They filled Vice Chair seat with Syndey McFadden
  2. They had their monthly meeting with Carol.
6. UAKU (Scott)
  1. Meeting more regularly with leadership after demonstration
  2. Continuing to trade proposals with KU Leadership
  3. Things appear to be accelerating
Report on LFA Chair and Vice Chair/Chair Elect meeting 9/10/25 meeting with Dean (Josh and Elspeth)
1. Budget and providing faculty perspectives was the focus
  1. LFA reps communicated concerns from faculty after All staff on the 3rd
  2. Salaries and compression was a concern that faculty brought to her
  3. There is a continued effort to get best people hired while we still can hire
  4. We asked for clarification on what is being cut
  5. They also discussed the renovation of Watson. Watson need a plan in 3 years, which is why we are building a plan now
  6. Carol anticipates pay will be addressed across the board and also addressed the tension between hiring the best but also the compression that can have on existing staff.
  7. They also discussed different ways things like salaries, and such has been done, and the efforts to make clean budget lines and using funds for what they are meant to be used for.
  8. Skepticism about One KU and the impact that would have on Libraries. Carol will not enter [RA1] [SA2] it w/o University support and resources to do so. Collections and technology resources, for example.
  9. Carol emphasized PD and startup funds and their importance, she is looking for funds to also support Associates and Full faculty too.
  10. F&A funding: facilities and administrative grant funding and how libraries can navigate that
  11. “Doing less, smarter”: leadership is thinking about what they spend time on and if it serves strategic objectives, may move down to Faculty in the future.
  12. Question on how to get feedback from pre-tenured faculty—potentially having an adhoc committee member come to Pre-tenure cohort meeting to do a bit of a focus group.
Updates to priorities for FY26
1. Eval reform (Josh)
  1. Review Mike’s roles/timeline documentL
    1. Action item: LFA members will review and add comments a week from today to keep this moving forward
  2. Review updated eval form draft
    1. Jon developed to streamline some things
    2. Some formatting changes
    3. Biggest change is removing the Dean’s comment section ‘
    4. Action item: LFA will review and add comments a week from today.
  3. Need to schedule a couple of open virtual info sessions in partnership with Mike to preview and answer questions
2. Ad Hoc PT Guidelines (update provided in liaison reports above)
Any other business?
1. Angie raised the potential of LFA and newbies coffee or other type of event to meet the new people and provide social connections. For now, an immediate need w/ the potential of future continuation.
  1. Samantha thought that might also be a good space for new people to meet potential mentors.
  2. Josh is curious if pre-tenure people are having any issues finding mentors.
  3. Next steps: Table for now time considerations but come back to it soon.
2. Member noted that the LFSA Salaries and Benefits Committee (on hiatus) is irrelevant to LFA due to UAKU; recommend to LFSA/LSA that it become an LSA committee if continued;
  1. LSA will take it but may remain on hiatus for a while longer
3. From Michael Peper on OFA items that may affect Faculty reported to LFA: “I’m part of OFA’s Faculty Liaisons group, which is mostly composed of Associate Deans from the Schools. There were some items that seemed relevant to LFA. Let me know if you have questions or want me to participate in bringing this to Exec or the wider body somehow.
  1. There is a new award for which nominations open in October for faculty service. https://facultyaffairs.ku.edu/faculty-service-award
    1. Action item: Forward to Sharon to spread the word
  2. OFA has “guidance on disruptions for faculty evaluations” https://facultyaffairs.ku.edu/guidance-disruptions-faculty-evaluations This comes out of guidance based on COVID that has now been broadened to include issues like funding stream changes. This is probably less impactful for library faculty, but it is good to know that this exists for annual and P/T evaluations.
  3. Faculty Insight: There was a user testing group that issued a recent report. The group had a rep from every school and Amalia represented Libraries. The relevant notes here are that there was the general sense that FI is working much better now and that many recommended changes have been made. Also, there was talk that faculty workload reporting will become more important for the union, KBOR, state government, etc. and that FI is the only mechanism we have for this. No directives yet, but it seems like this may be in our future.
  4. Academic Analytics has a workflow tool that can manage faculty review processes. Imagine using a portal to manage documentation for P/T reviews that doesn’t involve OneDrive. Something like BrassRing works for hiring process. Three schools are piloting their P/T reviews with this for this year. Everyone in the room would not be sorry to lose their current seat-of-the-pants methods for doing this.
  5. Units will almost surely need to update or create various policies in response to a union contract, at the point that arrives. Issues like workload policy for which we don’t have a policy will need to be created. OFA encourages units to begin work on these in advance of a contract if desired.
    1. Until we have something to work with, we will standby on this one.
    2. Josh will talk with Amalia about anything that will have policy implications for the Libraries
  6. Any other comments on Budget from All Staff meeting on the 3Rd?
    1. ACRL survey on salaries: https://publications.arl.org/ARL-Annual-Salary-Survey-2024/
Conclude
1. Angie motioned to adjourn. Elspeth seconded. Motion carried. The meeting ended at 11am.