LFSA Exec - Minutes - February 12, 2026

LFSA Exec Meeting

Thursday, February,12, 11:00am-12:00pm, Teams  

 

In attendance: 

Exec Members: Josh Bolick, Rebecca Schroeder, Melissa Mayhew, Elspeth Healey, Sydney McFadden, Amanda Schlumpberger 

Faculty and Staff: Jason Dean, Chris Pincock, MC Mack, Kate Stewart, E Durham, Meredith Phares

 

Absence: N/A  

  

Minutes

 

  • Approve December Minutes [​link​] 
    • Motion: Rebecca
    • Second: Elspeth
    • Motion carries 
  • Review state of charges from LFSA General Assembly 
    • Salary & Benefits  
      • From Assembly meeting: Eliminate as an LFSA meeting, and LSA can then revive it as an LSA committee. 
      • Poll/vote was sent by Loren
        • We are 5 votes short of removing from LFSA
        • Action item: do one more push
    • Nominating & Ballot 
      • From assembly meeting:
        • LCPT: New charge for checking with Dean on hiring at assoc. level
        • Nominating and Ballot: adding a new charge for tracking service. 
  • Committee Reports   
    • Nominating and Ballot: Rebecca: nothing to add
  • CRSA, Elspeth: 
    • GRF applications are open and CRSA’s GRF site has been updated (allocation of $20,857.75 from the KU Office of Research – an increase of nearly $4,000 from last year).
    • CRSA Chair Eric Bader presented about LRF and GRF funding opportunities to the pre-tenure faculty cohort in January. 
    • There is some concern that CRSA may run out of LRF funds this year (they currently have $1,330.25 remaining – and have just received an LRF request for $600-odd).  The chair had in the abstract spoken with the Dean about the possibility of getting funds topped up if they run out, so now with the latest request, he may re-engage that conversation more officially.
    • Code, Amanda: nothing to report, they are waiting for charges 
  • Chairs meetings with Carol updates (conversation was mostly focused on Faculty/Dean) 
    • Debriefed after Faculty meeting with Dean (Josh and Elspeth) 
      • Monthly or bimonthly dialogue with Dean with Faculty after the meeting held the week before was discussed 
      • Details in the work 
      • Carol looking at a summary of events report for her first 1000 days 
      • Discussed how to make budget issues more transparent 
      • Concern about the impact current events on student workers, ongoing discussion 
      • Moderation of Listserv: Dean is gathering info from other universities’ policies. Chairs communicated that they want it to be unmoderated 
      • The idea of some sort of moderation or facilitating was discussed 
        • Perhaps w/ ombuds 
  • LFSA budget discussion 
    • $1200 in our budget, some has been used
    • One idea: small party for anyone who has served on a LSFA/LSA/LFA committee in the last FY to acknowledge the work and time those who have served have put into 
    • Additional idea: informal coffee and donuts with LSFA/LFA/LSA exe to talk about concerns or just a fun morning coffee and donut. Could also be a service recruitment event too 
    • Request for other exec members to help with items 
  • Current events 
    • Current state of things: 
      • Faculty body had face to face meeting with Dean week prior
      • Feb. 18th: Corresponding staff with Dean meeting will take place 
    • Discussion: 
      • Rebecca noted she is preparing for the meeting with the Dean. Discussion on how to prepare occurred 
      • LSA sent a Qualtrics survey to their body to collect questions 
      • Discussion on how to be efficient with time with the dean occurred. 
      • More discussion of the moderated list occurred 
    • Discussion closed with emphasis on this being an ongoing conversation 
  • New Business 
    • Concern raised around the time-management and facilitation of All Staff meetings to ensure we can get Dean's updates (there were some significant updates we didn’t get to)
      • Action item: Chairs will pass the concern up to the Dean for action
      • One suggestion raised: move dean’s updates to the top of the meeting rather than the end
    • Concern raised about all-staff meetings not being recorded and accessible to all who aren’t able to attend
      • Suggestion that SET Wellness, Belonging, and Growth could include this in its work on All-staff teams site work they are doing
    • Concern raised the issue of Dean’s office hours and if they can have any report-out associated with them could be shared with everyone’s consent
  • Conclude 
    • Motion to conclude: Rebecca
    • Seconded: Syd
    • Motion carried 
    • Meeting concluded at 12:00pm