The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, August 26, 10:00-11:30
Miltons (Kansas Union)

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 2), Julie Warrick (Group 3), Robert Szabo (Group 4)
Absent: Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair)

Previous Meeting's Action Items

• Adam and Robert will send out the information about USS Senate volunteers.
• Correction for Group 2 Membership: Zachary Ingel can be removed.
• Kristin Zachrel has been added as an owner of the kulss-l listserv and everyone on the committee should now have access to the G drive. Everyone should test this out to make sure they really do have access. The location is G:\Committees\KULSS.
  
  Staff Picnic
  
  
• Picnic is scheduled for Saturday, September 18th at Dad Perry Park.
• Who is paying for the picnic?
• Potluck style.
• We need to request that people bring grills.
• Send out the flier for the picnic before Labor Day. Jill will ask Courtney to make a flier for the picnic. Jill will send email by September 1 to KU-LIB listserv and put all 3 chairs names on it.

Group Reports

Group 1:

• It's renewal time for Acquisitions/Serials. They are working on vendor consolidations for certain publishers.
  

Group 2 (Adam):

• Zachary Ingel was hired on a temporary basis and his term has ended. He received a TA assistantship.
• Cataloging had their meeting where they give away ALA goodies.
  
  

Group 3 (Julie):

• There's a new hot dog cart in Watson that makes the 3rd floor smell like hot dogs.
• Continuing to shift (currently shifting 1 1/2 West)
  
  

Group 4 (Robert):

• The pizza party in Anschutz was a success. 640 slices of pizza were given away. Around 500 students visited as well as many staff members. There was a strong showing of Cataloging staff.
• Channette Alexander is trying to get computer hardware, such as headphones, set up in Spahr.
  
  

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate:

• Mary Ann Baker passed along the minutes from the University Senate Executive Committee (SenEx) meeting:
  • KU has expanded the bereavement policy to include domestic partners. See https://documents.ku.edu/policies/hreo/BereavementLeave.htm for details. It is not possible, however, for KU to provide additional monetary compensation to compensate an employee for the cost of a domestic partner's health care costs as that will require a change in the state legislation.
  • The Faculty Activity Group is looking into a database or software that will track faculty research, teaching and service. They will also put together a stakeholders group for feedback on their work.
  • The Student Senate is hiring a consultant to develop a new website and logo for them. They have set up a checklist of things to accomplish including adding a Graduate Affairs position, DVD kiosks around campus, multicultural education, text book prices and expansion of the Underground in Wescoe.
  • The Unclassified Senate is working with unclassified staff at Wichita State to appeal to the Board of Regents so they may report their issues to the Board as the faculty, staff, and students do. With the split of Information Technology and the Libraries, they are reviewing their membership representation and organization.
  • University Support Staff Executive Committee conducted a retreat in July to work on committee charges and issues confronting support staff. The task force to review the Code has completed its first draft and it has been forwarded to the Executive Committee. The Senate is sponsoring a mini wheat state bus tour on September 22nd.
  • Postponed discussion of computer access for staff until Dennis Constance could be present to provide his input.
  • Pursuing discussion with University Senate regarding tuition wavers for dependents of faculty and staff.
  • Due to negative feedback from disabled students regarding KU's ADA compliance, the Senate will review KU's compliance at the next SenEx meeting.
    
    

University Committee on Libraries: Nothing to report.

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC): Still not meeting.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Dean's Council (next mtg: 8/27): Notes from the August 20th meeting: http://www.lib.ku.edu/staff/docs/Notes/.

• Discussed KU Libraries role in research engagement in response to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little's concern about KU's low ranking in AAU.
• Will hold a special election for an Unclassified Senate representative since they are not currently represented in the Senate.
• Shannon Royer distributed a copy of the FY11 Library OOE budget for Dean's Council review.
• Discussed the confluence product, a platform to organize all of our documents from the G drive, intranet and wiki.
• KU Libraries will host a South African academic librarian next spring.
  
  

Management Council (next mtg: 9/15): Notes from the August 18th meeting: http://www.lib.ku.edu/staff/docs/Notes/indexMC.shtml. Key topics include:

• Review of the General Education requirements and how to immerse the undergraduate students in the intellectual life of the university more immediately.
• Dean's submitted a research enhancement plan to the Provost, which have been evaluated, and now the Dean's have an opportunity to revise the plans with faculty.
• The Provost is advocating expansion of research possibilities that will have an impact on broader public and community issues.
• Dean Haricombe stressed KU Libraries as an asset to support these areas.
• Provost Vitter requested a recruitment plan for faculty.
• Discussed updates to the Libraries Internal Plan (campus mail plan under review, now have an official web services unit, IS Decoupling still in transition.
  
  

Dean's KULSS (next mtg: 9/8): Not met yet.

Concerns to bring up with the Dean:

• Comment from the General Meeting survey: What would you like to see KULSS accomplish over the next year?  Get Library Asst & Library Assoc job category on KU’s HR/EO EEO job categories moved from Category 4 – Secretarial/Clerical to Category 5 – Paraprofessional/Technical where we need to be!!
• Break room issues: status of the new break room on the 5th floor in Watson, need recycling picked up, leftovers need to be cleaned out of the fridge, there's no maintenance cleaning in the break room, there needs to be some guidelines for using the break room.
• Any plans to reconfigure space for the 3rd floor staff offices in Watson?
• Confirm that funds are still available for the staff development conference this spring and also to send USS to the annual ALA conference.
• Who is handling the Staff Picnics from now on? What is KULSA's role? Who is paying for the picnics? Jill will email Erin and Kim about the picnic and that it's a coordinated effort.
  
  
  

Action Items for Next Meeting

Parking Lot
(Items to be aware of for the future, not necessarily discussed in current meeting)

Next Meeting: Thursday, September 9, 10:00-11:30 in Anschutz 305.