The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

---

Home  ·   Code  ·   Guidelines  ·   Membership  ·   Minutes  ·   Committees  ·   SSEYA  ·   Links

---

KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday Feb 22nd , 2007
WATSON Conf Rm.B - 10-11:30am

Present: Monica Claassen-Wilson (FY07 Chair), Jill Becker (FY07 Vice-Chair), Kevin Fussell (Group 2), Nishon Hawkins (Group 3), Denise Swartz (Group 1); Robert Szabo (Group 4)

Absent: Angie Rathmel (Secretary)

Approval of previous meeting’s Feb. 8th and Feb 15th minutes
DONE

Approval of previous meeting’s action items

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
1. Monica	Next mtg	Ask Lynn Koenig and Susanne Clement to be on Careers in Libraries panel  DONE, both agreed to participate
2. Denise	Feb 16th	Ask Shannon Royer to take photo of Julie Warrick and Dean Haricombe for the 2006 SSEYA for the webpage. DONE, Shannon will email photo to Monica
3. Robert	Next mtg	Confirm the following presenters: - CAREERS IN LIBRARIES: Susan Burton (KMLIN), Nancy Hawkins, Jill Becker, Carmen Orth-Alfie PARTIALLY DONE, Carmen and Jill have confirmed, SEE NEW ACTION ITEMS - WORKPLACE ISSUES: Kent Miller, Mary Roach, Lorraine Haricombe, Ola Faucher, Donna Brewer ONGOING, Linda Fund confirmed in place of Ola SEE NEW ACTION ITEMS - OUTLOOK TIPS & TRICKS: Jeff Lewis DONE, YES - INFO SESSIONS: Ann Chapman (Nutrition) DONE, Ann agreed to supply Nutrition stuff for our nutrition table. Robert will meet with her on March 5th
4. Robert		Take pictures of "low cost cubicle art" and give to Monica to put in a slide show.  DONE

Group Reports:

Grp 1:  Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

• N/A

Grp 2: Cataloging

• N/A

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

• E-Reserve high season is over.
• The technology desk previously located on the 4th floor of    Watson is now on the third floor across from the service desk.
• New Signs have been posted above the Watson Circulation Desk.

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

• ANSCHUTZ
• ANNEX
• ART
• ENGINEERING
• MUSIC
• Inside door handle to the Group Study Room fell off and students couldn’t get out. FO promptly fixed it.
• RCL
• SPENCER
• The reading room has been very busy with students completing assignments and the classrooms are pretty well scheduled with classes using Spencer materials.
• Staff will provide a tour of Spencer Library & Reception on February 26th for the First Recruitment Weekend for students accepted to the American Studies Graduate Program.
• The French and Italian Roundtable will meet in Spencer on March 2nd.

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate:
(from 2/22/07, provided by Mary Ann Baker via email to KULSS –Exec)
Dennis Constance, president of USS Senate, & the Provost met Jan.25th 2007.  The following items were discussed:

• Feedback from the Personnel Committee egarding supervisory evaluations.  They feel positive mployee-supervisor relations should be a high priority, but do not feel a formal process of evaluation will contribute to that. I also mention that I had not had the opportunity at that time to discuss the committee's reservations with them, and will plan to do so before closing the book on this idea.  (More on this further down)
• I reported our meeting with Keith Yehle (at the Jan. ExecCom meeting) regarding the University's legislative priorities for the 2007 session, and that we had signed on to a general endorsement of the need for deferred maintenance funding.
• I told him he would be receiving a letter regarding our proposal for extension of the current employee tuition assistance to a spouse or dependent.
• I shared with him that procedures review and training/retraining for Disciplinary Action Appeal Board volunteers had been completed.  I also shared that this effort had bought some concerns about the autonomy of that board to the surface, but we are working through the USS Work Group with HR/EO to iron this out.  I told him I was mentioning this now mainly to make him aware of it, not to seek his involvement.  If the problems can't be resolved or keep re-appearing in other forms, that could change.
• The work group has been working on a salary notification system that will help employees get clearer information about the impact of merit increases on their wages. (This now exists on-line as part of Employee Information on the Kyou Portal.)
• I told him that at some future time, I would like to visit with him about what he thinks it takes to make KU "the best place to work" (a quote from something he said when he met with SenEx last Fall).  I was mentioning it for later discussion so I wouldn't be springing the question on him unexpectedly.
• I asked him to consider making USS employees eligible to apply for participation in the Wheat State Whirlwind Tours, as a valuable team-building experience.
• I also told him we have some interest in making the time spent as service to University Governance should be considered part of our jobs for the times we are elected to serve. This is another subject I would like him to think about for future discussion.

 
SenEx (Executive Committee of the University Senate): 

• SenEx has spent a fair amount of time looking a changes to the course drop/add and course repeat policies.
• There was a presentation from Continuing Ed, asking for changes that    make people taking courses through their programs eligible for a KU degree.  Since these courses are in fact designed with the assistance of the schools and departments involved, there is no reason to treat them differently.  They are essentially the same courses.
• SenEx still wants to revive some oversight role regarding Athletics at KU.  Rick Hale, SenEx Chair, and Ruthann Atchley, FacEx chair, have had some meetings with the Chancellor about this.  At some future point,     all the Governance leaders will hopefully get to meet with him about this issue.

University Senate:

• FacEx (Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate) has a Student Learning Task Force, and a Promotion & Tenure Task Force that will be reporting their findings soon. 
• There is a proposed change to the Grade Policy that will allow faculty to submit them on-line.  This will be voted on next meeting.
• There is a proposed change to the academic misconduct policy to clarify the sanction that might be imposed.
• At the March 1st U. Council, there will be discussion of the Long Term Plan for KU.
• Evaluations of supervisors:  The USS Senate's Personnel Committee flat out declined to pursue evaluations of supervisors citing retaliation fears, "hate fest", and other negative concerns.  Since the President, knowing that the Provost is very interested in doing this, still wanted to explore the possibility of having such evaluations, he called for a vote as to whether we would continue to explore the possibility of having evaluations of supervisors on campus.  Yes, by one vote only, we will   continue to pursue the matter, probably with a task force, hopefully staffed with folks who see positive benefits to offering such a thing.

Management Council:
(for detailed notes go to the Intranet: http://www.lib.ku.edu/staff/, click “Administration”, then “Notes and Minutes”).

• Textbook Reserve proposal-University Textbook task force (includes Heather Howard) is looking for a way to alleviate textbook costs for students.
• Donna Brewer and Kent Miller discussed the Organizational Culture and Diversity Assessment-survey that tests the  climate of teamwork, diversity, and fairness. 80 question survey to be administered between Spring Break and mid-April.
• Discussed the search for the two Associate Deans and the title changes for the positions. Scott Walters’s former position will be called Instructional Services and Learning. Richard Fyffe’s former position will be called Collections and Scholarly Services.   Access Services will report to Kent Miller once the AD positions are filled.

Senate Committee on Libraries (SDL)
     No Report
Diversity Committee (DC)
     No Report
Staff Development (SDC)
     No report
Planning and Resources (PRC)
     No report

Update on Meeting with the Dean and HR Officer
Development workshop:

• The Dean is very excited about the workshop and the effort and work that has gone into planning it. 
• Everyone in the Administration office have been given permission to attend the entire day.

360°evaluations:

• The Dean liked the idea, but there are some concerns with confidentiality. The Dean has done this at other institutions and will look for documentation of how it was done.

Clarification of development funding procedure:

• Discussed during Dean’s Council Meeting (see    Notes on the Intranet: http://www.lib.ku.edu/staff/, click Administration, then “Notes and Minutes”) and will be discussed during Donna’s session of development workshop.
• The Dean is very supportive of professional development, but also must balance where statefunding goes.

         
Staff Development Workshop

• Registration Forms:
• Using color printer in the Administration office.
• Distributing to KULSS groups on 2/27/07, Registration due by March 2nd, Tuesday.

• Posters/publicity
• Nishon created a Powerpoint slide with the descriptions of the sessions to be distributed to the groups via email. Also posted to the KULSS website.
• Nishon and Angie created a sign/flier, also to be used as posters in the libraries and Union.
• Emails to be sent by group reps

• Physcial space
• The Malott Room will not be available during Spring Break due to renovations.
• Once people are registered, we will go look at the rooms in the Union to see which rooms will be suitable for the number of attendees.

• Invitations/confirmations of speakers:
• Robert is sending emails to speakers

Action Items for next meeting:

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
Monica	Next meeting	Update budget to reflect book snake cost. Make changes to Registration Form-add contact/return info. Ask Nikhat Ghouse to introduce Donna and Jeff’s sessions. Send final reminder about nomination deadline for SSEYA
Denise	Next meeting	Confirm speaker for “Your Skills on Paper” session *Ask Barb Walker about “Ergonomics” handouts
Jill	Next meeting	*Ask Barb Walker about “Ergonomics” handouts Talk to Yoga Instructor to finalize details-payment, presentation, etc. Ask Bayliss Harsh if she will introduce the Yoga Instructor.
Robert	Next Meeting	Send “official” confirmation/Invitation email to all the panel members.

 

Next meeting will be a special planning session on Thursday Mar 1st , 2007 in Watson Cataloging Conference Room.