May 9, 2017

by Karen Kohn

ACADEMIC ASSEMBLY OF LIBRARIANS

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2017

2:00PM

PALEY LIBRARY, LECTURE HALL

 

MINUTES

 

Attending: Rachel Appel, Steven Bell, Brian Boling, Jim Bongiovanni, Anastasia Chiu, Kristina De Voe (chair), Matt Ducmanas, Carla Davis Cunningham, Erin Finnerty, Justin Hill, Josue Hurtado, Latanya Jenkins, Molly Larkin, Rebecca Lloyd, Joe Lucia, Jill Luedke, Jessica Lydon, Karen Kohn (recording), Katy Rawdon, Fred Rowland, Brian Schoolar, Caitlin Shanley, Matt Shoemaker, Jackie Sipes, Sandi Thompson, Emily Toner, Kim Tully, Nancy Turner

 

  1. Approval of minutes from the January meeting (K. Kohn)

Minutes were approved, with the added updates on the Alma migration timeline.

 

  1. Elections (E. Finnerty and J. Bongiovanni)

Ballots had been previously distributed by email. There had been two tied votes prior to the meeting, so Erin passed out paper tiebreaker ballots at the meeting.

 

  1. Dean’s Update (J. Lucia)

New Building – Joe reported that some of the proposed cost-saving measures for the new building have turned out not to save money and may not be implemented. He did not have any specifics at this time.

Alma Migration – The Alma migration is on schedule to happen at the end of June.

Learning Management Systems – The University is going to be migrating off Blackboard and onto Canvas in the next academic year.

Philadelphia History Museum – Joe has been in conversation with the Philadelphia History Museum to determine a possible formal relationship between the museum and Temple. The relationship will likely involve faculty from the College of Education, Tyler School of Art and the College of Liberal Arts developing coursework and programming that utilize the museum’s collections. Temple’s contribution would be in program development for the museum, which would continue to be funded by the city’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs.

Exhibit by Tyler School of Art Students – Jill Luedke was contacted by students who wanted to stage an art exhibit, including a performance, in the library. Because the request was made with very short notice, there was not as much time as would’ve been ideal for planning the location of the exhibit within the library and communicating about it to the library staff and the rest of campus. Nevertheless, Joe hopes that this exhibit will lead to more art exhibits in the new library building. He has not heard any feedback on this exhibit.

 

  1. Discussion about Merit timeline (K. De Voe & C. Davis Cunningham)

Kristina and Carla led an open discussion about the timeline. One option that came up repeatedly was submitting the documentation close to the time of the Annual Report. Carla asked if it would be feasible to submit and review applications in the summer, particularly since the Merit Committee is typically not appointed until later in the year. A solution could be to submit merit applications in the summer and then have the committee review them in the fall.

 

Some pros and cons of timeline changes were noted. As supervisors need to review similar documentation for merit and PARA, keeping these processes close together could avoid the need to review the documentation twice. However, writing PARA support letters and merit recommendations at the same time is time-consuming for supervisors. Writing PDPs and merit recommendation letters at the same time would be similarly burdensome.

 

A question was raised about changes to the merit process itself, which Nancy Turner had proposed earlier in the year and which the Merit Committee has considered. Carla indicated that one of her intentions as next year’s Steering Committee chair is to work on adjusting the Merit timeline and improving the process, an idea which several people supported. The development of new processes is expected to take place over the next year, but there will not be time for AAL to approve new procedures in time for the 2017-18 merit cycle.

 

The Assembly seemed to have a general agreement to consider moving the timeline closer to when the Annual Reports are due, in anticipation of a likely merging of the Merit and Annual Report processes in the future.

 

  1. Committee Annual Reports
  2. Steering Committee (K. De Voe)

The initial members of the 2016/17 Steering Committee were Kristina De Voe (Chair), Carla Davis Cunningham (Vice Chair/Chair Elect), Karen Kohn (Recording Secretary), Matt Ducmanas (Member-at-Large), Leanne Finnigan (Member-at-Large), and Dean

Joe Lucia (ex-officio). Sarah Yerger was elected to fill a vacated member-at-large position mid-year when Leanne Finnigan went on family leave.

Shared AAL Calendar — Following an idea presented to and supported by the Assembly last year, a shared Google calendar listing AAL meetings, events, and deadlines was created and distributed among AAL members. Committees were encouraged to add their events to it.

Change to Bylaws Regarding Resident Librarian Participation — Following an idea proposed by last year’s Nominations and Elections Committee, the Bylaws were amended to incorporate language concerning participation opportunities on the Steering and Continuing Education committees for any hired Resident Librarians. The changes were discussed and voted on by the Assembly, passing in January.

As mentioned in more detail below in the report from the Selection & Appointment Committee, there was a discussion this year between the Steering Committee, the SAC Chair, and the Dean about ways to improve communication between search committees and library administration. As AAL chair, Kristina also spoke with the Director for Administration (Richie Holland) concerning standardized opportunities during onsite librarian candidate interviews for discussions between candidates and librarians of the AAL and its varied processes.

Change to Merit Timeline and Process — The Steering Committee discussed altering the Merit timeline so that it would not overlap with the PARA Committee’s recently changed timeline for contract renewal/regular appointment/promotion. The Committee asked the Library-wide Salary Advisory (Merit) Committee to make recommendations and is currently reviewing their proposal. Also, given the large pool of merit applicants in recent years, the Steering Committee, in conjunction with the Merit Committee, has suggested that the Dean return to the practice of appointing three individuals to the Library-wide Salary Advisory (Merit) Committee, instead of appointing just two, as having a total of six members may help better distribute their workload.

As a general reminder, minutes of the Steering Committee are available on the S: drive for viewing.

  1. Continuing Education Committee (R. Lloyd)

The 2016-2017 AAL Continuing Education Committee members were Michael Carroll, Matthew Ducmanas, Noa Kaumeheiwa, and Rebecca Lloyd (chair), with Richie Holland serving as an ex officio member.

The committed selected the theme Evolving Communities for this year and organized five programs, each focused on one or more areas that are “evolving.”

The first event, in September, was a Staff Carnival. This was held in conjunction with the Staff Coffee Hour and consisted of tables staffed by 16 different library departments and locations. Library staff visited tables to learn more about the work of their colleagues. There were requests for this event to repeat on a regular basis.

November’s event was a panel on Supporting Temple’s International Students. Speakers were Neal Conley (Director, Academic Resource Center), Leah Hetzell (Assistant Director, International Student Affairs) and Elisabeth Ursell (TESOL & Conversation Partners Program Coordinator, Writing Center). In December, John Pettit presented a screening of Unedited North Philadelphia, a compilation of news footage held in the SCRC pertaining to North Philadelphia.

In the Spring, the committee hosted a panel on Evolving Digital Ecosystem: Faculty perspectives on digital media and communication. Panelists were Sherri Hope Culver (Director, Center for Media and Information Literacy), Jan Fernback (Department of Media Studies and Production), and Dustin Kidd (Department of Sociology).

The final, forthcoming, event will address the topic of researchers, libraries, and privacy in the digital realm. This event will feature guest speakers from other institutions: Alison Macrina (Founder and Director, Library Freedom Project), Denise Agosto (College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University), and June Abbas (School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma).

  1. Faculty Senate Library Committee (C. Shanley)

The Committee met twice in FY16-17, once in December and once in April. The December meeting focused on updates from Joe Lucia about the new library building. During the April meeting, Joe shared a number of updates about new and

ongoing activities. He shared the PowerPoint slides that he had made for the full Senate and again shared some information about construction of the new building. He discussed the Digital Resource Fee, the new discovery tool, and library’s role in teaching critical information evaluation.

  1. Selection & Appointment Committee (J. Sipes)

The Selection and Appointment Committee in 2016-17 consisted of Jackie Sipes (Chair), Kim Tully, and Justin Hill. Doreva Belfiore served until her departure from Temple University on March 24, 2017.

In FY 2016-17, the Libraries had three TAUP searches.

  • Doreva Belfiore served as the AAL representative on the Digital Projects and Services Librarian search. This search led to the successful hire of Rachel Appel.
  • Jackie Sipes served as the AAL representative on the Science and Engineering Librarian and Learning Specialist search, which led to the successful hire of Sarah Jones, who will begin her position on July 5, 2017.
  • Kim Tully is currently serving as the AAL representative on the Resident Librarians search.

The Selection and Appointment Committee also wishes to note that during the search for the Digital Projects and Services Librarian position, a second position, Technology Projects Librarian, was created in the Library Technology Department and offered to one of the finalists from the ongoing search. The creation of position resulted in the successful hire of Emily Toner. The search committee for the Digital Projects and Service Librarian was not notified that a separate position had been defined until after an offer had been made. The Steering Committee and SAC chair discussed with Dean Lucia the need to increase communication between search committees and the administration moving forward.

  1. PARA Committee (M. Larkin)

This year’s committee was comprised of Aslaku Berhanu, Adam Shambaugh, Molly Larkin, and Andrea Goldstein (chair). Molly presented the committee report on behalf of Andrea. The committee reviewed nine applications and made positive recommendations for all. Matthew Ducmanas, Leanne Finnegan, Erin Finnerty, Josue Hurtado, Karen Kohn, Rebecca Lloyd, Matt Shoemaker, and Kim Tully all received 2 year contract renewals. In addition, Matthew Ducmanas and Josue Hurtado have received a promotion to L2.  Brian Boling received regular appointment and a promotion to L3.  The committee extends its congratulations to these employees for their well-deserved appointments.

Also, Richie Holland consulted with Andrea for the hiring level of three new hires this past year.

  1. Merit Committee (F. Rowland)

The committed consisted of Jim Bongiovanni, Karen Kohn, Kim Tully, Matt Ducmanas, and Fred Rowland (chair).

Eighteen TAUP librarians applied for merit in January 2017. This is believed to be the largest applicant pool ever. The merit pool consisted of 54 units. Due to the large number of applications, the committee considered whether it would be advisable to appoint six members to the committee next year but has not made a recommendation. (See item 5a for the Steering Committee’s recommendation.)

The Merit Committee was asked to think about an alternative to the current merit process. In a discussion on April 20, 2017, it came up with a proposal that was delivered to the AAL Steering Committee. The chair of the Merit Committee will meet with the Steering Committee on May 16, 2017 to discuss this proposal.

  1. Faculty Senate Representatives (J. Hurtado)

Katy Rawdon and Josue Hurtado attended ten meetings as representatives to the Faculty Senate.

At the September meeting, President Englert reported figures related to enrollment. First-year enrollment in 2016 was 5,100, which President Englert says that was “robust.” Total enrollment was expected to be around 39,000. A Presidential search will be starting this summer. A review of RCM budgeting is underway, almost complete. The Senate discussed the stadium.

The Provost announced that ten Temple students had received Fulbright. She also announced the appointment of a new Dean of the Tyler School, Susan Cahan, and of the Law School, Greg Mandel.

Dean Lucia reported on library accomplishments.

Ken Kaiser, the CFO, noted that tuition comprises 80% of Temple’s budget, while state aid is 10%.  This year’s budget is $1.4 billion.

Justin Miller from the Resnick Academic Support Center for Student Athletes reported on the academic success of student athletes. The overall GPA for student athletes in Spring 2016 was 3.23, and graduation rates are 88%. This leaves Temple ranked 15th nationally in graduation rates for student athletes. In addition, the annual academic progress rate is 98%.

The Senate discussed the issue of sanctuary campuses for undocumented students.

Lastly, the Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution entitled “Standing Up to a Threat to Diversity,” which called on Temple’s leadership to reach out to legislators voicing their opposition to giving institutions of higher education a role in immigration enforcement and their support of immigration policies that encourage international students and scholars to attend institutions in the United States.

  1. Nominations & Elections (E. Finnerty)

The committed consisted of Erin Finnerty and Jim Bongiovanni.

There was one special election in January to fill Leanne’s 2-year term (2016/17-2017/18) as member-at-large for Steering Committee. Sarah Yerger was elected to complete this term.

At the May General Assembly Meeting, the committee pioneered the switch to using Google forms ballots, as concerns about privacy and vote duplication were remedied by new Google Form options that ensure that each participant only vote one time, without recording their email address. Online voting closed at noon on the day of the General Assembly meeting. Paper ballots were made available at the meeting for any last-minute voting.

The ballot distributed prior to the meeting included 2 special elections. One was to fill the second year of Noa Kaumeheiwa’s position on the Continuing Education committee, as she will only be serving for one year. The other was to replace Doreva Belfiore on Selection & Appointment.

Results of the election are listed in agenda item 7.

  1. Pet and Plant Show (S. Yerger)

There was much cooing.

  1. Election Results (E. Finnerty and J. Bongiovanni)

Steering Committee Vice Chair/Chair-Elect: Andrea Goldstein

Member-At-Large: Kim Tully

Representative, Faculty Senate: Adam Shambaugh

Continuing Education Committee, 1-year term [Special Election]: Kristina De Voe

Continuing Education Committee, 2-year term, Chair-Elect: Latanya Jenkins

Continuing Education Committee, 1-year term: Jill Luedke

(The Continuing Education Committee will select a 2017-18 chair from amongst its members.)

Nominations & Elections Committee: Karen Kohn

Selection & Appointment Committee, 1-year term [Special Election]: Josue Hurtado

Selection & Appointment Committee: Emily Toner and Matt Ducmanas

Promotion and Regular Appointment Committee: Jim Bongiovanni, Rick Lezenby

 

  1. Old Business

 

  1. New Business/Announcements

Fred proposed a day each week that would be designated for no library meetings. There was some discussion of whether there could be fewer meetings in general. Kristina suggested a future program on running effective meetings.

  1. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:20.

This entry was posted in Minutes.