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RLI 269 5 Achieving Consensus on the University of Kansas Open-Access Policy Ada Emmett, Associate Librarian for Scholarly Communications, University of Kansas Town Peterson, Distinguished Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Senior Curator, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas Idecision that was expanded and improved in a second vote in Februaryn April of 2009 the University of Kansas (KU) Faculty Senate passed anopen-access policy much like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford faculty’s, a 2010. With these policy decisions, KU became the first public university to pass a university-wide policy of this sort. A long-standing interest in addressing the systemic failings of access to university scholarship prepared KU to develop and support such measures. The KU open-access policy is not a new phenomenon for the university. Rather, in 2005, KU faculty governance passed a resolution to encourage greater access to scholarship created at the university, under the leadership of then Provost David Shulenburger. KU also made a key early investment in the development of an institutional repository, KU ScholarWorks, which is now serving as the platform for the open-access materials levied by the current policy. The 2009–2010 policy asserts the rights of KU faculty regarding the provision of worldwide access to their scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles. The policy was the product of a broad, collaborative effort by members of the faculty (including librarians), administration, and faculty governance. KU’s Faculty Senate is considered a vibrant and healthy institution within the university. In fall 2008, with a short turnaround time, a small but devoted ad hoc subcommittee of the Faculty Senate Research Committee was charged with developing a policy for the Faculty Senate’s consideration by the end of the academic year (spring 2009). As part of their work, a Web-based survey was distributed to KU faculty to assess their attitudes about and knowledge of open APRIL 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC