ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 976 / C isR L News Eight-month contracts for Oakland University librarians By Janet Krompart Collection D evelopm ent Coordinator Oakland University and Richard L. Pettengill Reference/Collection D evelopm ent Librarian Oakland University Collective bargaining achieves equity fo r librarians. O akland University is a m edium -sized, state- supported institution in Rochester, M ichi­ gan. Beginning with the 1990/91 academ i librarians at O akland have th e same academ ic year calendar as do m em bers o f th e teaching faculty. This new schedule, w ithout reduction in pay, was established by a provision in th e cu rren t collective bargaining agreem ent betw een O akland U niver­ sity and th e O akland C h ap ter o f th e American Association o f University Professors (AAUP). This calendar has b een a long-tim e objective o f O akland librarians, and its im plem entation contin­ ues to involve as m uch careful study and planning as its achievem ent did. Background L ibrarians at O akland w ere g ra n te d faculty status by th e Board o f T rustees after approval o f a constitution for th e library faculty by th e University Senate in 1970. At th a t tim e, O akland librarians gained many faculty status provisions (the right to form a governance unit; faculty, i.e., professorial ranks; sabbatical leaves; access to research funds), b u t they rem ained on th e tw elve-m onth contract. Also in 1970 th e Oakland C h ap ter o f AAUP becam e certified as a collective bargaining unit. As an organized faculty group th e librarians no longer c could rem ain in th e adm inistrative professional association w here they had b een m em bers since ytheea r founding o f th e university. T he AAUP, how­ ever, w elcom ed librarians, who th e n becam e p art o f th e newly form ed collective bargaining unit. In 1973 an arbitrator granted librarians a lim ited n u m b e r o f “professional developm ent leaves” as an opportunity to show how they might, with this release tim e, add to th e ir credentials and contrib­ u te to scholarship and as a possible interim step tow ard schedules m ore like those o f th e teaching faculty. A n u m b e r o f librarians took advantage o f these leaves, which w ere aw arded by a com m ittee o f adm inistrators, teachers and librarians. In 1977 th e professional developm ent leaves w ere e n d e d an d lib rarian s g ain ed te n -m o n th schedules through th e O akland University and O akland C h ap ter o f th e AAUP collective bargain­ ing agreem ent. T hese schedules consisted o f Fall and W in ter term s as well as e ith e r a Spring or a Sum m er term . O f course, teaching faculty retained th e ir traditional eight-m onth, Fall/W inter term s schedule. Although equity for librarians was urged by th e AAUP negotiating team s in o th e r bargaining years (to date these have o ccurred triennially), it was not until th e 1988 sessions th a t schedule equity was achieved. November 1 9 9 0 1 977 Factors leading to eight-month contracts This is a difficult question to answer in any scientific way. These are some o f th e major factors Oakland librarians believe led to achieving th eir very long-term goal. 1. Time. From the tim e Oakland librarians re ­ ceived nominal faculty status to th e im plem enta­ tion o f th e new schedule is almost tw enty years. Some may feel th at if we knew th e n what we know now this period should have b een shorter, b u t no doubt this change could not have b een realized quickly, at least not during these intervening years. 2. And, o f course, the tim e had to be used to good effect. Looking back on w hat was basically a leam - as-you-go process, these efforts stand out: a. Librarians paid th eir dues in th e university as well as th e bargaining unit and dem onstrated p ro ­ fessional growth. T he concept th a t second-class citizens m ust prove themselves before they can advance is not always welcome, b u t it contains an unavoidable truth. In this case, librarian service to th e university and the AAUP was constant and grew to a level w here librarians served on im portant university com m ittees, including th e Senate Steering C om ­ m ittee and th e University Research Com m ittee. They even chaired university policy and planning com m ittees and th e university-level Faculty C om ­ m ittee on A ppointm ent and Promotion. Librarians have held a n u m b er o f offices in the local AAUP chapter as well as th e State C onference and proved th at a librarian can g am er substantial votes for th e office o f AAUP chapter president. D uring th e two strikes th e union has m ounted since 1970, every librarian was on th e picket line and several had organizational responsibilities in the strike effort. Beyond the university, librarians’ professional products included not only publication and other scholarly activities b u t substantial service at the state and national levels, consultantships and other contributions to librarianship and o th er academic disciplines. b. A nother im portant activity was keeping li­ brarians’ issues, consistently and reasonably p re ­ sented, before th e university and th e AAUP, often with considerable docum entation on, for example, the library profession’s support for adequate com ­ pensation for librarians. 3. T he final critical factor was th e com ing to ­ gether o f strategy and luck in th e 1988 bargaining sessions. a. T here was th e usual presentation o f th e librar­ ian objectives m ade by a librarian at th e AAUP p re ­ bargaining negotiating issues sessions. b. O ne fortunate circum stance was th e sim ulta­ neous presentation o f th e second-class status con­ cerns o f o th er academ ic groups. These included continuing part-tim e teachers, who received only term -length contracts, and those faculty in disci­ plines, chiefly th e hum anities, whose pay level had fallen behind that o f high-m arket-value profes­ sional disciplines. C om bining th e appeals o f several groups for equity strengthened th e argum ents of all. c. And, finally, th e 1988 AAUP chief negotiator was highly skilled and both packaged and p re ­ sented issues well. H e was sym pathetic to the concerns o f second-class groups and mindful o f the danger th at underdog status for some presents to th e solidarity o f the collective bargaining unit. Also, he was backed by a top-notch team th at included a librarian with expertise in fringe benefit and retire­ m ent issues. Advantages, disadvantages, and implementation plans 1. O f th e possible disadvantages, the availability o f few er librarians on-site to staff library programs, particularly during Spring and Summ er, is o f the greatest concern. No m atter how m uch Oakland librarians believe th at service and scholarship ac­ tivities contribute to th e long-term quality o f li­ brary service, in th e im m ediate future everyone is concerned about th e adequacy o f day-to-day sup­ p o rt for ongoing library programs. To address this problem in both th e library and th e classroom, th e contract allows “displacem ent scheduling” o f librarians or teaching faculty. This option makes it possible for the library adm inistra­ tion to schedule a few o f the library faculty m em ­ bers in Spring and Summ er, with eith er Fall or W inter term off-site, and thus cover th e m onths outside the norm al academic year. H iring o f part- tim e or tem porary library faculty or scheduling cu rren t faculty for a Spring or Sum m er term with added com pensation are also options. W ith this selection o f options, th e library adm inistration currently plans librarian scheduling balanced over th e full-year calendar with staffing close to w hat we now have. M o st c le ric a l-te c h n ic a l s ta f f m e m b e rs at Oakland are directly supervised by administrative professionals, and th e im pact o f shifts in librarian schedules is, therefore, m oderated. In any case, all librarian functions are covered by librarians over th e twelve months o f th e year with only two differ­ en t librarians holding any one assignm ent in most cases. 2. T here is still one hurdle which librarians have th at o th er faculty do not: th e faculty agreem ent provides for a study com m ittee which will recom ­ m end to th e university “th e obligations and stan­ dards for scholarly productivity on th e p art o f the library faculty resulting from this change in sched­ ule.” T he com m ittee, which recently began its 9 7 8 1 C&RL News deliberations, is com posed o f th e associate provost, a m em ber o f th e teaching faculty, a full professor from th e library, th e librarian who is chair o f the Library C om m ittee on A ppointm ent and P rom o­ tion (LCAP) and th e dean o f th e library, ex officio. Prior to th e form ation o f th e com m ittee, library faculty m em bers discussed th eir views and plans for th e newly available release tim e in o rd er to be able to p resen t th e ir position to th e com m ittee rath e r than wait for th e com m ittee’s decisions to be im posed. T he LCAP has canvassed librarians to determ ine th e ir plans for th e off-site term and will make this inform ation available to th e study com ­ m ittee if it is requested. LCAP also is reviewing cu rren t scholarship cri­ teria for reem ploym ent, te n u re and prom otion o f librarians. H eretofore, scholarship criteria have b een difficult for librarians on twelve- and ten- m onth contracts to m eet, so it is im portant not to assum e they n eed to be m ore stringent on the new schedule. However, th e re are aspects o f cu rren t criteria and procedures th a t n eed reevaluation. O ne example is elim ination o f th e possibility o f te n u re at th e level o f assistant professor, which currently is a contractual option for librarians and nurses. 3. An obvious advantage o f th e new schedule is th e additional release tim e for librarians to grow professionally and th e consequent enrichm ent o f library program s. After librarians w ere aw arded faculty status in 1970, th eir service to th e university and to th e O akland C h ap ter o f th e AAUP increased and dramatically fu rth ered th e integration o f the library and its faculty with th e university. T h e lite ra tu re on organizational excellence em phasizes th e value o f professional growth. T he opportunity, for example, for librarians to read and do studies in th eir job assignm ent subjects (refer­ ence, cataloging) has an obvious and d irect advan­ tage for library program s. Since research is an essential business o f academ ic libraries, it is also reasonable to expect th a t librarian research in subject disciplines will support excellence in library service. Librarians who do w hat th eir clientele do have an opportunity to achieve not only th e ir own research goals b u t to gain a stronger perspective on subject collections and o th er needs o f library re ­ searchers. Conclusion T he change to an eight-m onth schedule for li­ brarians at O akland University was intim ately in­ volved w ith th e 1971 ACRL Standards and collec­ tive bargaining. In achieving this long-term objec­ tive, however, O akland librarians w ere m ore com ­ m itted to librarian working conditions in relation to excellence in library program s and to librarians’ professional growth than to faculty status as a con­ cept. Nevertheless, almost two decades o f faculty status as th e goal o f th e profession and th e fact that faculty status standards are familiar to teaching faculty colleagues gave this option an edge th at no set o f locally-devised working conditions could m atch, and no o th e r goal was considered seriously. Regarding collective bargaining as a route for librarians, Oakland librarians can speak from a single experience only. T he literature generally indicates th a t collective bargaining is not necessar­ ily a strong factor in im proving librarian working conditions. At Oakland, however, it supplied a clear process for presenting issues and kept th em open and negotiable in a way th a t m ore traditional envi­ ronm ents probably would not; thus collective b a r­ gaining fit at least one place and tim e. In sum, librarians at Oakland University agree th a t w hat they have achieved is not a piece of perfection b u t som ething, at last, th a t affords them an equal opportunity to pursue professional goals. T he rest is up to each librarian. ■ ■ ACRL/BIS Midwinter Forum Building on th e th em e o f its successful 1990 M idw inter Forum , th e ACRL/BIS C ontinuing E ducation C om m ittee announces its second annual M idw inter Forum , “Partnerships: The Key to Literacy?” T he forum, which will take place on Sunday, January 13,1991, will feature th ree speakers addressing needs assessment, curriculum planning, and teach er training as prerequisites for forming partnerships betw een librarians and instructors. At th e conclusion of th e speakers’ rem arks, th e audience will be invited to participate in th e discussion. C heck your M idw inter C onference program for fu r­ th e r details concerning th e forum ’s tim e and lo­ cation. Please join us with your questions and opinions on this tim ely topic. Background reading on th e topic can be found in th e following: Beverly T. W atkins, “Schools and Colleges Seen Failing to F o rm Close P artn ersh ip s,” C hronicle o f H ig h er E d u ca tio n 35, n o .27 (M arch 15, 1989): A l, A15. Beverly T. W atkins, “O n California State U. Cam puses, Everyone Is Responsible for E d u ­ cating T eachers,” Chronicle o f H igher Educa­ tion 36, no.8 (O ctober 25, 1989): A13-15. B arbara B. M oran, “Library/Classroom P art­ nerships for th e 1990’s,” C & R L News 51 (June 1990): 511-14. D.J. Smith, “An Exam ination o f H igher E d u ­ cation: A View from th e College Library, ’’Jour­ nal o f Academic Librarianship 15 (July 1989): 140-46.