academic freedom or deadwood: is tenure appropriate for academic law librarians?

44
Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians? SEAALL Annual Meeting March 26, 2004

Upload: celine

Post on 16-Jan-2016

42 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?. SEAALL Annual Meeting March 26, 2004. So what if I skip a program to see a game. That’s what being tenured is all about!. Hi Grandma & Grandpa. We can’t wait to see you. What did you bring for us?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure

Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

SEAALL Annual Meeting

March 26, 2004

Page 2: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

So what if I skip a program to see a

game. That’s what being tenured is all

about!

Page 3: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Hi Grandma & Grandpa. We can’t wait to

see you. What did you bring

for us?

Page 4: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Millie’s Diner2603 E Main St

Phone: (804) 643-5512

Page 5: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Three Questions I Plan to Cover

• Are academic law librarians entitled to faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should academic law librarians want faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should law libraries and their directors support faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security) for nondirectors?

Page 6: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Frank’s warning label

• I’m no expert and at times I am ambivalent about where I stand on these issues

Should you really trust somebody who looks like this?

Page 7: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Another warning

• Research tends to document, not illuminate

• Most recent article: “Status and Tenure for Academic Law Librarians: A Survey” by Texas Tech law librarians– About 1/3 of nondirectors in

survey had faculty status with or without tenure

96 Law Library Journal 127-166

(2004)

Page 8: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

One more warning

• This is an emotional subject on which people tend to have strong feelings

• We anticipate—and welcome—a lively give and take with you this morning

Page 9: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Precise Definitions are Hard to Come By

• “[I]t is often recommended that librarians have academic or faculty status. Well, what is academic status? Is it synonymous with faculty status? Is it faculty status less certain benefits such as tenure, nine-month contracts, eligibility for sabbaticals? And what are the responsibilities of one possessing academic status? Is one expected to publish, serve on committees, or what?”

Dan Freehling, 73 LLJ 888

(1980)

Page 10: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Freehling concludes that:

• “[T]erms like ‘academic’ or ‘faculty status,’ as applied to librarians, may have meaning only as they are defined at a particular institution. So, if you see these terms used in a job for which you are applying or, indeed, if your present institution is using or contemplating using them, make sure you know exactly what they mean.” (emphasis added)

Page 11: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

ACRL Definition of Tenure

• “[A]n institutional commitment to permanent and continuous employment to be terminated only for adequate cause (for example, incompetence; moral turpitude, retirement for reasons of age, mental or physical disability; bona fide financial exigency) and only after due process.”

– ACRL Model Statement of Criteria & Procedures for Appointment, Promotion in Academic Rank, & Tenure for College & University Librarians

Page 12: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Three Questions I Plan to Cover

• Are academic law librarians entitled to faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should academic law librarians want faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should law libraries and their directors support faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security) for nondirectors?

Page 13: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Academic Freedom• The usual argument for tenure is that it promotes

academic freedom and that faculty without it face excessive pressure to avoid risky, innovative, or controversial subjects in their research and teaching

• “Tenure provides both a shield against political pressures and the security to try out risky or controversial areas”– Jeffrey A. Miron, The Economics of the Tenure System, at

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Mirontenure.html (Sept. 24, 2001))

Page 14: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Do librarians need academic freedom?

• That is, do librarians engage in activities in which having a guarantee of academic freedom is important?

• Consider these situations:– Acquisitions– Budget cuts– Routing– Print vs. electronic

resources

Page 15: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Is the need for protection real?

• “Having tenure, I don’t have to agree that the library should do what is really either not possible nor wise just because some dean or member of the faculty thinks the library should perform in a certain way.”

• For example:

Janet Tracy, Professor of Research & Library Services/Law Librarian, Fordham Law School

Page 16: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Tracy’s examples

• I told the Dean that the library did not have the resources or space to run an independent archive for papers and manuscripts; I also told him that he would be unwise to accept a set of papers which the library could not keep secure.

• I told a faculty member that the faculty would not be allowed to vote on the retention of librarians on my staff.

MORE

Page 17: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

• I told a faculty member that the library did not have the resources to run a staff of student research assistants for the faculty with a staff of 3.5 reference librarians for a student body of 1300+ and a full-time faculty of 65+.

• I told a faculty member that he must pass on routed materials to untenured faculty who came after him on the routing list or I would change his routing status to last on the list.

Page 18: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Participation in Educational Mission

79 Law Library Journal 831-32

(1987)

AALL Resolution on

Faculty or Academic

Status

Page 19: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

ACRL Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College & Univ. Librarianshttp://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/jointstatementfaculty.htm

Page 20: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

And most important from the Joint Statement . . .

• “Neither administrative responsibilities nor professional degrees, titles, or skills, per se, qualify members of the academic community for faculty status. The function of the librarian as participant in the processes of teaching and research is the essential criterion of faculty status.” (emphasis added)

Page 21: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

CONCLUSION TO QUESTION 1: Given the need for academic freedom and the librarian’s significant and essential contribution to the educational mission of the law school, librarians are entitled to faculty status with tenure

Page 22: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Three Questions I Plan to Cover

• Are academic law librarians entitled to faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should academic law librarians want faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should law libraries and their directors support faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security) for nondirectors?

Page 23: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

How do we answer this question?

• By asking: do the benefits outweigh the costs?

• Or, what does faculty status with tenure provide that the alternative—employment at will or on an annual contract—does not?

Page 24: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

What’s at stake: JOB SECURITY

Drat those tenured

professors!

Page 25: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

What’s at stake: JOB SECURITY

Page 26: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?
Page 27: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

What’s at stake: FULL FACULTY RIGHTS

• “Faculty status entails for librarians the same rights and responsibilities as for other members of the faculty. They should have corresponding entitlement to rank, promotion, tenure, compensation, leaves, and research funds.”– From ACRL Joint

Statement on Faculty Status

• “[S]ince faculty or academic status entails for law librarians rights and responsibilities similar to those of other members of the faculty, they should have proportional entitlement to promotion, compensation, leaves, and travel funds. . . .”– From AALL Resolution on

Faculty or Academic Status

Page 28: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

What might this mean for librarians with faculty status? They ought to

have equal opportunity for . . .

• Tenure or comparable form of job security

• Promotion through peer review

• faculty governance rights such as attending faculty meetings, voting, serving on committees & faculty senate, etc.

MORE

Page 29: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

more faculty rights . . .• sabbatical and research leaves

• research support, including on-the-job release time

• professional development support

• faculty-only institutional benefits (e.g., tuition remission)

• higher compensation

Page 30: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Is faculty status for librarians a “hollow” victory

• Unfortunately, librarians are not always accorded full faculty benefits even when given tenure-track faculty positions

• Particularly a problem when this failure endangers their ability to meet the “responsibilities” side of the faculty status equation

Page 31: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Findings of Benedict Study• Study determined that the librarians who were

most likely to be unhappy with their faculty status were those without adequate support

• CONCLUSION: “[L]ibrarians who are expected to research, publish, participate in college or university governance, and take active roles in professional organizations must be allotted adequate time and other resources to meet these professional requirements.” – Marjorie A. Benedict, Librarians’ Satisfaction with

Faculty Status, 52 Coll. & Res. Libr. 538, 547 (1991)

Page 32: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

What’s at stake:STATURE & IMAGE

VS.

Page 33: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Freehling’s comment on status

Page 34: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Increased stature lets librarians do a better job because . . .

• they are taken more seriously by faculty and students

• feeling of self-worth increases morale and consequently their desire to contribute further to the educational process

Page 35: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

CONCLUSION to Question 2:

Given the benefits of job security, faculty rights, and increased stature and image, librarians should want faculty status with tenure

Page 36: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Three Questions I Plan to Cover

• Are academic law librarians entitled to faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should academic law librarians want faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security)?

• Should law libraries and their directors support faculty status with tenure (or a comparable form of job security) for nondirectors?

Page 37: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Are tenured faculty “deadwood?”

• “There is little doubt that tenure sometimes protects the incompetent. . . . But don’t punish everyone for the inadequacies of a small percentage.”– Fred Hill & Robert

Hauptman, Faculty Status for Librarians? A Response, 55 C&RL News 26 (1994)

Page 38: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Is post tenure performance really a problem?”

• For most, faculty status and tenure imparts a “buy-in” to the importance of the educational mission that combats any tendency to slack off

• It is “more than job,” it’s a lifetime commitment Misunderstanding a voicemail

from the dean, Prof. Fogelfroe organizes his college’s first Post

Tenure Revue.

Page 39: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Trend toward less tenure-track positions

• “[T]he number of non-tenure-track professors who work full time almost doubled between 1975 and 1995, while the number of full-time professors on the tenure track fell by 12 per cent.”– Robin Wilson, Contracts Replace the Tenure

System for a Growing Number of Professors, Chron. Higher Educ., June 12, 1998, at A12 (reporting data analyzed by Amer. Ass’n of Univ. Professors)

Page 40: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Why Support Librarian Tenure? RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

What can be used to attract new membersof the profession?

Page 41: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

• “Colleges and universities, including law schools, . . . have to compete not only with each other but also with private industry to hire highly educated and highly skilled people. Few highly qualified thirty-somethings will accept the low pay and low status of a non-tenure-track contract position, with its lack of security and academic freedom.” – Marina Angel, The Glass Ceiling for Women

in Legal Education, 50 J. Legal Educ. 1, 15 (2000) (emphasis added).

Page 42: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

• “The correct view of the tenure contract is that universities get high-priced talent at a low monetary price; they pay instead by providing job security.” – Jeffrey A. Miron, The Economics of the

Tenure System, at http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Mirontenure.html (Sept. 24, 2001).

Page 43: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

Why Support Librarian Tenure?BETTER EVALUATION

• “The critical advantage of the tenure system is that it raises the cost of being lax in renewal decisions: if you fail to fire marginal candidates, you are stuck with them forever. Thus, under the tenure system, both faculty and university administrations impose a real hurdle for earning tenure, rather than routinely concluding that ‘there’s no great harm in keeping Professor X for just a few more years.’” – Jeffrey A. Miron, The Economics of the Tenure

System, at http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Mirontenure.html (Sept. 24, 2001).

Page 44: Academic Freedom or Deadwood: Is Tenure Appropriate for Academic Law Librarians?

CONCLUSION TO Question 3: Given that most tenured faculty do not become deadwood, that tenure can help recruitment in a highly competitive environment, and that tenure forces more rigorous evaluation to avoid bad decisions that can last a lifetime, libraries and directors should support tenure for librarians