2003
CAUT LIBRARIANS CONFERENCE ACADEMIC STATUS: UNDER-VALUED? UNDER THREAT?
HALIFAX, OCTOBER 2003
Faculty status for librarians has been an emotionally, intellectually and politically charged issue for decades. Discussion among librarians about whether or not they should have academic status (they should) has largely subsided; however, discussion with administrators on the topic is far from over.
Academic librarians from all ten provinces gathered in Halifax in October to attend the 2003 CAUT Librarians Conference and discuss the conference theme: Academic Status: Under-valued? Under Threat? It quickly became apparent that librarians' experiences with gaining, keeping and using faculty status differ greatly from institution to institution. At one end of the spectrum are institutions such as the University of Prince Edward Island, where the administration is adamant that librarians are not, and never will be, faculty - despite the certification orders to the contrary (sound familiar?). At the other end of the spectrum are institutions such as York University, where librarians and professors worked together from the beginning to form the union and negotiate the first collective agreement.
What 'faculty status' means for librarians in different institutions varies. If librarians are unionized and in the same bargaining association as professors, they have similar contract provisions. For example, most librarians receive similar leaves, have similar rank structures, and similar appointment, review and tenure (or continuing appointment) procedures. Librarians tend to differ most from professors in two areas. One is salaries: most Canadian librarians are not on the same salary grids as their professorial colleagues. A very few universities, such as Mount Allison, St. Francis Xavier and Trent, use the same salary scales, although the floor and ceiling of the grids differ somewhat at Trent. The other area of difference is research and scholarly activity. At a minority of Canadian institutions, librarians are not required to be involved in either research or scholarly activity.
Even at institutions that do confer faculty status on librarians, the extent to which librarians can effectively take full advantage of their contractual rights varies greatly. There is a difference between what is on paper and what actually happens, and while librarians may have the same right as professors to apply for sabbatical leave, for example, they may be strongly discouraged from doing so by their colleagues (who will have to pick up the slack if the sabbaticant is not replaced), their institutional culture (in which librarians simply do not take sabbaticals), or their University Librarian (who may want librarians in the library at all times to deliver library services).
The presentations and topics for discussion varied widely from overviews of academic status to specific situations in universities. Keynote speaker Janet Swan Hill, Professor and Associate Director for Technical Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, gave an address whimsically titled "Constant Vigilance, Babelfish and Foot Surgery: Perspectives on Faculty Status and Tenure for Academic Librarians." She warned that while the benefits of having a faculty tenure system for librarians are compelling - academic freedom, recruitment and retention, and "quality assurance," to name a few - librarians operating under such a system must be wary of translating tenure structures for faculty directly into librarianese. Librarians need faculty status structures that are tailor-made.
Most interesting were the 'reports from the hot zones.' Librarians at Wilfred Laurier University are respected by the administration and enjoy near-equality in academic status with their professorial colleagues. At other universities librarians are struggling. At McGill their tenure system has been removed and at the University of Waterloo the longstanding struggle continues for librarians to receive academic status.
The overwhelming message from this conference is "we are not alone." Using academic status can be, has been and is being done at Acadia and other institutions regionally. The situations in which librarians find themselves locally are shared by others across the Atlantic Region and Canada. Whilst librarians may not enjoy the status that librarians enjoy at Mount Allison, we are not far behind and aim to get there.
Erin Patterson and Ann Smith