Chapter 5
Budget Cut
Friday morning, late
“John, come by after the meeting.” Vice President for Finance
Roger Thompson had called me early this morning.
“Sure thing, see you then.” I was feeling so upbeat at the time
that I didn’t catch on. I should have known something was up; he
never wastes time on chit chat. He must have been involved in all the
difficult decisions already made. He always was.
As everyone left the meeting room, I managed to exchange a few
commiserative remarks with others; then went up one flight to Roger's
office. He was already there. Of course no one at the meeting had
wanted to talk to him.
When these kinds of things happen, most are scared to hear the final
numbers. Not me, I like to get started and not waste time complaining
or worrying.
We sat down and had a sip of hot coffee before saying anything.
Sometimes I wonder if organizations run on coffee. Relaxed for a
moment, I observed grace in motion through the window behind him as
several vultures rode the wind above a distant hill.
“Sorry about this, John,” Roger’s voice was low, serious. I
knew he meant it. He’s the only vice president who gets how vital
the role of the library is for the success of every student, now and
in the future. I kept him informed of technology advances as they
came along and other budgetary needs and he went to the president
often as our advocate.
I wondered what Roger knew about Digital World. I had some homework
to do. It’s regrettable that unlike Roger and Charles Hubbard, many
young administrators and professors, even a few of the older faculty
and some experienced administrators are beginning to think that
information available on the Internet is all the content we need.
Even if it came about that sometime in the future all recorded
knowledge stored in academic libraries is also available at the click
of a mouse, there could be problems. How does one know what’s
authentic? Which sources can be trusted to be accurate? Who’s
weeding out the disinformation? Blind trust of unknown sources is
always risky. Jumping on that bandwagon could be short-sighted or
worse. I think it would be something like going down the rabbit hole.
First, all the services and resources that are now in university
libraries cannot be freely accessed on the Internet.
Second, most of those services and resources are not now, and might
never be, free or available at a low cost.
Third, an assumption that the Internet is equal to, or even
comparable to, the various services and resources in a contemporary
university library is false.
What does my experience and judgment matter to a politician? Maybe
not much, as they are always pushed and pulled by bigger forces. With
so many bills to consider; I doubt they have time to think about all
possible repercussions of every allocation before they have to vote
on measures that will spend the people’s money. And sometimes the
line between important or not important and right or wrong can seem
blurred.
Now I had to pay attention.
“The equivalent of four staff positions will have to be cut from
the library.” Roger laid out our budget cut. “You may re-organize
responsibilities, shift people between sections and figure out the
best way to make this happen with the least damage to any of the
library's vital functions.” He smiled a little.
“Four is a lot, but this flexibility will help a great deal,” I
grinned; he knew I was OK with it.
I was disappointed it was so many staff positions but thankful it
didn’t include any professional librarian positions. That would
have disorganized everyone even more. I realized some of the
professionals might have to cope with new and different
responsibilities due to loss of staff. And everyone would have some
revision of work schedules. It was a large and serious matter, but
the library has been through changes before, and we’ll figure out
how to make the best of it.
“Thanks for letting me know, Roger. Guess I better get back and
figure out how to make it work.”
“There
is one other thing we need to discuss, John.” Uh oh, this might be
the hard part. I sat up a little straighter as he went on.
“We
have already been under tremendous pressure from members of the state
legislature and the governor’s office. They’re worried about
rising costs of higher education in general, but right now seem to be
concentrating on the high cost of maintaining university libraries on
multiple campuses across the state. They see so many libraries as an
unnecessary duplication; particularly when much of the same
information is available from online resources like Digital World.
“I
will fully support you and the library on this issue.” I was
stunned; Roger didn’t stop.
“I
believe the loss of our library would result in an unrecoverable loss
of trust and credibility for this university. Students, parents,
faculty would wonder what it meant. Would other important areas of
the university also be lost? I am certain it would damage the
reputation of this university.
“The pressure on us is becoming intense and ugly. Dr. Beck and the
other university presidents are in a quandary about what to do; and
we have to address the issue ahead of the legislative budget cycle
for next year.” Now I was in shock.
“I
want you to think about and write up for me a list of all the
advantages and disadvantages of closing the university library and
then subscribing to the resources offered by Digital World.” He
took a deep breath, “I will go to bat for you and the library if
that becomes necessary. I need the best information you can give me.”
That was way too much to think about at this moment; but I was glad
to hear about it before I had to talk about it. I had plenty of ideas
about the kind of information he needed and it sounded like I would
have a little time to prepare. What a wild day so far.
“Roger, we’ll deal with the budget cuts right away. You know my
staff will work together to figure it out and make it work. I hope
some are wanting a change or leaving anyway, which would make it
easier for all.
“The Digital World situation is huge, but you know I prefer to be
prepared before trouble arrives.” I sent him a genuine
everything-will-work-out smile, “Thanks for being pro-active; it
saves us both time and energy.”
“OK, John, just let me know when we need to talk again. I'm sure
there will soon be many others who need to understand their own
financial situation.” We shook hands, he managed a slight smile and
I left promptly.
As I walked back to the library, I thought about the mandated budget
cut. Not my own decision, it would be a little easier to bring the
bad news to my staff. But I hated to have to do it. These kinds of
decisions where library staff members might at best have their job
description changed or at worst be let go, are difficult and
traumatic, sometimes requiring serious life choices. I worry that
some might be joining a growing number of unemployed university staff
members across the country.
Two rough meetings in one morning, I’m afraid the whole university
will be involved in the worst set of always-to-be-dreaded budget cuts
so far in my career. What will our state leaders finally decide? What
is our future? I know that many of my colleagues also worry about the
state of all educational institutions of early, middle and higher
learning.
And today I learned of a huge and specific threat, Digital World. I
wondered what that really meant.
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