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  At the encouragement of Library Staff Council I am using this blog to address issues and concerns you might have about the current challenges faced by the college and the Libraries.
  
  I want to dispel rumors and misinformation quickly as well as provide updates regarding our plans as soon as I can.
  
  I will do my best to do that in this blog, but obviously I won't be able to comment on direct or indirect questions about staffing.
  
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Today I received the following question via Bright Ideas:

Is there a target dollar amount that you need to cut from Collections Services staff in order to reach the 6.25% overall reduction requested by the President last Spring?

Here is my response:

In the spring the college adopted a budget reduction strategy that reduces the Libraries budget by 12.4% over three years. That strategy did include savings from consolidation, but the exact amount to be achieved through staff reductions still has to be determined. Until we have a clear idea of how we will consolidate technical services in the valley, and what the costs going forward will be, we will not know what positions will be affected.

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Use the Leave a Reply in the Comment section below either to comment on this post or to ask a follow-up question or raise another issue of concern to you.

You will need to provide your name and e-mail address. If you wish to remain anonymous then use the Bright Ideas link to the right.

All comments are moderated, so they will not appear until I have had a chance to review and reply.

Thanks.

Chris

At the LSC update meeting today (6/10/09) a number of questions came up which Lou Bouley posted as a comment to What is your question…#2, entry.

Below are the questions and my responses:

Are there savings for the library with less students workers in Josten?  Isn’t it federal money?

Under the plan for having Josten open at reduced hours and not open in the summer there will be savings in the student budgets of $25,500, which is about half of what was allocated in this fiscal year.  My understanding is that term time student money is partially funded from federal money;  partially is the key word here. There is enough non-federal money in term-time allocations to permit the college flexibility in its budget allocations.  I caution that this is not “gospel”, but rather simply how I understand it.  I would need to seek clarification from College Hall for a definitive word on this.

Where will Marlene be working in the summer of 2010?  If she’s in Josten, won’t that negate some utilities savings?
Currently we expect Marlene will work in Josten during the summer.  This will indeed mean that savings in utilities will not be gained, but these were never directly factored into the savings that were calculated for any scenario regarding Josten.

I couldn’t remember where the $200,000 is being saved in next year’s budget.  (Is that what the $200,000 even referred to?)  I know the bindery budget saved $13,000.  Where are are the other savings.
I am not sure where the $200,000 number came from, but I suspect that you are remembering it in the context of the proposed consolidation of Josten into Neilson.  That was about the amount that would have been saved.

For next year’s budget the savings are found in the elimination of the Acquisitions Associate upon retirement (Jean’s position), the savings attributed to not increasing the acquisitions budget, the reduction of the binding budget ($17,000 not $13,000), and the staffing reductions in Josten. I can not give a precise figure of the savings due to the phasing of staff reductions in Josten, but overall I believe the amount saved is over $300,000.

Will we be getting reappointment letters soon?

Update: 6/11/09

As I indicated in an e-mail today to all staff, I will not be issuing a salary letter this year as there is a salary freeze in effect for the coming year.

A word about these annual letters.  Up to this year, I have sent the letters out under the guidance of the college’s Human Resources department to inform staff of your salaries for the coming fiscal year.  These letters are not, however, “reappointment” letters as we do not have term appointments.

Chris

While I have not yet been told the schedule for the issuing of the letters, I expect that I will be asked to issue them soon.  Last year they were issued by this time, so I can understand why you are asking.  I would not, however, read anything into the delay.  I will find out what the plan is and let you  know via an update here.

Chris

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Use the Leave a Reply in the Comment section below to ask your question or raise an issue of concern to you.

You will need to provide your name and e-mail address. If you wish to remain anonymous then use the Bright Ideas link to the right.

All comments are moderated, so they will not appear until I have had a chance to review and reply.

Thanks.

Chris