Texas A & M librarians lose tenure rights

[jimbogumbo]

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/05/25/texas-am-librarians-lose-tenure-reorganization-plan

[mamselle]

Tenure allowed and encouraged one university librarian I know to write a book that made a major contribution to the performance iconography field.

Shutting down such options is truly, sadly, shortsighted.

M.

[lightning]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.

This serves as a dress rehearsal and a precedent for "re-organizing" the faculty.

[apl68]

I keep forgetting that librarians in some places have academic tenure status in the first place.  I was only a library assistant in my academic library days, and was essentially an at-will employee.  Today I'm a public library director, and still an at-will employee.

I wonder how common tenure status is for academic librarians?

[dismalist]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.
...

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.

I keep forgetting that librarians in some places have academic tenure status in the first place.  I was only a library assistant in my academic library days, and was essentially an at-will employee.  Today I'm a public library director, and still an at-will employee.

I wonder how common tenure status is for academic librarians?

I don't know either, but probably it doesn't matter much except to very risk averse people.

P.S.: I've never met a librarian who wasn't helpful and likeable.

[mamselle]

The one I knew was a music librarian with a Ph.D. and an MLS, both, and had been there for decades, at Ohio State.

It may depend on size and the robustness of the program.

M.

[jimbogumbo]

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.



I don't know either, but probably it doesn't matter much except to very risk averse people.

P.S.: I've never met a librarian who wasn't helpful and likeable.

dismalist replied to apl68 above. I think it matters much more now that there are so many academic library science programs, and in the current job market. It hasn't been good for quite some time.

[lightning]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.
...

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.

That would be very short-sighted on the librarians' part (the ones who decided to give up tenured/tenure-track status). If a Texan politician wants to control information, and have a hand in deciding what articles and books would be included or un-included in a collection, the first thing they do is to take away the librarians' governance over the collections. That is made easier for the politician(s) if the librarians don't have tenure.

Also, it sets a really bad precedent.

I can't believe the faculty and librarians are asleep on this.

[dismalist]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.
...

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.

That would be very short-sighted on the librarians' part (the ones who decided to give up tenured/tenure-track status). If a Texan politician wants to control information, and have a hand in deciding what articles and books would be included or un-included in a collection, the first thing they do is to take away the librarians' governance over the collections. That is made easier for the politician(s) if the librarians don't have tenure.

Also, it sets a really bad precedent.

I can't believe the faculty and librarians are asleep on this.

They are not asleep. They are merely following their own interests, not somebody else's.

[Wahoo Redux]

We live in the era in which our universities will be dismantled and reconfigured into something else. 

Who knows what that will be?

[Vkw10]

Had lunch with a librarian today and chatted about Texas A&M. Our librarians aren't faculty, so he gave up tenure at previous university when he came here as a trailing spouse.

He agrees that giving up tenure status so easily is a mistake, especially in the current climate. But he also pointed out that while some librarians enjoy research, others see it as interfering with their primary job and aren't comfortable having to do research. The MLS is considered terminal degree for librarians, so many librarians had just one Intro to Research Methods course. About half of MLS programs don't even have a thesis option, so librarians may be fantastic at literature reviews, but be uncomfortable designing research projects.

[lightning]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.
...

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.

That would be very short-sighted on the librarians' part (the ones who decided to give up tenured/tenure-track status). If a Texan politician wants to control information, and have a hand in deciding what articles and books would be included or un-included in a collection, the first thing they do is to take away the librarians' governance over the collections. That is made easier for the politician(s) if the librarians don't have tenure.

Also, it sets a really bad precedent.

I can't believe the faculty and librarians are asleep on this.

They are not asleep. They are merely following their own interests, not somebody else's.

Some people do have to learn the hard way.

[dismalist]

I can't believe that so many of them would give up tenure or their tenure track status so easily.
...

I observed the same, but concluded that tenure wasn't worth much to most librarians.

That would be very short-sighted on the librarians' part (the ones who decided to give up tenured/tenure-track status). If a Texan politician wants to control information, and have a hand in deciding what articles and books would be included or un-included in a collection, the first thing they do is to take away the librarians' governance over the collections. That is made easier for the politician(s) if the librarians don't have tenure.

Also, it sets a really bad precedent.

I can't believe the faculty and librarians are asleep on this.

They are not asleep. They are merely following their own interests, not somebody else's.

Some people do have to learn the hard way.

Completely agreed! Let's find out who agrees with what. Nothing seems hard in this case -- to those involved.

[apl68]

Had lunch with a librarian today and chatted about Texas A&M. Our librarians aren't faculty, so he gave up tenure at previous university when he came here as a trailing spouse.

He agrees that giving up tenure status so easily is a mistake, especially in the current climate. But he also pointed out that while some librarians enjoy research, others see it as interfering with their primary job and aren't comfortable having to do research. The MLS is considered terminal degree for librarians, so many librarians had just one Intro to Research Methods course. About half of MLS programs don't even have a thesis option, so librarians may be fantastic at literature reviews, but be uncomfortable designing research projects.

That sounds like a lot of MLS students I knew while getting my degree, all right.  I remember that at the R1 library where I worked library staff members were generally regarded by faculty as the hired help, and most staffers seemed to be okay with that.  A few of the higher-ranking professional librarians weren't.  Most of them had earned an MA or even terminal degree in some field before becoming a librarian.  I don't know whether they had tenure as librarians, or could have gotten it.  They were generally good at their jobs, and the university presumably wouldn't want to have to replace one of them unnecessarily, so their jobs would probably have been pretty secure without tenure.  It was a private university, though.

[sonoamused]

I was fortunate enough to land at a university and earn tenure as a librarian (after earning a second graduage degree); and being in an school with tenured librarians is vastly different and better then the places I worked before.    Ironically, one of my colleagues left here and eventually ended up at Texas A&M ; and while they had the chance to move over into a "tenure line" with a dept, the only way to do it was to end up being mostly academic faculty and spend little time at their actual job.   I suspect the next step is retirement.

needless to say, morale in the libraries there is low, attritrion is high, and hiring is aleady proving difficult.