ALUW Winter Quarter Meeting: Thursday, February 10, 2005

Executive Board Members Present:  Cass Hartnett (President), Carole Svensson (Vice President/President Elect), Mark Szarko (Secretary), Jennifer Ward (Senior Trustee/Treasurer), and Eileen Llona (Junior Trustee)

Approximate Headcount:  58

The meeting was called to order by ALUW president Cass Hartnett at 3:15.  A business meeting preceded the program.

Winter Quarter Business Meeting

The minutes from the fall quarter meeting were read and approved.

Cass distributed a copy of the American Association of University Professors' State of the Faculty at the University of Washington report.  Faculty salaries received a “D.”  The complete report can be read online at: http://depts.washington.edu/uwaaup/state%202004.pdf.  

Legislative Affairs Report (Cass Hartnett for Andrew Johnson)
A scheduling conflict prevented Andrew Johnson from attending the meeting, so he submitted a written report instead:

At this time there is really very little to report of substance.  There have been two briefings by the University's Director of State Relations, Randy Hodgins.  At the first, Mr. Hodgins stated that there was a lot of interest in matters pertaining to higher education in Olympia, unlike previous years when there was little expressed interest.  The Office of State Relations maintains its own Web page, at http://www.washington.edu/about/staterel/, on which you can see the University of Washington's legislative priorities for this session.  The Locke proposed budget did not cut anything the University had asked for.  It funds raises for classified staff salaries required by contracts and also similar ones for persons not covered by contracts.  There is no additional funding for more places for students.  A range of tuition increases is provided for.  The Locke budget does not fully fund tuition increases for at-need students.  The first/next economic revenue forecast will not be out until March 17^th.  While in the past that has been the date the legislature has finally settled down to serious budget-writing, in a departure from normal practice the new governor has announced that she will not even issue a proposed budget until that forecast is in.  While the forecast is expected to be up significantly from what had been predicted, the late issuance of a proposed budget by Ms. Gregoire could slow down the time it takes to get an approved budget.  In addition, the fact that projected revenues are up will make it more difficult to raise taxes and will, in one sense, slow down the budget-writing process since there will actually be some money to do something with.

The Locke capital budget request is a disaster for the university, funding only 50% of the projects asked for.  The same treatment was accorded other institutions of higher education in the state.

One of the emerging issues is the appearance of lower division courses at branch campuses of the two universities.  The community colleges see this as a threat to their usual role of providing education for people planning on moving on to the four-year institutions or the universities.

Shortly after the first meeting the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot keep collected estate taxes.  The net effect for the present biennium will be a reduction in expected revenues by $431,000,000.  It has been announced that with the tobacco suit settlement money a new fund, called the Life Sciences Discovery Fund, will be created.  It is expected that both federal and private monies will also be added to this fund.  It will be a trust fund that will provide support for promising life-sciences research.  Over the next ten years the fund is expected to grow to over $1 billion.

A bill has been introduced in Olympia requiring places such as the U. to use high-performance green standards in the construction of all new buildings.  There is a report on lower division courses at the state's four branch campuses.  The Higher Education Coordinating Board issued a report favoring lower division courses at these institutions and recommending that UW Tacoma admit UW freshmen beginning in 2007.  The admittance of freshmen to UW Bothell would be delayed a year.

It is suggested that ALUW members who are interested in keeping up with legislative matters regularly visit the Web site named above to stay abreast of current developments.

The legislative committee needs 2 more members.  Because Andrew will be retiring soon, it will also need a chair.  Cass will be looking for volunteers in the weeks ahead.

Treasurer's Report (Jennifer Ward)

                                                            OPERATING FUND             LEGISLATIVE FUND

Beginning Balance                                 $2087.47                                             $2473.30

Income

  Interest Earned                                   $0.00                                                   $5.40

  Fund Contributions                             $515.00                                               $1045.00

      (35 people thus far)

Expenses

  Autumn meeting expenses                   $158.39

  Copying of dues notices                      $27.74

  Retainer for Lobbyist                                                                          1,000.00         

  Supplies for Executive Board files       $11.75

  Winter meeting announcements           $15.27

Current Fund Balances                      $2389.32                                             $2523.70

Total  ALUW Treasury                     $4913.02

   (as of January 31, 2005)                                                                                                              

Our lobbyist, Steven Duncan has been retained for another year.  It was reiterated that anyone is welcome to pay dues or contribute to the legislative fund at any time.

Election Committee Volunteers (Cass Hartnett)

We need 3 volunteers for an elections committee.  The group will put together a slate of candidates for next year's ALUW.

Program:  Charles Chamberlin, Deputy Director of Libraries, on Libraries Salaries

Charles distributed the Librarian Compensation Program, a set of guidelines outlining policy for determining salaries.  The policy is not new, but the document does represent the first time it has been put into writing.  He emphasized that the Libraries does not always have control over all factors that affect salaries, particularly with regard to increases set by the University.  An effort is made to insure that the initial librarian appointment is fair and that standards are consistent across the Libraries.

Salary Increases

Charles distributed a document listing salary increases from 1985 to the present.  Most of the increases were tied to merit, a policy emphasized by former President McCormack.  When the legislature provides for salary increases, it usually doesn't specify how the money is to be spent (i.e., cost of living, merit, a certain percentage, etc).  The University decides this question before distributing the money across campus to different units.  Sometimes, each unit will have some flexibility with how a pool of money is to be spent.  For example, for a merit increase of 2%, a director could award an increase of 2.5% to an individual, although that would mean that someone else would receive only 1.5%.  Betsy Wilson has been pushing for this kind of flexibility for each unit, but for the most part the terms of these salary increases have been set by the University (in 2004, for example, the increase was set at either 2% or no increase).

On average, salary increases for promotion have been 7.5%.  For reappointment and granting of permanent or continuing status, a smaller amount is usually awarded as well.  However, neither amount is guaranteed.

Some positions may provide administrative stipends.  If this funding is known in advance, that information will be included in the job ad.

Librarians who are asked to take on acting responsibilities are given extra money.  The amount is determined on a case by case basis.

The Libraries may respond to a competitive offer from another institution extended to a current UW librarian by dipping into University funds, and has done so in the past.  The Libraries may also decline to match such offers.

Planning and Budgeting Peer Comparisons

http://www.washington.edu/admin/factbook/OisAcrobat/peers.html

The University of Washington uses two peer groups:  the Higher Education Coordinating Board Peer Group (a/k/a HEC Board Peer Group) and the Office of Financial Management Peer Group (a/k/a OFM Peer Group).  Neither represents a completely accurate picture or fair comparison, since neither list takes other mitigating factors into account (such as cost of living for each area).  Nevertheless, the University as a whole tries to keep salaries in the 75^th percentile within these rankings.

The current 75^th percentile rank for librarians in the HEC Board Comparison Group is $59,566.  Since the average salary for the 94 UW librarians included in this survey is $58,113, that puts us currently 2.5% below the 75^th percentile.  The salary comparisons for librarians do not include the director, law librarians, or health sciences.  ARL does not include separate campuses such as Bothell and Tacoma for statistical purposes, so they are not included, either.

Faculty salaries as a whole are 9.5% below the 75^th percentile (although there are some wide variations to this trend, depending both on faculty rank and department).

It was not clear whether having faculty status had any impact on the salaries at our ARL peer institutions.

Comparisons with Other Librarians

Health sciences

Health sciences, as a group, are behind their peers (5.10% below the 75^th percentile).

Law librarians

No information was available.

Local public libraries

Based on the numbers provided to Charles from the King County Library System and the Seattle Public Library, it would appear that the average salary for UW librarians in 2005 is higher:

King County Public Library:                  $57,964

Seattle Public Library:               $57,158 (l)

UW Libraries:                                       $58,113

(l) Labor negotiations not complete.  COLA, effective December 29, 2004, yet to be decided.

However, several people expressed skepticism about these numbers, since it was not clear if they included all FTE and administrative salaries.  Starting salaries for both institutions were also not available.

Community college libraries

These numbers were not available.  It was pointed out that community college librarians do not work a 12-month year, but if their starting salaries were extended to reflect that, they would earn considerably more than a starting librarian at the University of Washington.  Community college librarians have not had a salary increase for the past few years.

Potential Next Steps

The University continues to talk with Olympia about reaching the 75^th percentile.  In the latest round of budget negotiations, the UW asked for a 2% salary increase for faculty and staff.  The University also has the option of adding local funds to augment any amount that the legislature allocates for salary increases.  As a group, librarians must link their salaries to those of the faculty's, which makes the role of ALUW's lobbyist absolutely crucial.

Given the recent turnover in upper level University administration, it was suggested that we need to make sure that new administrators are aware of the issue of librarians' salaries.  The group was assured that the issue has been raised with all the new members of the current administration.  Other options include inviting new members, such as the provost, to an ALUW meeting (which has been done in the past).

Work needs to be done internally to determine the salary discrepancy problems that need to be addressed.  Perhaps current vacant positions could be cannibalized to make up some gaps.  Other institutions have chosen different ways of reallocating funds (SPL, for example, pays its librarians more than other comparable public libraries, but spends considerably less on its collections).

Other Issues

(The following came out of questions either asked anonymously via the ALUW Web site before the meeting or from the floor)

There is a general assumption that UW librarians have signed up for a job that includes longer hours than just 8 to 5, so there isn't any way to compensate responsibilities such as attending conferences on weekends.  Comparisons with faculty on this matter aren't entirely accurate, either, since their time is not as strictly regimented as ours.  It was pointed out that some librarians at other institutions must use vacation time to attend conferences.

Paid leave and 6-week grants are available for special projects.

It was suggested that the Libraries look into paying for librarian membership in professional organizations.

A question was raised about the faculty class action lawsuit currently pending.  Librarians are not party to this suit (for more information on this matter, please see the Minutes for the 2004 Fall Quarter meeting).

Reducing the work week to 35 hours while maintaining a 40-hour salary is not on the table.

Compression is a very serious problem.  Faculty complain about the “faculty loyalty penalty,” and the same term could just as easily be applied to librarians.  On average, individuals in academia who work for one institution are very likely to earn much less than those who move around.

Faculty status and/or collective bargaining rights are two issues that ALUW should address.  At a certain level, legislative action will be required to solve some of the salary problem.

Managers are responsible for setting salaries when a new librarian is hired.  Individuals who feel that their situation is unfair should feel free to talk to Charles about it.

Endowed positions might be one way to address salary discrepancies (for example, if the Director's position was funded through an endowment, perhaps the funds normally allocated for that job could be re-allocated elsewhere).

Perhaps there are other, non-monetary ways to reward service.

Action Items:

Susan Kane and Thom Deardorff offered to redo the ARL rankings based on cost of living.

Cass Hartnett will be soliciting volunteers to serve on the legislative and elections committees.

The next ALUW meeting is scheduled for April 14, from 3 to 5 p.m. in OUGL 220. (Secretary's Note: This meeting time was later changed to April 13, from 1:15 to 3:15 in OUGL 220)

--Submitted by Mark Szarko, February 15, 2005.