Guest Post: Show solidarity with library workers under attack at St. Cloud State University

The following is a guest contribution from a Union Library Workers blog reader:

Since the previous post on August 30, St. Cloud State University has decided to move forward with the retrenchment of eight faculty, including four of the university’s remaining 12 faculty librarians. Official letters have been distributed to the faculty being laid off in the library and in the Philosophy and Theatre departments. (In order to lay off faculty at the end of the academic year in mid-May, the university is contractually obligated to inform them by the 15th workday of the semester, in mid-September.)

As the  “St. Cloud State University Faculty Association Response to Administration on Retrenchment” indicates, SCSU administrators still have not answered many questions about how they decided to retrench four librarians, including “What formula or metrics were used to reach the conclusion to retrench four faculty from the library? Given that the library does not use the same process as academic departments to determine productivity ratios, how did Administration arrive at their decision? How does this decision fit into a larger vision and strategic plan for the institution?”

Each of the units/departments with faculty being laid off had the opportunity to provide a written response to the administration’s “considerations” for retrenchment. All of these responses can be found in the Faculty Association response linked above. The SCSU University Library faculty’s response addresses the problematic and ill-informed arguments on which the library retrenchments were justified.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who responded to the request in the previous blog post. The many support letters received were inspiring and persuasive, but evidently the SCSU president and provost were not convinced. It’s time to make the case for sustaining an academic library to them in public venues.  

Public statements or resolutions (for a great example, see https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.mnlibraryassociation.org/resource/resmgr/arld/arld_scsuletter.pdf) , blog posts, articles, solidarity photos (such as https://twitter.com/Amy__Mars/status/1175121043335331841/photo/1) etc. are needed to continue to call attention to this disastrous attack on the library and to hold SCSU administrators accountable. One of the retrenched librarians is keeping track of all media coverage, blog posts, and public letters/statements (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YBmgOKm9SDWN3-HHz3osVtkvP7Sghylu/view?usp=sharing), so please read and share them, and make more of them!

Retweets (and original tweets!) are also very helpful. Follow the hashtag #SaveSCSU_Library for news and updates on solidarity actions to promote and participate in. Tag @stcloudstate, @DrRobbynWacker, @SCSU_Library, and @rhuisman in tweets asking tough questions. SCSU people and those familiar with the situation here are encouraged to suggest relevant questions in the comments on this post.