Is the Library an Entitlement or a Privilege? | From the Bell Tower

Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA -- Library Journal, 11/5/2009

When conversations turn to the spiraling costs of higher education, it’s inevitable that critics will point to the occasional examples of excess created in an effort to stay competitive in the race for new students. Rock-climbing walls, luxury dorms, gourmet food in the dining halls, and first-class fitness centers are all potential signs that colleges and universities have lost touch with reality.

At least two articles I’ve read recently suggest that higher education is in danger of becoming a tale of haves and have-nots, an industry characterized by a small number of super elite institutions among a vast sea of struggling competitors. America has never exactly been the land of equality, but the divide between higher education institutions with large wallets and those just struggling to get by is getting wider.

Who knew they got pastries
While you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers, that bastion of journalistic integrity, the New York Times, set off this bit of controversy by reporting that ,among other freebies like cookies for faculty at their department meetings and free hot breakfasts for upperclassmen, Harvard University offered free pastries at the Widener Library.

I’ve worked at academic libraries where some generous soul occasionally brings in a box of donuts or shares the leftover birthday cake from junior’s party, but providing patrons or staff with daily sweets? That is a bit hard to believe. And if it is true then a case could be made that some institutions are going a bit overboard on the extras, and it’s not surprising to have students believing these premiums are their entitlements. As one of the disgruntled Harvard students was quoted in the article, “for what you’re paying, you should probably have the right to a hot breakfast.”

Some get pastries, others get crumbs
In reaction to the Times article, a high-level administrator from a not-so-well-off university wrote an eye-opening essay that graphically illustrates the disparity between the Harvards and the institutions with unrecognizable names that you didn’t even know existed.

Admittedly, Harvard is at the extreme end of the wealth spectrum. I think it is safe to say that no other college or university has regularly provided free pastries in the library. But I suspect there are far more institutions like the one described in the Inside Higher Ed essay, struggling with severe budgets cuts over an extended period.

The issue of inequality in higher education is also the focus of the November 2009 special issue of the American Prospect. It features articles such as “Our Two-Class System” that discusses the widening gap in access and affordability in higher education.

From entitlement to privilege
Whether it’s a free hot breakfast, access to any major or minor you want, or expecting the latest high-tech classrooms, Hamid Shirvani believes that a culture of entitlement is a danger to higher education. Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Shirvani states that a “sense of entitlement—among students, parents, faculty members, and administrators—has driven expansion in higher education beyond what is reasonable or necessary.”

Shirvani would rather us think of higher education in terms of privileges. If students and their parents saw access to a college or university as a privilege, something that must be earned, it could break the vicious cycle of institutions trying to out do each other and ultimately ratchet up tuition and student expectations. Shirvani goes on to share ideas for eliminating entitlements that could result in a more streamlined yet less costly higher education system.

Those commenting on Shrivani’s essay think he has simplified a complex challenge, and I agree that changing perceptions may do little to bridge the economic gap between the haves and have-nots. Real change will only happen when the higher education industry acknowledges its amenities war serves only to fuel the entitlements mentality.

Academic libraries are both
I find it difficult to try to categorize the academic library as either an entitlement or a privilege. When it comes to libraries, the two are not mutually exclusive. You could hardly expect to engage in a full higher education learning experience without having access to a real library.

In some ways it is no different than your right to use a public library as a community member. It is as essential to participation in a democracy as the academic library is to facilitating the production of research and knowledge.

Each student and faculty member is entitled to the best possible library service. Access to all the resources of a great academic library is beyond the reach of so many. Our students and faculty need to recognize that their access to the library, while an expectation, must be respected as a privilege. Like so many of the things that make higher education a treasure, if we ignore it, if we fail to support and sustain it, when we need it most it may not be there for us.