UC Santa Cruz Students Protest Library Budget Cuts

Three-day study-in prompts mediation

April Boland -- Library Journal, 05/19/2010

• Police called in when students remained in library until midnight
• Library staff, caught in the middle, say protests create a “hardship"
• Facilitated dialogue helps end student action

More than 100 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) students protested ongoing and projected library budget cuts (totaling about 10%) with a three-day "study-in" last week at the Science and Engineering Library.

The protest began Monday, May 10, when students occupied the library until midnight in violation of the building’s 10:30 p.m. closing time. The library was forced to close early at 4:30 p.m. May 11, leading protesters to study right outside of the building.

The library closed early because the sit-in on Monday night required staff members to "call in six additional library staff, extend the hours of staff already working last night, and request assistance from UCSC Police," University Librarian Virginia Steel said in a statement posted on the UCSC website. The police issued a dispersal order but did not make arrests when the students refused to leave at closing time.

Dialogue and anger
UCSC's ombudsperson offered a facilitated dialogue with some of the protesters on May 12, according to Steel. About 20 people accepted; they spent two hours discussing the budget cuts and the protest actions with Steel and Associate University Librarian Elizabeth Cowell.

Brian Malone, a graduate student who participated in the talks, tweeted that there was "much anger" during the dialogue. He told LJ that he and other students felt that calling the police on May 10 was “a ridiculous show of force.” After the talks concluded, students remained in the library until midnight once again before leaving.

Some protesters who had attended the Wednesday meeting met with Steel and Cowell Thursday. They then convinced the other students to leave the building before closing, effectively ending the three-day protest.

"The study-in has been a real hardship for a library staff already stretched thin by budget cuts," Steel told LJ. "It is very unfortunate that the study-in has seemed to pit the library against students when our goal is to work with them. I am encouraged, though, by the latest developments since we have begun to communicate with them, and I hope we are able to work together for the rest of this academic year and in planning for next year."

Budget cuts limit services
An expected 1.9% cut, totaling $180,000, will reduce the library staff's ability to hire student assistants, leading to an increase in turnaround time for services like interlibrary loan.

However, Steel said that the 2009-10 reductions have already reduced services: “The reference desks are open shorter hours and have reduced staffing levels. The collections budget was cut, so we are buying less. There are fewer librarians, so there is less individualized outreach.”

Academic Senate Chair Lori Kletzer told LJ that the Senate Committee on Planning and Budget (CPB) issued a set of independent budget recommendations that proposed zero cuts to the library. “That suggested cut would not have affected the current library hours,” she said. “The sense of the committee was that the library had sustained large enough cuts, especially for 2009-10.”

While the library faces one of the lowest reductions of any unit in the university in the next fiscal year, Malone and fellow protesters feel that this is not enough: “Given the CPB recommendations, there did not have to be any cuts to the library. The CPB knows what they’re doing.”

Steel noted that, when projected cuts are combined with the reductions for this year (2009-10) the library budget has been cut 9.9%—one of the largest cuts at the university.

"It is possible that the protests will influence thinking about the library's budget situation, but that remains to be seen," Steel said. "The protests do reinforce the importance of the library to students, so that is a positive aspect of the action."

A history of activism
This is not the first time UCSC students have taken action to oppose university policies. In November 2009, students occupied Kerr Hall to protest a 32% tuition hike. In response to that incident, the UCSC Judicial Affairs Office fined them nearly $1,000 each to cover $35,000 in damages, drawing criticism from both the institution’s faculty and the ACLU.

UCSC students are not the only ones taking action against library cuts. ABC News reported that Fresno State University students staged a library sit-in on Sunday in response to shortened library hours. Campus police escorted students out with no arrests made.