University of Washington iSchool, University Libraries Face Budget Pressures
By Michael Kelley Mar 7, 2011The state budget tussle taking place in Olympia could spell trouble for librarian education and library services at the University of Washington (UW).
In a February 23 letter to the state legislature, Phyllis M. Wise, the university's interim president, outlined three biennial budget scenarios for FY12 and FY13---with cuts ranging from $189.8 million (proposed by Gov. Christine Gregoire) to $246 million---and she wrote that "under all three proposed reduction scenarios, and before consideration of tuition increases, it is likely that several or most of the following actions would have to occur."
A reduction in course and degree offerings possible
The second item on her list of likely actions is the consolidation of the Information School (iSchool) with another college and a significant reduction in its course and degree offerings. It also would eliminate 8000 journal subscriptions at the University Libraries and cut book acquisitions by 10,000, which would place the libraries in the bottom half of the Association of Research Libraries in current subscriptions and book purchases, according to Wise.
"Since 1932, the UW has held a place in the top 15 percent of Association of Research Libraries; this loss of resources would be a huge departure for the UW," she wrote.
UW's appropriation for FY11 is $307 million. If the legislature were to slash $246 million ($123 million each year), that would represent a 40 percent reduction in state funding for the university.
"At this point, this is just a conversation between the president and the legislature," Harry Bruce, the dean of the iSchool, told LJ. Like all the other university departments, he said, he is preparing contingency plans for budget cuts, but the merger with another college is now just a "what-if" scenario.
Students organize to keep informed
Nevertheless, concerned students, past and present, have begun to organize, creating a Facebook page called "Save the UW iSchool" and circulating a petition to stop any potential merger.
In a comment on the Hack Library School website, Heidi Kittleson, who is helping to organize the effort at UW, wrote, "The 'consolidation' of the UW iSchool is a proposed action, and we have not heard any other details than that. Several of [the students] are meeting with people [this] week to get more information. I think that if this moves forward and becomes even more a reality, we will have to push to get our questions answered. Until then, I think it is important to keep people informed---we're trying to do that through the Save the UW iSchool Facebook page."
The University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), Urbana-Champaign, parried a merger effort late last year.
"I've talked to Harry about his situation, and it does have some obvious similarities to the one we went through," John Unsworth, dean of the GSLIS, told LJ. "The outcome of the process here, for us, is that we're working amicably with the College of Media and other units on sharing services, beginning with IT services and perhaps moving on to others...," he said. "At this point, I don't anticipate further action. I do think that, in the long run, we need to grow in order to avoid a future recurrence of the merger meme, and we are working on ways to do that," he said.
The latest budget proposal at UW comes on top of a $132 million reduction (30 percent) in the current fiscal cycle (FY10 and FY11). This cut resulted in the closure of one library and the cancellation of over 1200 journal subscriptions.
Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, the dean of University Libraries, could not be reached for comment.
Wise, the interim president, is holding a town hall meeting for the UW community on Tuesday about the budget. There will be a live webcast on UWTV.org.
