LAUC-D Professional Issues Committee

1998-1999 Annual Report

Submitted by Michael Winter, Chair

August 9, 1999

The committee membership consisted of Carol Larussa, John Skarstad,

Patricia French, and Sandra J. Lamprecht.

The LAUC-D Review Board (1997-1998) asked the Professional Issues

Committee to look into two areas:

1. The criteria for promotion within or appointment to the ranks of the

Librarian Series, especially regarding accelerations. Specifically, the

Review Board felt that documentation may need to spell out in greater

detail what candidates need to do in order to be considered for, and

possibly be granted, accelerated salary actions.

2. Equity and workload. A number of open discussions at Executive

Board Meetings and in one General meeting established that some members

felt that expectations regarding workload differed significantly from one

department to another, and that this raised equity issues in personnel

evaluation.

The committee met a number of times, exchanged a number of e-mails, and

the Chair consulted with a UCSD librarian who had chaired a similar

committee recently. It eventually made the following recommendations at a

General meeting:

1). We recommended against any additional detail in the documentation

regarding accelerations. In this we follow some previous LAUC committees

and, perhaps more importantly, we emphasize the idea of "reasonable

flexibility" which occurs throughout the APM, and militates against

spelling out acceleration or promotional criteria any further.

2). As far as equity/workload goes, we see that as something which is

negotiated between management and employees, and so problems in that area

have to be addressed in that context. If it isn't possible to find a

resolution that way, there are established procedures for employees to

seek redress

3). More positively, we support the idea and the practice of knowledge and

human resource sharing, which could be used to help employees get a

clearer sense of what is expected for normal and accelerated progress

through the ranks.

In conclusion , we noted that there is a common concern in workplaces

today with job-related stress, and this topic was given some considerable

discussion at a General meeting. It was decided that we would hold a

stress workshop for librarians, and this event took place at the Rec Pool

Lodge on July 30 and August 2, 1999.