ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Resolution Passed at LAUC Spring 1978 Assembly Regarding CPEC Report

Editors Note: Virginia Sherwood, president of LAUC, writes: “Here is the resolution passed [on June 2, 1978] by the Assembly of the Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC) that was referred to in the news item Study of Academic Library Salaries in California(C&RL News, November 1978, p.303). Published in its entirety, the resolution explicitly and substantively expresses our objections to the report. It is important that academic librarians know why LAUC considered the report incomplete and inaccurate.’ ”

WHEREAS the California Postsecondary Education Commission has adopted a report Librarians’ Compensation at the University of California and the California State University and Colleges: The Search for Equity, and WHEREAS the report, following legislative mandate, uses a prevailing wage approach to study librarians’ salaries, á method which the California Commission on the Status of Women has concluded to be discriminatory when used to analyze salaries in predominantly female professions, and WHEREAS this report, in the formulation of its conclusions, does not cite pertinent studies of librarians’ salaries prepared by the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Council on Library Resources, UC Berkeley Library Affirmative Action Program for Women Committee, the Librarians Association of the University of California, or University of California administration’s Special Committee to Study Librarians’ Salaries, and

WHEREAS the report, in its second chapter, by drawing conclusions from a selected portion of library literature creates an impression of present day academic librarianship which we believe to be distorted and inaccurate, and

WHEREAS the salaries of California community college librarians are highly relevant for prevailing wage or comparative worth analyses of librarians’ salaries and this report rejects the use of California community college librarians’ salaries in the formulation of its conclusions, and

WHEREAS the Commission report fails to note the actions taken by the California Legislature in accepting sex discrimination arguments in passing inequity legislation since 1973,

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Librarians Association of the University of California regards the present study of librarians’ compensation as an incomplete, inaccurate and therefore unacceptable basis for “evaluating requests for salaries and benefits for librarians at the University,” that LAUC urges the withdrawal of the study as a basis for such evaluation or for any determination of salary structure, and that the President of LAUC be instructed to communicate these views to UC Systemwide administration. ■■