Library to lose half million dollars in funding

[nodak651]

Does anybody have some insight on this? They just extended operating hours...

http://www.dakotastu...ars-in-funding/

“To call this a budget cut would be a misnomer,” said Wilbur Stolt, director of libraries at UND and member of the Chester Fritz Library committee.

“The provost no longer has access to funds that were available in the past.” The library used to have access to an estimated $300,000 in supplemental funding from the provost’s office to meet its needs, in addition to library endowment funds.

Stolt does not know exactly how much funding the library will lose, but he projects it will be anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000.

[fightingsioux4life]

The State of North Dakota has money coming out of every orifice.....and the Chester Fritz Library has to tighten its belt?

This isn't the 1980's, times are not tough and libraries are one of the bedrocks of any college or university.

I guess Al Carlson is "Clueless" on more than just the Sioux nickname situation.

[nodak651]

....and we just raised 300 million, why?

[jdub27]

I'd be curious to see the actual usage numbers on the online subscriptions they are cutting. If they are still making the same information available, though with a slightly longer wait time, for something that gets used a handful of times a year but costs an excessive amount of money, than it makes sense.

[ticklethetwine]

It's not just the library that is facing budget cuts most departments are getting their budget's cut as well. We are basically being told to do more with less while a specific VP on campus is trying to create their own kingdom and it appears that the person in charge is either asleep at the wheel or just incompetent. I had to post this with my alias account so that it doesn't get back to me. They are becoming so top heavy with Administrators that you have to pay those salaries some how. It seems every month they are hiring a new VP position. I used to think the leadership at this University had the best interest of the students, staff and faculty and that has completely changed. They are making so many decisions behind peoples backs that have huge implications and everyone is in the dark. Zero transparency and I know a lot of people are starting to get fed up with how they are running things. Could be a rude awakening for them when people start leaving en mass exodus.

[fightingsioux4life]

It's not just the library that is facing budget cuts most departments are getting their budget's cut as well. We are basically being told to do more with less while a specific VP on campus is trying to create their own kingdom and it appears that the person in charge is either asleep at the wheel or just incompetent. I had to post this with my alias account so that it doesn't get back to me. They are becoming so top heavy with Administrators that you have to pay those salaries some how. It seems every month they are hiring a new VP position. I used to think the leadership at this University had the best interest of the students, staff and faculty and that has completely changed. They are making so many decisions behind peoples backs that have huge implications and everyone is in the dark. Zero transparency and I know a lot of people are starting to get fed up with how they are running things. Could be a rude awakening for them when people start leaving en mass exodus.

Eventually this will hurt enrollment. Jacking up tuition and then telling those same students to tighten their belts is just encouraging students to transfer or just not come to UND in the first place. Something has to change or the institution that has been a big part of my life for over 20 years will decline in quality.

[jdub27]

Eventually this will hurt enrollment. Jacking up tuition and then telling those same students to tighten their belts is just encouraging students to transfer or just not come to UND in the first place. Something has to change or the institution that has been a big part of my life for over 20 years will decline in quality.

I would tend to agree more if the exact same thing wasn't happening on almost every single campus across the US. Becoming way too admistration heavy, tuition continuing to climb, etc.

[The Sicatoka]

They are becoming so top heavy with Administrators that you have to pay those salaries some how.

Universities everywhere are bad that way now --> have to have jobs for all those PhDs they turn out.

The public schools are really bad: lots of top-bloat in that realm.

[The Sicatoka]

I would tend to agree more if the exact same thing wasn't happening on almost every single campus across the US. Becoming way too admistration heavy, tuition continuing to climb, etc.

<ding!>

[nodak651]

Recently received this email:

Provost Provides Update on Chester Fritz Library

Dear Campus Community:

There has been a great deal of discussion recently related to the Chester Fritz Library. I want to take a moment to clarify some of the things you may have read or seen, and to share my thoughts.

I want to make two things clear up front. The first is that both President Kelley and I believe that the library is the academic heart of a research university. As many of you know, President Kelley’s father was a university librarian. President Kelley has an emotional and an intellectual interest in doing what we can to build an even stronger library, and I join him in this goal.

The second is that the Chester Fritz Library is not facing a budget cut. The library’s base budget remains intact. At the same time, the library is facing an important financial shortfall, which I’ll explain below. I'm committed to finding ways of addressing the shortfall and working on a sustainable and stabilizing funding model that will help us support the library we need for the future.

Last semester, I appointed a committee with a broadly based constituency to work on both of these related tasks: identifying how we might approach the current financial needs of the library, and helping to conceptualize what the library of the future should look like: as a research university in the digital age, what are our library needs and how, from a financial standpoint, do we make sure we manage those needs?

Let's look at the first task. For several years, the costs of purchasing and subscribing to online resources has climbed at rates above the consumer price index. On average, these costs have increased by five percent a year. Meanwhile, the budget for the Chester Fritz Library has remained fairly constant.

These increased costs have primarily been covered using one-time funds that have been applied like a band-aid. In the past, these one-time funds came from a pool of equity dollars appropriated by the North Dakota Legislature. These funds were not allocated during the 2013 Legislative session. I want to be clear that this is not a criticism of the Legislature, which has been very supportive of UND. But it is important to understand that this particular source of funds is no longer available.

Also not available this year, because of a reorganization of our institutional investment strategy, is approximately $200,000 in interest. Those funds will be available again in the future, but the lack of those interest dollars this year compounds the library’s financial shortfall.

Even if the one-time funding were still available, applying short-term financial fixes is not the best way to manage recurring and increasing costs. These should be accounted for in the ongoing budget.

Several dollar figures have been used in the media to describe this shortfall. All tend to focus on the worst-case scenario, which ranges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Chester Fritz Library, however, won't face the worst-case scenario. With the help of the committee I spoke about earlier, we'll identify the areas where we can make adjustments that will have the least impact on the University. The committee is already hard at work on this. Meanwhile, I'm looking for alternative funding to help cover the shortfall.

The second task is in many ways much more important, and is one that libraries all over the world are considering: what should the library of the future look like, and how do we account for the increased costs of providing the online resources that our faculty and students need? This is a topic that will involve many more individuals from across the campus. But it is an important conversation to begin on a University level, and I’ve asked this committee to start that process.

The work of this committee and other individuals who will help us envision this future will be important as the University develops a new resource allocation model. As you know, that process is just getting under way and will involve two task forces: one to examine academic programs and another to examine support functions. The academic task force will consist of faculty and department chairs. The support task force will be staffed by academic and administrative managers, faculty, and staff. Ultimately, the two processes will be interconnected, and one of the areas of analysis will be the library.

Through all the efforts I’ve discussed here, we believe we can develop an even stronger library designed to help position the University for its exceptional future. We’ll be talking again as efforts progress, and in the meantime, please contact me if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Thomas DiLorenzo

Provost

[UNDBIZ]

I like how we have committees and task forces to make all the important decisions at the university now. That way, we can pay a few dozen directors and faculty $100,000 each to sit around talking and arguing about how to accomplish a task even though they have no authority to see it through. Good thing we're paying a dozen VPs $200,000 each to put these task forces together rather than make the decisions they're paid to make. At least the VPs can deflect blame from themselves with this process.