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The Case of the Disappearing Library Fees...and Resources
by
Lucy Duhon, UT-AAUP Executive Board
and
Walt Olson, UT-AAUP Executive Board
UT students may not know it, but for the past two years they have been paying, on average, an additional $36-$48 in fees per semester ...yet soon they may have nothing to show for it. In addition to sharply rising tuition+, 18 months ago students assumed the burden of a new fee - one meant to support the library and enhance the learning experience of all those who use it. This special fee was approved specifically to provide students (sophomore-level and up) with new and innovative virtual information resources (research databases and electronic journal packages). Now when students log in to the library's catalog, they may find that those resources are rapidly evaporating, just as quickly as they were added. The "library information resource fee" was approved to take effect from the fall semester of 2009 after UT's Student Government agreed to an increase in fees for the express purpose of making more electronic resources available to all students, both on campus and off. Specifically, students approved an additional $3 in fees per credit hour for undergraduates, and $5 more per credit hour for graduate students across all disciplines and colleges. (The College of Medicine and the College of Law were exempt from this new fee structure). The new fee was necessary to augment the library's stationary materials budget which has never kept up with inflation. Electronic resources and journals, particularly in the scientific research and medical fields, are notorious for much higher than average price increases. Based on projected enrollment numbers in 2009 when the fee was first proposed, A&S students were expected to raise over a quarter of a million dollars per year to help support library resources, while business students would contribute an additional $185,000 and engineering students would add over $164,000 on average per year. Nursing and pharmacy student groups were projected to pay over $72,000 each for new resources in their fields. Education and Health Science and Human Service students were projected to pay approximately $100,000 and $150,000 respectively in extra fees for e-resources as well. Most new electronic resources added to the library's holdings in the past 12 months were indeed supportive of STEM2*, which is in line with the university's mission to emphasize STEM2endeavors. The actual amount collected from students was $1,468,890.30 for FY 2010. However, the money collected over the past two years has never been released to the University Libraries (UL). In fact, late in the budget process in April 2010, the funding for the "virtual library" was cut significantly as the UL prepared to reduce its physical holdings beginning in May 2010. Unbelievably, the UL began by reducing the books on the fifth floor of Carlson Library thus reducing its STEM2 resources in contradiction to what was thought to be the university's mission. New electronic resources that were added in 2009-2010 to support STEM2 are now being cut. Instead of receiving the $1.47 million** dedicated for new and innovative library resources in fiscal year 2009-2010, the money was redirected into the university's general fund - inaccessible to the library. Academic year 2010-2011 is much the same story. As of February 7, 2011, $1.28 million*** has been collected in "library information resource fee" money; however, once again the UL have not seen this money and thus cannot renew subscriptions to some very popular and vital electronic resources added last year with the assistance of one-time funds provided by Provost Haggett. Electronic resources are expensive. They typically run into the tens of thousands of dollars per subscription; their subscription fee structure is usually based on the number of institutional FTE students. Electronic resources now targeted for cancellation or already cancelled for lack of funding include the highly used and in-demand Knovel (science and engineering e-books), Frost & Sullivan (business) and Dynamed (nursing and pharmacy) databases - as well as at least half a dozen more resources across several disciplines. Meanwhile, UT student enrollment in the aggregate has increased each of the past two years, and has seen a steady upward trend over the past four years, averaging a 3% increase per year (see: http://oir.utoledo.edu/Facts.aspx). The University Libraries have a desperate need for the funding required to keep up with even the most basic information needs of a student-centered research institution. As student enrollment has increased, this need has become more pointed, even as the budgetary rationale for not supporting these resources has become weaker. As is the wont of this administration, budgetary resources and their expenditures are solely maintained by a limited number of senior leaders with a seemingly increasing disregard for purpose, for transparency, for accountability and for explanation to either the faculty or the students. Interim Provost McMillen was asked about the reasons the fees were not transferred to the Library at the Faculty Senate Meeting of February 1, 2011. His response was that he did not know the reasons but would prepare a report for the Library at the next Faculty Senate Meeting. In our past experiences with him, we have found him to be honest and trustworthy. It is our belief that he did in fact not know because he is not one of the limited number of senior leaders making these decisions despite being Interim Provost and responsible for the Academic Resources of the University.
+Undergraduate tuition rose by 7.1% for the first time in four years in 2010-11, after a three-year freeze during the period 2007-2009. (see http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/treasurer/tuition_rates.html )
* Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine ** $1,468,890.30 *** $1,281,681.60 APPENDIX
The last two academic years' fee schedules (inclusive of the new "library information resource" fee) are shown here:
http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/treasurer/fees_fall09.html
http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/treasurer/fees_Fall2010.html
See also relevant excerpts from the published FY 2010 and 2011 University Budgets: Excerpts
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