As we reported on Friday (see IVC: the sh*t hits the fan):
A week and a half ago, out of the blue, construction workers entered the Library and walled over a door to Room 107 (behind the circulation desk), evidently part of a plan to hand the room over to DSPS, which is in desperate need of a space for testing. No one connected with the Library was consulted about this action—certainly not the dean, not even the VPI. No warning was given.
Naturally, Library faculty, among others, were consternated and outraged. They arranged for a discussion of the situation on the floor of the Academic Senate (last Thursday). Senators decided to have the Academic Senate Prez confront the college President with the facts—an apparent gross violation of both defined processes and his much-ballyhooed alleged "spirit of collaboration" and "civility" at IVC—and to demand that the parties responsible for this outrage be held accountable.
 |
| Library: door becomes wall. No process |
Sometime in December 2013, Administrators (I forget who exactly) and Facilities started to examine Library Room 107 as possible testing space for DSPS. We were told that Library 107 should not be used as a “storage room.” But, in fact, Library 107 was not a storage room, for our part-time cataloger’s office was in the room as was our adjunct librarian workstation. The rest of the space was used for book processing and, quite honestly, we still had storage issues even when we had the use of 107.It seems to me that an apology ain't worth much if nobody knows about it. This is the first I've heard about Glenn's alleged mea culpa. Was there a memo I missed?
Dean Feldhus and the Librarians were told to come up with a “shared-use” space plan for Library 107. Consequently, the Library submitted a plan where roughly 3/4 of the space for 107 would be used for student testing and ¼ would be used for our processing area. There would be a wall separating the two areas.
At the time, we were told that the use of Library 107 for DSPS testing was temporary and that we would get the room back for Spring 2014.
That was the status quo, but then facilities people showed up and moved everything out of Room 107 and into Room 201 and other locations on campus. Owing to the suddenness of this action, the Librarians had no time to decide where to move the items originally stored in Room 107, and so ad hoc measures were taken.
A short while later, desks and chairs were moved into Library 107.
Mea culpa posy
Then, on Friday, January 24th, Facilities workers [suddenly showed up and] eliminated the access door from the library staff area to Room 107; they drywalled over the door. Needless to say, all of us in the library were shocked and in a state of disbelief. At that point, we realized that the “temporary” situation was in fact permanent, and nobody was considering our shared-use suggestions.
Owing to unhappiness with the situation, Library faculty decided to submit an agenda item to the Academic Senate. During the Academic Senate meeting last week, discussion of this item was spirited (and very sympathetic to Librarians' perspective).
After the Senate meeting, the Senate President met with the College President to discuss the situation.
Then, on February 3, 2014 [i.e., four days later], the College President offered an apparently sincere apology [in what form?] for the situation and took responsibility for everything that happened. He assured the Library that a minor renovation project would begin soon to relieve the space issue and input from Library staff will be taken into account for this project. [END]
It's no secret that VP of SS Linda Fontanilla was very involved in this snafu. Will we (or the Librarians) be hearing from her as well? Perhaps the Librarians will each be sent a mystery apology posy and that will be that.
I remind readers that, as explained on Friday, the Library snafu is only one in a series of events and circumstances that reflect the fraudulence—or at least emptiness—of administration's noisy embrace of collaboration, openness, and civility.
