To: LAUC Committee on Professional Governance From: Cathy Palmer, LAUC President Re: Charge to the Committee on Professional Governance Date: October 24, 2000 Roster Barb Lucas (Chair 2000-02) balucas@uci.edu Ginny Irving girving@library. berkeley.edu Raphaela Castro rgcastro@ucdavis.edu Rhonda Lawrence lawrence@law.ucla.edu Kuei Chiu kuei.chiu@ucr.edu Jennifer Reiswig (Jenny) jreiswig@ucsd.edu Keir Reavie reavie@library.ucsf.edu Cathy Chiu chiu@library.ucsb.edu Sue Chesley chesley@cats.ucsc.edu Thank you for agreeing to serve on the Committee on Professional Governance. The overall goal for the committees this year is to complete work that is in progress and to determine the need for further action. Two years ago this committee worked very hard and presented a landmark study of the restructuring of the librarian series. The university and the UC-AFT Unit 17 bargaining team are negotiating the implementation of the recommendations resulting from that study. This committee should be prepared for work that may result upon conclusion of the collective bargaining process. Since that process has not concluded, the work of the committee is to consider, summarize and extend the discussions of the criteria for the Distinguished Librarian designation. As you read your charge you need to be aware that the Committee on Committees, Rules and Jurisdiction is recommending an amendment to LAUC Bylaws Article VIII, Section 1.J.2c of your standing charge. The goal of the Committee on Committees is to approve and ratify all Bylaws amendments soon after Fall Assembly. Therefore, you should use the proposed amended charge to guide the work of your committee. The LAUC Bylaws call for the members of each standing committee to be appointed by the LAUC President to serve two-year staggered terms, and for the divisions to be alphabetically divided into two groups, with divisions in one of the two groups having new members appointed each year. According to the Bylaws (Article VIII, Section 1.J.2), the standing charge to the Professional Governance Committee is to: a) Advise the President and the Executive Board on issues concerning APM revisions that affect librarians' peer review, and other professional governance issues not covered by the other standing committees. b) Serve as a review body for Divisions who may request evaluation of local peer review procedures. [***Recommended revision of Article VIII, Section 1.J.2c. Approval by LAUC Assembly and ratification by LAUC members is expected to occur at and after Fall Assembly, 2000. Your committee should consider this revision as part of its standing charge.***] c) Maintain a Peer Review manual on the web or in electronic format and review those peer review materials on the web site biennially in order to ensure adequacy and currency of materials. ***[Current Article VIII, Section 1.J.2c recommended for revision appears in italics below] c) Create and maintain a manual which contains among other items, a definition of terms used in the peer review process; a model call for personnel actions; and explications of criteria for review in APM 210-4e(3)(a)-(d); categories to be included in the Biographical-bibliographical Form; guidelines for preparing confidential summaries; and guidelines for types of documents required for merit reviews and promotions. The appropriate LAUC position papers shall be incorporated into this manual. d) Address other subjects at the request of the President and consider and develop recommendations on matters of librarian professional governance. In addition to your standing charge, I would like the Professional Governance Committee to review LAUC Position Paper 1 , Criteria for Appointment or Promotion to the Ranks of Associate Librarian and Librarian and Advancement to Librarian Step V in light of the discussions that have occurred at the 1998 LAUC Fall Assembly led by Kari Lucas and the 2000 LAUC Spring Assembly led by Patsy Inouye about the criteria for achieving the Distinguished Librarian designation. The LAUC Executive Officers agree that there is a sense among LAUC members that excellent and significant accomplishments in Criteria 1, the primary job responsibilities, can be considered as meritorious of recognition by the designation of Distinguished Librarian as excellent and significant contributions in Criteria 2 through 4 are. In addition, the proposed Librarian salary series restructure significantly extends the series and moves the current barrier step from Librarian V (old series) to Librarian VI (new series) which will necessitate a change in the language used in the position paper. As you review LAUC Position Paper 1, please consider these three questions. 1) Does Position Paper 1 need revision in order to state explicitly that excellent and significant accomplishments in Criteria 1 can be the basis for earning the designation of Distinguished? 2) If Position Paper 1 is written in such a way that it does not preclude consideration of Criteria 1 accomplishments for promotion to the Distinguished designation, does LAUC need to write and adopt a new position paper which explicitly encourages consideration of accomplishments in Criteria 1 as deserving of promotion to Distinguished? 3) If a new position paper is desirable, should it include other considerations for the designation of Distinguished? For example, does the designation of Distinguished have to be attached to promotion to a specific Rank and Step as it is currently? Or could a librarian asked to be considered for the Distinguished designation at any step in the Librarian series? As the committee works to fulfill its charge, I ask committee members to consult broadly with the members of your division and to encourage and facilitate discussion of this issue by librarians at every rank and step, from entry level librarians to Assistant, Associate and University Librarians. I challenge you to think seriously, honestly and creatively as you consider your charge. Members of the LAUC Executive Board are available to meet with the Committee as you work to complete your charge. The Committee's recommendations may be submitted to the LAUC Executive Board for review at any of the scheduled meetings on February TBA, April 26,2001, or June TBA. You will present a progress report at the Spring Assembly, 2000, with a goal of being able to present a recommendation on each of the questions above no later than Fall Assembly, 2001. Formal recommendations that need approval of the membership are presented in the form of motions. Please review appropriate sections of Sturgis for how to make motions. Your contribution to the work of LAUC is very important. Thank you again for your willingness to serve on this LAUC Committee.