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1

November 18, 2016 Council meeting at Albany / Personnel Policies Committee Report - 11/16/16

« on: November 16, 2016, 12:35:49 PM »

(FYI - I have relatives coming into Buffalo beginning late Thursday night and staying with me through Thanksgiving.  I called Bill Jones directly to give him a more thorough, personal update.  I apologize for missing another webinar, but the duties of Uncle Gene call!  Haha  Have a good Thanksgiving, everyone.)


Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
11/16/16

Personnel Policies Committee Meeting – October 12, 2016
Present: Chris Keough, Nancy Abashian, Eugene Harvey

The PPC met last month to discuss the salary survey report and start planning its next initiatives.  The chair is taking responsibility for writing the report due to the statistical procedures used to analyze the data.  The writing of the report has been delayed and will resume after Thanksgiving.

Also, the chair has been in communication with Jason Torre of UUP regarding contract negotiations.  Due to an injury, Jason is being replaced temporarily by J. Philippe Abraham.  They seem interested in a presentation about the preliminary salary findings presented at the 2016 SUNYLA Conference, so the chair is waiting to hear back from Mr. Abraham.

The committee discussed its next steps toward other short-term projects.  Committee members engaged in a brainstorming session, which included the following ideas:

•   Examining librarian/library faculty guidelines for tenure and promotion – discussion centered on inconsistent standards/procedures across SUNY libraries.  Possibly compile bylaws from SUNY libraries to examine and then make recommendations.
•   Lack of developmental & leadership opportunities – concerned about not having opportunities for librarians to gain the required skills to move upward toward director positions as a career path.  For example, many director positions *require* budgetary experience, but only librarians in technical services typically can gain that experience, thereby limiting growth and upward career mobility of librarians in certain non-technical career paths.
•   Exit surveys – revisit the purpose and usage of exit surveys for library faculty and staff leaving SUNY
•   Protected research time
•   Examine salary levels between library faculty and library staff
•   Performance programs for library staff/professional UUP library staff – likely low rates of completion of performance appraisals for library professionals; outdated job descriptions; lack of compensation for increased workloads (which are not updated in their job descriptions); added work responsibility and burden as staffing levels shrink
•   Flex scheduling

The committee prioritized two ideas for its next projects: examining tenure/promotion guidelines across SUNY libraries, and investigating improvements to performance programs/evaluations/appraisals.  These ideas will be discussed in more detail at a future meeting.

Lastly, Jill Locascio informed the chair that she will be discontinuing her role in the PPC.  The chair is seeking a replacement, preferably a person from a 2- or 4-year institution to ensure representativeness.  Please contact the chair if interested.

Next PPC Meeting
TBD (after Thanksgiving)

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Thank you!  Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
SUNY Buffalo State
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
November 16, 2016

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September 23, 2016 Council meeting at Geneseo / Personnel Policies Committee Report - 09/21/16

« on: September 21, 2016, 03:00:20 PM »

Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
09/21/16

Over the summer, two members of the committee (Nancy Abashian – Binghamton, Eugene Harvey – Buffalo State) presented the preliminary salary report data at the 2016 SUNYLA Conference.  Details from that presentation can be found here:

http://www.sunyla.org/sunyla_docs/conferences/presentations/sunyla16/2016-e3.pptx

Preliminary data in the presentation highlighted that, in general, librarians tend to earn approximately $29,200 to $37,200 less than other SUNY faculty members.  However, initial 10-year comparisons to 2006 data indicate librarians have closed the salary gap a bit, despite the lingering pay difference.  In 10 years, faculty salaries have increased approximately 6.5%, while librarians’ salaries have increased approximately 16%.

For the most part, data analysis has been completed, and the chair is taking responsibility for the initial writing of the draft of the formal report, which will be reviewed/proofread by committee members for revision.  The chair has been in contact with Jason Torre from UUP and will be sharing some of the data from the presentation (maybe the presentation itself via a webinar) and the upcoming report to help with advocacy efforts and negotiations.

As a reminder, the committee will be turning toward the brainstorming of other ideas for addressing personnel issues and concerns.  Other ideas for committee work could include the need to revisit the purpose of exit surveys, how to better connect to SUNYLA advocacy efforts, and other personnel issues stemming from the UUP survey from a year or two ago. 

Exit Surveys

None received.



Next PPC Meeting
TBD (mid-October)

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Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
SUNY Buffalo State
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
09/21/16

3

June 8, 2016 Council meeting at Binghamton (Annual) / Personnel Policies Committee report - June 8, 2016

« on: June 07, 2016, 01:08:35 PM »

Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
June 8, 2016

Personnel Policies Committee Meetings – February 2, 2016; February 10, 2016; May 13, 2016
Present: Chris Keough, Jill Locascio, Nancy Abashian, Eugene Harvey

After reviewing the data gathered through the original survey from SUNYLA representatives, committee members expressed concerns over the integrity of data.  Despite the coding sheet provided to representatives, there were inconsistencies with reporting, especially for the annual salaries of individuals.  For example, some reps would report salary in hourly increments while others would report only the salary earned to that point in the year (e.g. January through May).  Thus, the committee decided to abandon the data gathered from the survey and decided upon a different approach that would be more reliable and valid.

The committee contacted SUNY Human Resources director Julie Petti for assistance.  A FOIL request was submitted formally, and after a month or so, the data for over 8,000 faculty and almost 300 librarians  from technical, comprehensive, and doctoral institutions was obtained.  However, the main limitation with this dataset was the lack of information on community college librarians.  Ms. Petti said community college staffing is not maintained by SUNY HR.  Instead, it is managed locally, probably at the county level.  Thus, data for that librarian group was not able to be retrieved.  Nevertheless, despite a few limitations, the dataset that will be used for the main report is sound, valid, and reliable, which was the most important factor for the committee.

The committee will be presenting the preliminary analyses and results of the salary data at the 2016 SUNYLA Conference, and the full report will be completed later this summer.  At that time, the report and dataset will be uploaded to SUNYLA website for access and preservation, and discussions with union representatives about librarian salaries can begin.

Exit Surveys

To be tallied later


Next PPC Meeting
TBD

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Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
SUNY Buffalo State
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
06/08/16

4

January 29, 2016 Council Meeting @ FIT / Personnel Policies Committee Report

« on: January 28, 2016, 03:04:56 PM »

Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
01/28/16

Personnel Policies Committee Meeting – October 5, 2015
Present: Chris Keough, Jill Locascio, Nancy Abashian, Eugene Harvey

The committee welcomed Nancy Abashian from SUNY Binghamton to the committee.  Committee members gave introductions of themselves and reasons for being interested in this committee and its anticipated work goals. 

The committee finished collecting salary data in the summer, and we continued to spend time discussing a general method for preparing data for analysis.  The chair mentioned the necessity to “clean” the data before analysis.  Even though there were data entry/reporting instructions sent to SUNY delegates, the manner in which data were reported was, at times, inconsistent.  Thus, to ensure proper comparisons and statistical procedures, the tedious responsibility of standardizing data within the spreadsheet cells must be done.  The chair volunteered to do that, although upcoming projects on his local campus may interfere with the timeframe in which that task can be completed.

Committee members said how they would like to be involved in the process of data analysis.  The chair has experience with this process, but how to analyze the data *with* everyone is tricky given members’ locations and levels of expertise.  The committee was asked to think about ways of doing that, if possible and feasible. 

In the near future, the committee was asked to review past reports, including categories and variables in those reports, to maintain consistency.  Also, comparisons to ARL salary survey reports (and other salary reports) may be considerations, too.  These comparisons could be included in the report and used to guide advocacy efforts.

The chair mentioned the opportunity to present at conferences on our data, including SUNYLA 2016, the Library Assessment Conference, and others.  The chair will be submitting proposals to those conferences, and committee members are welcome to be involved as much or as little as they wish, depending on their availability and interest.  Disseminating this information across many venues, though, is desirable.

Other ideas for committee work and SUNYLA support were brainstormed quickly, including the need to revisit the purpose of exit surveys, how to better connect to SUNYLA advocacy efforts, and other personnel issues.  Still, the priority will be the completion of the SUNYLA Salary Survey.

Exit Surveys

The chair received 3 exit surveys, all dated 12/21/15, spanning a few hours of time.  They are included below:

Name: (Removed to protect anonymity) Leaving: NYS College of Ceramics, Alfred University   Rank:Public Services Librarian
 Retiring: yes
   
 Reasons for leaving:


Name: (Removed to protect anonymity) Leaving: New Paltz   Rank:Initially Senior Assistant Librarian (additional info removed to protect anonymity)
 Retiring: no
 Leaving the profession: NO
 New position: I currently do not have a position lined up. Following my husband where he found work.
 
 Reasons for leaving:
 Salary: Though I don't know for sure, I'm relocating to VA, where I had been employed as a librarian at a public university at a much higher salary. I was initially appointed in 2010 as Associate Professor, given my experience, and starting salary was 58, as opposed to the 43k here I was hired at initially. (portion removed to protect anonymity)…but not really at the salary as others in similar positions across the country. Salaries are really bad at SUNY and though I feel positive strides have been made with some of the recent hires, they are not where they need to be by any means. Not even close.
     

Name: (Removed to protect anonymity) Leaving: University at Buffalo   Rank:Head, Monograph Acquisitions
 Retiring: yes
   
 Reasons for leaving:


The chair would like to apologize for not submitting at least one previous report. (maybe two)  With personal work projects at Buffalo State, along with two or three personal health issues, I needed to reprioritize some responsibilities.


Next PPC Meeting
February 2, 2016
2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

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Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
SUNY Buffalo State
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
01/28/16

 
Personnel Policies Committee Meeting
October 5, 2015
Agenda
 
1)  Welcome to Nancy Abashian
●   Quick Intros.
 
2)  Salary Survey
●   Preliminary survey characteristics
●   Comparisons to other faculty/ranks
●   Approaches to data analysis - thoughts? comments?
○   committee expertise?
○   past report categories & variables
○   ARL salary survey reports
○   other ideas/comparisons?
 
3)  Timeframe
●   Data cleaning and analysis
●   Survey report
●   Presentation for SUNYLA – webinar?
●   Venues for presenting - Conference(s)?
●   Publication?

5

January 23, 2015 Council Meeting @ FIT / Personnel Policies Committee Report - 01/22/15

« on: January 22, 2015, 10:23:13 AM »

Hello there,

The Personnel Policies Committee report is attached, and I have included it here, too, per previous request.

Eugene Harvey

Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
01/22/15

Personnel Policies Committee Meeting – December 5, 2014
Present: Chris Keough, Jill Locascio, Eugene Harvey
Absent: Kevin McCoy

The committee met for the first time via an online Blackboard Collaborate session, and the agenda for that meeting is attached.  Committee members gave introductions of themselves and reasons for being interested in this committee and its anticipated work goals.  The chair discussed a brief history of the SUNYLA Salary Survey as shown on the SUNYLA website, including locations of documents and important elements of survey language.  The committee discussed the need to slightly revise the survey to make it less demanding on data collectors, and discussion of the survey’s variables will continue at the next meeting.  However, major revisions, if any, should not occur; they will be saved for future surveys.  This will enable data to be analyzed and compared to past data.  Participant outreach ideas were debated heartily.  The committee agreed outreach would be crucial, especially to strengthen survey completions at campus libraries.  In turn, a more representative sample of data hopefully can be achieved.

Other ideas for committee work and SUNYLA support were brainstormed quickly, including the need to revisit the purpose of exit surveys, how to better connect to SUNYLA advocacy efforts, and other personnel issues.  Still, the priority will be the completion of the SUNYLA Salary Survey.

SUNYLA Salary Survey (goal to continue)

The development and administration of the SUNYLA Salary Survey will be the committee’s highest short-term priority.  The committee will discuss and strategize its development and deployment across SUNY library systems, with the goal of completion tentatively set for the end of the Spring 2015 semester.  (The current idea/plan is to deploy the survey so it coincides with the collection of academic library data for the IPEDS survey – formerly for the National Center for Education Statistics Academic Library Survey [NCES ALS].)

Exit Surveys

The chair received 5 exit surveys, 4 of which were duplicates, all dated 11/14/14, spanning a few hours of time.  They are included below:

(4 duplicates)
Leaving: Erie Community College   Rank:Professor
 Retiring: yes
   
 Reasons for leaving:

Name: (Removed to protect anonymity) Leaving: (Removed to protect Anonymity)   Rank: Senior Assistant Librarian
 Retiring: no
 Leaving the profession: NO
 New position: (Removed to protect anonymity)
 
 Reasons for leaving:
 Salary: I'm getting a significant bump, plus they're paying my moving expenses.
 Technology: They have the resources to really build up their [specific collection].
Relocate:
Budget:
Support: [This institution’s] budget is getting shaved every year, [the new institution] is investing $48 million in their library.
Advancement:
Tenure: Our tenure requirements are somewhat vague and can be interpreted with varying degrees of rigor depending on the candidate. They have a very objective points system there.

Next PPC Meeting
January 27, 2015
1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

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Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
01/22/15

 
Personnel Policies Committee Meeting
December 5, 2014
Agenda

1)  Welcome & Introductions
•   Personal Backgrounds

2)  SUNYLA Salary Survey
•   Historically…
•   Location of Documents on website
•   2006 survey (Appendix A)
•   What do we want?  What do we think about previous surveys and data?
o   should be comparable to much of the previous survey to enable data analysis…but…improvements??
•   Outreach ideas – very important!  Need to follow up to increase representative sample

3)  Other SUNY librarian personnel issues
•   Brainstorming…
•   Prioritization

4)  Exit Survey

6

November 14, 2014 Council Meeting @SUNY Albany / Personnel Policies Committee Report

« on: November 13, 2014, 11:53:59 AM »

Please review this report at your convenience.  (FYI -- Not very much to report upon since the last meeting...)

Eugene Harvey
Buffalo State.

Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
11/14/14

Committee Appointees

The chair received a list of interested committee candidates from the president, and individuals on this list were emailed to reach out and confirm interest in serving.  Based on the replies, the following SUNYLA members were appointed:

(Eugene Harvey, Chair, Buffalo State)
Kevin McCoy, Suffolk Community College
Jill Locascio, College of Optometry
Chris Keough, University at Buffalo

A Doodle poll has been sent to schedule the first virtual committee meeting, likely in early December.

SUNYLA Salary Survey

The development and administration of the SUNYLA Salary Survey will be the committee’s highest short-term priority.  The committee will discuss and strategize its development and deployment across SUNY library systems, with the goal of completion tentatively set for the end of the Spring 2015 semester.  (The current idea/plan is to deploy the survey so it coincides with the collection of academic library data for the IPEDS survey – formerly for the National Center for Education Statistics Academic Library Survey [NCES ALS].)

Exit Surveys

No exit surveys were received since the past meeting.

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Respectfully submitted,

Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
11/14/14

7

September 26, 2014 Council Meeting @SUNY IT / Personnel Policies Committee Report

« on: September 24, 2014, 10:58:25 AM »

Hello there,

Here is the report for the Personnel Policies Committee.  As new chair, I welcome feedback on what to include in future reports!

Thank you,

Eugene Harvey
SUNY Buffalo State