ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 652/C&RL News Every Librarian a Leader On chairing a campus committee B y Priscilla Atkins an d Jean L. Loup Two librarians describe their experiences as leaders O n May 2, 1996, the Academic and Re­search Libraries Division of the Michigan Library Association presented Becoming Be­ yond-Library-Walls Leaders, a one-day program L e a d e r s h i p a t H o p e C o lle g e By Priscilla Atkins When I first sat down to think about what as­ pects o f my experiences as chair o f the Com­ mittee on Women’s Studies & Programs at Hope College would be meaningful to share, I tried to focus on the general, and hence broadly ap­ plicable facets of my own experience. For in­ stance: serving on a committee gives the library visibility, allows for networking within the larger community, lets librarians meet face-to-face with faculty in a setting other than the library, offers an opportunity to slip in advertising for the library’s services, etc. But I realized one could deduce these phenomena from common sense, that I had been aware of them before I ever served on a campus committee, that there was no sense telling you what you already knew. So I decided to share some of the nitty gritty details from my own particular experience. Getting in vo lved At Hope College, faculty (and librarians are considered faculty there) are asked at the end of each year what committees they have an interest in serving on. In the spring o f 1995, the end of my first year as a reference librarian at the Hope College Library, I indicated an in­ o f speeches and conversations on a topic that is— and will continue to be— on the minds of many academic librarians. The keynote address was given by then ACRL president Patricia Senn Breivik. As part of the reactor panel following Breivik’s speech, two librarians, Priscilla Atkins and Jean Loup, spoke about their particular ex­ periences involving beyond-library-walls lead­ ership. Following are their speeches. terest in the Committee on Women’s Studies & Programs. In fact, due to confusion on my part, I actually told the Provost’s Office that I thought I already was on this committee. Earlier in the year I had answered a campus e-mail query from the woman (whom I’d never met) who organizes Women’s Week at Hope. She then invited me to be on a committee to help plan the following year’s Women’s Week. When the “Call for Committee Volunteers” arrived from the Provost’s Office in the spring o f my first year at the college, I didn’t know what to make of it: either I hadn’t been told or I wasn’t listen­ ing to know this happened every year, that I should give the names of several committees, that librarians usually aren’t appointed to com­ mittees early on in their careers. In my igno­ rance, I was fearful o f being appointed to too many committees— not too few. So when I re­ sponded, I said something to the effect that I thought serving on the Women’s Committee would be enough, not realizing that these are officially decided appointments, and certainly not positions one appoints oneself to. The pro­ vost was gracious enough to overlook my lack of experience, and during the summer I was informed o f my appointment to the Committee on Women’s Studies and Programs. (Atkins cont. on page 654) Priscilla Atkins is social sciences reference librarian at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, e-mail atkinsp@hope.edu; Jean L. Loup is assistant to the dean of the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, e-mail: jeanloup@umich.edu mailto:atkinsp@hope.edu November 1996/653 Lead ersh ip a t the U n iversity of M ichigan By Jean L. Loup What was my role beyond library walls? In early 1994 I was elected chair o f the faculty of the University of Michigan (UM) for a one-year term beginning May 1, 1994. This role involved chairing the faculty’s Executive Committee dur­ ing its weekly meetings, the agendas of which included an hour once a month with both the president and the provost. I also chaired the monthly meetings of the Faculty Senate Assem­ bly and the annual meeting of the faculty. How did I get there? I had been active in faculty governance and the local chapter of the American Association o f University Professors (AAUP) for 20 years, including service on a number of faculty committees and a term as president of the AAUP chapter. I had also served an earlier term on the faculty’s Executive Com­ mittee and had chaired the University’s Budget Priorities Committee, a faculty/administration committee advisory to the provost on aca­ demic budget matters. What was happen­ ing there? The climate for faculty governance in 1993– 94 at UM had b ecom e seriously strained. Communica­ tion between this elected faculty group and the president and provost was difficult at best, and in response those faculty elected to the group were angry and ready to take some action against the university and its leadership. At the first meeting in May, my first as chair, they voted to challenge the provost to take action on a grievance matter and threatened him with a vote of censure. What is interesting at this point— especially now that I look back— is how much support I had— informal, behind-the-scenes support— which helped to defuse the situation. By fall 1994 the president was making a good effort at listening to the concerns o f the faculty, and the whole situation began to lose its crisis nature. What experience did I have? Because we librarians do so much of our work through com­ mittees, I took to this campuswide position the knowledge o f how to do my committee home­ work, the importance of attendance and being on time, how to contribute to the discussion, and how to run a meeting. These skills are not common among all faculty, and in a wider cam­ pus setting they give librarians a credibility from which we benefit. What knowledge o f the campus did I have? We often speak of the library being the heart o f the university without recognizing how this provides us with a breadth of knowledge about the institution that few faculty have. We read the campus newspapers, the Chronicle o f Higher Education, and other materials that keep us aware of what is happening on campus and in higher education more broadly. I took this awareness with me— awareness o f campus and national issues— and it proved beneficial. What on-the-job skills did I have? We li­ brarians have a number o f on-the-job skills, re­ quired by our work, which prove to be invalu­ able in a campuswide setting. We know how to find information, we know how to negotiate (e.g., the reference in­ terview or cataloging decisions), w e know how to plan and how to implement a plan, we are good problem solv­ ers, and w e have an ability to listen. I took these skills to a situation in which I found myself flying by the seat of my pants, especially in those first few months. If these skills had not been well established, I could not have been effective. There’s one other skill that we learn, espe­ cially at the reference desk: how to keep what we are thinking from showing on our face— what an important skill to have when one is dealing with angry faculty or administrators! And a corollary: I was told later that I had the facil­ ity o f putting an issue on the table without emo­ tion which enabled discussion to occur. What did this leadership experience mean to the library? During my year as chair, librarians at the University of Michigan gained emeritus status. This had been in the wings, but finally moved forward. In addition, the li­ brary received funding for three positions from a pool reserved for faculty appointments. There (Loup cont. on page 655) I took these skills to a situation in which I found myself flying by the seat of m y pants.. . . If these skills had not been w ell established, I could not have been effective. 654/C&RL News (Atkins cont. from page 652) An in tro vert step s fo rw a rd In August, much to my surprise, I received a message from the Provost’s Office asking if I would be willing to chair the committee. Since my prior experience in academic librarianship was at an institution where the librarians were not on equal footing with the faculty, at least not as far as campus governance goes, this was heady and slightly frightening news. The “fright” was for at least a couple of reasons. First, I am an introvert to the point that I have been called “skewed” on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I like being with people one-on-one and, oddly enough, I love teaching, but chairing a com­ Y es, I w a s in the hot seat on at least one occasion, and yes, I sometimes felt I w a s putting myself at risk, but if I am asked to serve as chair again, I w ill. mittee has never been a position I would have sought out or that I thought I would be good at. Second, I am the type o f person who keeps her faculty handbook tucked neatly away on an office bookshelf. If you had asked me a year ago what the contents o f this spiral-bound, orange-covered book were, I couldn’t have told you; though I certainly have always gone on faith that such items as a “Description o f Boards and Standing Committees,” “Policy on Academic Freedom,” and “Sexual Harassment and Griev­ ance Procedure” are good and useful things to have somewhere in my general vicinity, even if I never really find the time to look at them. Though, thankfully, my service as chair of the Committee on Women’s Studies & Programs did not require either a total lobotomy o f my hermit-like personality or that I memorize en­ tire sections of a handbook, it did ask that I garner my strengths o f organization, research, writing, and timeliness, as well as enjoy the company o f the bright, energetic individuals who served on the committee this past year. The nitty gritty In order to describe the details of one of the issues the committee was involved with this year, I need to give a brief description o f the setting in which they took place. Hope College is a small, liberal arts college (enrollment 2,700) that is affiliated with the Reformed Church of America. The affiliation with a particular de­ nomination does not mean that Hope College expects or wants all faculty and students to hold the same beliefs and views; it does mean that it takes the whole person— mind, body, and spirit— seriously. In January the dean o f the Chapel at Hope College gave a sermon regard­ ing the use o f masculine language to speak about God. To promote discussion and ensure that more than one viewpoint was presented on this theological topic, the committee helped sponsor a presentation and discussion entitled “God, Mom & Apple Pie: Is It All Right to Call God Mother?” There was a large student turn­ out to this evening event at which lively discussion took place. I was fortunate to have been able to help by organiz­ ing the planning sessions prior to the event, not to mention helping to see that all o f the pie got eaten. Another issue that the committee ad­ dressed concerned the proposal of a new core curriculum, which had been in development for more than a year. The committee was pleased that the proposal designated courses across the curriculum to include cultural diversity components. How­ ever, flagging courses on paper does not a re­ ality make. To help ensure a successful inte­ gration o f these components, the committee wrote a letter to the Academic Affairs Board outlining specific steps that needed to be taken. For instance, departments would need to have a method for assessing the courses flagged for cultural diversity. As chair, I wrote and sent the letter. To do so required a closer reading of the proposal than I had done previously. It also meant giving more thought to issues I really do care about than I would have otherwise. A final example of this year’s activities is the committee’s attention to the failure of the college to appoint a sexual harassment policy educator, a position integral to the effective implementation o f the Sexual Harassment Policy. This involved a memo to yet another board and a follow-up meeting with the presi­ dent o f the college. I wrote the former, and led the delegation to the latter. Since the Faculty Handbook names the president as the person who appoints the educator, I approached my responsibilities with some trepidation (librar­ ians at Hope have faculty status, but are nontenure track); however, it was again worth­ while and even interesting to take the time to November 1996/655 study the “Policy Statement on Sexual Harass­ ment and Grievance Procedure” in the Faculty Handbook. O pportunities open up This brief overview o f some o f the committee’s w ork hopefully gives a sense o f the type o f activities this librarian was involved with out­ side the library walls. I can honestly say that this work was both fulfilling and enjoyable. Yes, I was in the hot seat on at least one occasion, and yes, I sometimes felt I was putting myself at risk, but if I am asked to serve as chair again, I will. Not only did it allow m e to use some o f my talents to serve a good cause, it also opened up opportunities I didn’t even know existed. For instance, I was invited to attend a regional w om en’s studies conference, and the director o f w om en ’s studies has suggested to the ad­ ministration that I take a more active role in w om en ’s studies leadership by attending a se­ ries o f triannual regional meetings in the up­ coming academic year. Inviting o n es elf to the table Finally, I want to echo a couple o f thoughts that Patricia Senn Breivik spoke o f in her key­ note address: the wisdom in inviting oneself to the table and the importance o f participation in community. Although I arrived on the Com­ mittee on W om en’s Studies & Programs by ac­ cident and was named chair by default (n o ­ body else was willing or able), in the future I will be more assertive about my willingness to serve. In the age o f the global community it is clear that w e all live in many communities. The academic communities in which w e librarians live can and should be influenced and cared for by us. W e can make a difference. (Loup cont. from page 653) had been hesitation about including librarian appointments until the chair o f the faculty was a librarian. Other than these concrete examples, I think it is too soon to assess the long-term impact on the library. O ne other lesson fo r librarians O ne final lesson, which I think is absolutely critical: w e as librarians need to act with confi­ dence in our skills and abilities, assuming w e have the respect o f the faculty, rather than be apologetic for not having a doctorate or other credentials. ■