CUNY Librarians and Faculty Status: Past, Present, and Future
Librarians in the City University of New York system have held faculty ranks since 1965, but their faculty status dates back two decades further. How did they achieve faculty status and faculty ranks? What role did their professional association (LACCNY, later known as LACUNY) play? Is their status secure?
Faculty Status for Librarians in Higher Education
The ACRL Standards for Faculty Status for College and University Librarians state that library faculty should have the same privileges and responsibilities as other faculty on campus. However, some conditions, such as tenure and equitable salaries, are often withheld from library faculty. When faculty status is implemented by ACRL standards, it is associated with better job satisfaction, improved status, higher salaries, and more opportunities for professional development. However, faculty status librarians face pressure to do research, publish, and attend meetings. These responsibilities detract from time spent on traditional librarianship duties and often from personal time as well. In addition, economists believe that faculty status will eventually lead to a decreased demand for librarians because of the diversion of energy away from librarianship. Faculty status for librarians is positively correlated with indicators of student achievement, such as graduation rates and pursuit of graduate-level education. However, it is interesting to note that librarian faculty status is also associated with decreased research output of the institution as a whole.
Effects of Racial Diversity on Complex Thinking in College Students
Are experiment varying the racial (Black, White) and opinion composition in small-group discussions was conducted with college students (N = 357) at three universities to test for effects on the perceived novelty of group members' contributions to discussion and on participants' integrative complexity. Results showed that racial and opinion minorities were both perceived as contributing to novelty. Generally positive effects on integrative complexity were found when the groups had racial-and opinion-minority members and when members reported having racially diverse friends and classmates. The findings are discussed in the context of social psychological theories of minority influence and social policy implications for affirmative action. The research supports claims about the educational significance of race in higher education, as well as the complexity of the interaction of racial diversity with contextual and individual factors.