Regarding GSLIS

GSLIS is in a good condition to weather the storm; it seems that interest in Library School is still going strong. This past semester has seen the highest number of students at GSLIS (although this hasn't translated into the highest number of credit hours), it is still a significant milestone. There are no plans to increase enrollment - as the acceptance rate is already high (check here for some interesting numbers and comparisons with other LIS schools). The recent cuts announced by the College will not affect the students directly - outside of the occasional request from your professor to print your own materials for class.

Dean Cloonan believes that the accreditation process will not bring any surprises. GSLIS still has some areas of improvement (most notably, in her opinion, is improving the advising process for the incoming students), but there are plans in place to address these shortcomings (implementing new formats for the Advising Day, the opening of the Student Services office, etc.).

Regarding the students

Without trying to sound too gloomy-and-doomy, you may have noticed that the economy is not doing too spectacularly (an euphemism, if I ever used one). It seems like the things will get worse before they will get better; most of the universities around Boston have announced hiring freezes or budget cuts and it seems like some of these are preemptive measures, in anticipation of even harder times.
The key word for the students seems to be "flexibility" - which means choosing a second area of concentration (in order to expand the types the jobs that one could apply for), willingness to invest in finding an internship/ volunteering/ part-time library job way before graduating from the program, willingness to relocate, networking- networking- networking, etc.

What about GSLIS?

The advantage that GSLIS has is that it has to go through an accreditation process before 2010, so the cuts will be minimal. As the budget of the school is spent to the tune of 93% on salaries (and there are no plans to lay off anybody), the most of the cuts will be made in the remaining 7% (apparently the biggest expenditure on the Boston campus is the photocopying budget), to he tune of approximately 50,000.
The main point of concern for GSLIS - as far as the accreditation process is concerned - is the percentage of classes being taught by adjunct faculty. GSLIS had a plan of hiring 4 new faculty members, but the budget for these positions has also been cut - although not completely.

The following are the notes from the faculty meeting on November 4:

Address to GSLIS Faculty & Staff by President Helen Drinan

* The President went over the primary area of the Board’s current focus, she then answered questions from the faculty and staff. Highlights were:

* The Board is working to address the financial challenges Simmons College is facing given the state of the macro-economy. There is a credit crunch and short-term cash shortages all across higher education in the country.

* The President is waiting to make her recommendation about raises for faculty until the February Board meeting.

* There is currently a hiring freeze at the College (i.e. the standard is to not hire, the exception is to fill positions.)

* The College has already made reductions (in things, not people) and will continue to reductions wherever possible and evaluate effectiveness.

* GSLIS has an accreditation visit coming up (Fall 2010) and the question was raised that more full-time faculty may be needed before that time.

* Simmons will continue to invest in GSLIS due in part to the school’s national ranking and captive market, and will try to continue to grow programs like CE, non-residency on-line programs, and blended learning.

Budget

* There are College-wide budged cuts being asked of all the schools, including GSLIS. Some line-items have already been trimmed, at this point photocopying is the largest line item of the non-salary budget (at over $20,000 a year) and that is the current item GSLIS is going to cut down on in order to meet the demands of the College-wide cuts.

New Business

* Adrian on behalf of LISSA asked professors to distribute evaluations the second to last class of the semester, just in case the final class of the semester is canceled due to weather. Dean Cloonan is going to check if that is already in the implementation guidelines and email a reminder to faculty.

* The title of LIS 492 is now Management Theory for Leading and Working Effectively in Organizations.

* The proposed and revised mission statement was passed.

So, save the date (Wednesday, November 12) and keep an eye out (although I recommend 2, lest you want it to pop right out) for updates.

Check them out, (ab)use them, let me know what you think!

Welcome aboard !

Please consider making a donation to the 'Professor Allen Smith' Scholarship Fund; you can make a check payable to:

Simmons College
Memo: Professor Smith Scholarship Fund

Checks can be mailed to:

Simmons College GSLIS
Attn: Professor Smith Scholarship Fund
300 The Fenway
Boston, MA 02115

... I am thinking of putting some information on the weekly announcement /blog about the most recent Faculty Curriculum meeting. For example, one of the interesting things was the update on the Simmons College's project of putting the student evaluations online (some of you have taken part in this pilot this summer). More details are available on the LISSA wiki: http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/lissa/Summary_of_09/10/08_Meeting

For those that don't know ...

The GSLIS Faculty meets every month to discuss issues related to School - for example, reports from the Rank and Tenure and Technology Committees, hiring of new faculty members, potential collaboration with other schools, etc.

There are also a number of Curriculum meetings, where the focus is on the curriculum evaluation and development (and also Advising Day issues). The students (represented by LISSA) are invited to take part in these meetings and we are also asked to relay any feedback from you to the Faculty.

So, if you have any questions/concerns/comments about the School, do let me know and I will make sure that your voice will be heard.

Also ...

We (that is, LISSA) strongly believe that you have the right (and responsibility) to make an informed decision when choosing your courses. These tools (along with your adviser and your fellow students) are an invaluable source of information that will make choosing a course a lot less stressful.

...

Furthermore...

... starting with the month of October we will change the date when the LISSA officers will be available. This way, we are hoping to "catch" as many of the GSLIS students.

Depending on the level of interest from the students, we will consider expanding these meetings to twice a week.

.

Take a look at the descriptions for positions (available here: http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/lissa/LISSA_Elections). If you'd like to be a part of LISSA, or if you know someone interested, fill out the information on this nomination page.

If you need some more arguments...

Both of these positions offer great visibility in GSLIS, not to mention that you get to talk to the Simmons faculty members outside of the classroom and take a closer look at the inner workings of the School. These positions are excellent stepping stones for bigger and brighter things in LISSA (wink-wink).

For the secretary position, the amount of work required is fairly small and distributed all throughout the semester. Hannah Sears is our current secretary and she can give you some more information.

For the student-faculty representatives positions, the work involves attending the Faculty meetings (always on Wednesdays) and occasional meetings with the Curriculum Advisory Committee. If you want more information on this position, you can contact me (Adrian).

Volunteer early !

This week's posting will be short: just a few words about myself (only fitting, since you'll probably be receiving messages from me from now on - might as well know who's clogging your Inbox with messages) and a few words on the upcoming GSLISCE workshops.

Cheers,
Adrian Mitescu
LISSA President

Whoa whoa whoa, where did the semester go? Well my fellow Library students, classes are ending, people are graduating, the weather is starting to behave itself, and summer is right around the corner. So before you head off to break for the lovely month of May, check out what is happening in your GSLIS neck of the woods.

The following posts include LISSA elections (nominate yourself!), LISSA evaluations, EoS Paar-tay, upcoming workshops, FREE coffee, and a mentoring presentation.

Best,
Cheryl Kohen
LISSA President, Boston

LISSA wiki