NEWS
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Although the headline reads "Assembly plans vigil on Sept. 11, voter drive," the Daily's story about last night's MSA meeting doesn't discuss anything about their plans for 9/11, which generated some controversy last year.The Daily also finally reports on the closing of the Residence Hall Libraries, which will be "transformed" into something called "Community Learning Centers" by next fall:
" ... Along with the service and programming changes have come changes in staffing. Ray-Johnson said four of the 12 head Residence Hall Librarian positions have been eliminated. She said no RHLs were laid off due to the switch.
The RHLs unionized last spring, joining the University's Graduate Employees Organization, which raised wages and specified more benefits for workers - an event that GEO alleges spurred the elimination of the RHL positions.
"The RHLs worked for over a year to become part of the Graduate Employees' Organization and to win their first contract. ... This is a clear retaliation against these workers' efforts to improve their working conditions," said GEO President Dave Dobbie in a written statement.
But Ray-Johnson said there was no relationship between the unionization and the elimination of RHL positions. "We went through negotiations with good faith," she said. "We will continue to use graduate students."
...
Ray-Johnson also said all head librarians who returned from last year were given positions in Bursley and East Quad. She said there will be a reduced number of Library Information Assistants, library positions typically held by undergraduates. She did not know if those positions would be available in the CLC setup."
If by "reduced number" she means "fired almost all abruptly."
Posted by Rob at 9:49 AM
