meeting 4

MLIS student:
How is just changing the name going to attract all these new professors and new ideas?

Schement:
What we didn't say is that we're also in the process of reimagining ourselves
when our colleagues across the country were in hiring freezes, we've hired 5, maybe 6 faculty, each of whom speak across the boundaries of the department
one person who studies video games - does he belong in media? LIS? where should we put him? we put him in the library program, we think that kind of stimulation is vitally important
we need to explain why this is remaking us as a school - our competitive advantage is that we do things other instititions can't

MLIS student:
Why didn't you explain this before just announcing that you were changing the name?

Schement:
We didn't have a public meeting but we talked to some people
We talked to some students very early on, in all the programs, and right around the time of the vote
We didn't say "can we have permission"
It's been public, it's been floating around for 20 years
30-10-1 vote
secret ballot
20 years from now, open question, names change
was this an effort of all the faculty to gang up on the library faculty? as far as we can tell that wasn't the case
other people have suggested that we're not being true to our roots
our oldest rooted program is the undergrad journalism program, 1926
second is undergrad library service, 1927
two very important professional roots, but they wouldn't be here if we didn't have an intellectual focus
we attract a lot of students because they want to be where a first-rate faculty are
value of degree wouldn't be there if we weren't a reserach university

MLIS alum:
issue is process, commodization of students
Douglass college debacle
were told that students weren't supposed to find out until it went through
profession is struggling for air, we need to defend it every day
this forum needed to happen sooner, even if it were just a gesture
students feel that we're here to fund the faculty research
we hardly knew about it
it's one more fight that we've been struggling with