At a Friday morning faculty meeting, the assembled members voted by a wide margin to remove the position of University librarian from the tenure structure. This change will allow for more flexibility in future hiring, according to officials. Endowed chairs will also be filled as a result of the move.

"We wanted future Brandeis searches for [University librarian] to have the flexibility to choose the best person for the position, even if that person would not be a candidate for tenure, or even interested in tenure given their professional profile," wrote Prof. Eric Chasalow (MUS), chair of the faculty senate, in an email to the Justice. "But we did not want to preclude the person serving as [University librarian] from being tenured either."

Chief Information Officer John Unsworth also explained the motivation behind the change in an interview with the Justice. "I actually asked them to remove University librarian from the tenure system," he explained. Placing the position in the tenure system prevented University librarians or people with additional qualifications, like Unsworth, from holding endowed chairs that currently exist but are unfilled.

"There are actually a couple of endowments for chairs that are located in the library," said Unsworth. One was founded in 1997, as part of the 50th anniversary of the Brandeis National Committee, with $2.5 million. Another endowed chair for University librarian, created in 1962, is named for Jacob and Bertha Goldfarb, who donated to build the Goldfarb Library.

Where tenure systems are concerned, "libraries are always kind of an edge case," explained Unsworth in an interview with the Justice. Librarians' status in the tenure system varies from school to school, he said. In four-year liberal arts colleges, including librarians in the faculty is more common, whether they are part of the tenure structure or not. On the other hand, research universities tend to treat their librarians as administrative professionals.

According to Unsworth, University librarian was added to the tenure system at Brandeis around 2008.

Brandeis does not currently employ any University librarians, although there are two associate librarians: Sherry Keen and Pat Flanagan. Associate librarian is "in no way involved" in the tenure system, said Unsworth.

-Tate Herbert