The LAUC-I membership welcomes the opportunity to respond to your proposal to delegate all librarian review actions to the University Librarian. We engaged in extensive, open discussions that identified both benefits of and concerns about this proposal. As our discussions progressed, it became evident that there was not unilateral support for the proposal to delegate all librarian review actions to the University Librarian as outlined in your memo dated June 11, 1999. This memo summarizes LAUC-I' s response to the delegation of each of the review actions and is followed by a recommendation for continued monitoring and assessment.

The majority of the membership who participated in the discussion support delegating authority for the following review actions: appointments, uncontested one-step merits, contested one step merits, uncontested no actions, contested no actions, career status, accelerated merits and promotions. The majority did not support delegating authority for terminations or advancement to Librarian V. Due to their inherently controversial nature, these actions were identified as meriting an objective and thorough review by the AEVC and the Office of Academic Personnel.

Through our discussion, we were able to identify significant benefits of delegation. The University Librarian is much closer to the Libraries as an organization than the Office of Academic Personnel or the Associate Executive Vice Chancellor. He or she has an intimate understanding of the profession of librarianship and experience to judge the quality of a librarian's professional performance and contributions. The University Librarian is committed to the success of the organization and is in a position to allocate time and resources to developing and refining a process that will ensure the best reviews for all librarians. In addition, the UL is ultimately responsible for the performance of the organization and should have the authority to appoint personnel who will work successfully to achieve the library's goals.

Concerns about the delegation of authority emerged which warrant attention. The issues most often discussed were those of neutrality of judgement, fairness, and equity in the application of review criteria to individual librarians. In addition, the delegation of authority to the University Librarian removes one layer of review for all librarians; this is seen by some to be particularly problematic in the case of those librarians who report directly to Associate University Librarians. For those who do not support delegation, the AEVC and the Office of Academic Personnel are perceived as being able to provide a more objective reading of individual files than the University Librarian is. Some members expressed concern about the impact of delegating authority for all or most review actions on the workload of the Libraries Personnel Office.

LAUC-I members also felt that delegating librarian review actions to the UL is still in a period of initiation for the UL, LAUC-I, and Library Personnel Office, and that oversight and evaluation are needed.

In view of these discussions, the LAUC-I membership developed a recommendation concerning the delegation of authority to the University Librarian for consideration by the EVC. The majority of LAUC-I members support the proposal that the University Librarian have the authority to make the final decision on the following librarian review actions: uncontested one-step merit increases, contested one step merit increases, uncontested no actions, contested no actions, career status, accelerated merit increases, and promotions. We propose that the University Librarian also have the authority to approve appointments. We recommend that the EVC and the Office of Academic Personnel retain the authority to make the final decision on terminations and advancement to Librarian V. Further, we propose that these delegations be implemented as a two-year pilot project during the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 review cycles. At the end of the pilot project period, the results of the delegation of authority to the University Librarian will receive a full review by LAUC-I, the EVC, the University Librarian, the Library Personnel Office, the Office of Academic Personnel and other appropriate parties.

If you have any questions regarding this response, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at 824-4972 or by electronic mail to cpalmer@uci.edu.

cc:	Assistant Vice-Chancellor Pat Price Jiwon Kim, Senior Academic Personnel Specialist