Academic Status at Minnesota

PRIOR to the middle 1950s, only the university librarian and the assistant university librarian held academic appointments in the University of Minnesota. One effort had been made, at an earlier date, to change the professional staff to faculty status, but this was unsuccessful. In 1955 it became possible to obtain full faculty rank for the heads of the major departments in the library system, but it was not until two years ago, in 1962, that it seemed feasible to make a further attempt to extend this status to other professional positions. For some time the university library had been experiencing increased difficulty in attracting and retaining well-qualified professional staff members. Rigid salary limitations governed its classified positions under . Civil Service. This permitted almost no flexibility in recognizing superior abilities. Salary increases were held to an annual 4 per cent change within a six-step range, beyond which staff members could not advance without a job reclassification or promotion to a different position. Under this system a good many staff members were "frozen" at their civil service maximums, and reward for individual merit was nearly impossible. It was clear that the time had come to reopen the question of academic status for more professional positions. Drawing upon various statements in the professional literature in support of the proposal, it was decided to request a change for a number of positions with policy responsibilities and those in which specialized professional and educational responsibilities were most nearly comparable to those of the faculty. Accordingly, it was requested that positions in the following three groups be removed from their previous civil service classifications