My Banned Book Reading

The following is the introduction from my presentation at the Banned Books Reading in Morris Library. Following the reading, I received confirmation of the rumor that the request had been for the books to be destroyed. The dean, associate deans, and director at Morris Library have been suggesting alternatives, such as redaction or restricted access, to the University Legal Counsel that would protect the books while also protecting the privacy of students' records. 

The book that I’m reading from is special to me. On the inside cover there’s a bookplate with my name and note that it was put in the book in 2010 in honor of my five years of service to Morris Library. I could have put a book plate in any book in Morris Library outside of Special Collections and thought carefully about which book I would put it in. I sentimentally decided that I would choose a book and if I continued my career at SIU, I would put another book plate in the same book at my 10-year, 15-year and other special anniversaries of my employment. My book is the SIU Personnel Listing, sometimes called the Salary Book. This one in particular is the 2005-2006 Salary Book from when I started working at SIU.

On Tuesday afternoon, I received the following message from an associate dean in the library.

“If you are looking for the Personnel Listings (also known as the Salaries book) that was kept in the office collection, I have all the volumes upstairs.  We have been asked by Legal Counsel to pull these volumes from the shelves because they contain information about student employees (GA’s, TA’s, Research Assts, etc) and this violates FERPA laws.  I am waiting for further information before proceeding.  I will keep you posted.”

I’ve heard rumors that the original request made of the library administration was to destroy these books. I’ve also heard speculation and alternative stories about the reason for this request. Given that the timing of this announcement coincides closely with the timing of strike authorization votes for four unions on campus, union supporters and even some union opponents are wondering whether FERPA is being used to justify hiding other information about salaries on campus.

The odd thing about that conspiracy theory is that the information can cut both ways. The information in the book might lead someone to question the priorities of a university that pays its basketball coach not just more than its chancellor but more than twice as much as its chancellor. But it also might lead someone to question the amounts that the union presidents are paid. In Texas, the kind of information found in the Personnel Listing is being used to publicize the teaching loads of faculty relative to the amounts that they are paid. Quite simply, the salary books contain information to help concerned citizens understand how this public university spends money.

You’ll notice that I’m not going to read directly from the Personnel Listing but rather from a photocopied page of the book. I’ve redacted the graduate students’ information -- partly to protect myself from the trouble I could get into for reading this information and partly to point out that a lot more than just the graduate student information is being hidden by pulling these books and could be lost if the books are destroyed.