Faculty Senate Resolution Regarding the Gulf Park Library June 10, 2005

The USM Gulf Park Library is the architectural “jewel” of the Gulf Park campus. The open, beautiful 3 rd floor of the library is the main repository of the library's books and contains almost sixty percent of the building's study seating. An existing plan calls for subdividing the north wing of the 3 rd floor into classrooms at a cost of $200,000 - $250,000. An additional amount would be necessary to restore the library back to its original condition after classrooms are constructed on the campus.

For the following reasons the USM Faculty Senate resolves that all plans for converting portions of the library at Gulf Park to temporary classroom space be halted.

1. The academic program need for library collection and study space is so great, especially given the 20 percent average annual growth being projected by the Gulf Park Master Planning Group, that the library conversion would hamper the delivery and quality of programs at Gulf Park , the main USM center on the Coast. 
The 3 rd floor of the library is the main repository for its books. The 3rd floor classroom conversion would impinge upon space for collection development and severely curtail space for current stacks and faculty/student study, in clear violation of the American Library Association square footage per student standards, and this during a SACS reaffirmation period.
3. Even the architects and planners acknowledge that the conversion would raise noise and foot traffic to the point where it would interfere with the normal function of the library.
4. The library conversion would violate the spirit of the “Bricks to Books” campaign by which the USM community, staff, alumni, local corporations and other supporters pledged tens of thousands of dollars to the library as it was planned and built. The University's acceptance of these monies for the library is a sacred trust with those contributors.
5. The perceived classroom crunch at Gulf Park results largely from the lack of any coordinated inter-college academic scheduling process for USM-Gulf Coast . The Gulf Park Advanced Education Center (AEC), Holloway Complex and the former Business College Building classrooms are demonstrably underutilized during the day. If properly coordinated and scheduled, these existing classroom spaces would ease the crunch that supposedly necessitates the library conversion.
6. The “Executive MBA (EMBA) Program” that the library conversion was planned to accommodate appears to be permanently tabled and the Dean of the College of Business publicly stated that no dedicated classroom space for the EMBA was going to be necessary at Gulf Park since on-campus class meetings for such a program would be limited to weekends when the AEC, the prime classroom space at Gulf Park, is very lightly used.
7. Infrastructure-dedicated monies slated for the library conversion could be better expended on either renovation of other existing space into classrooms or for the acquisition of portable classrooms.

Further, the Faculty Senate resolves that instead of converting library space to classrooms the administration pursue some or all of the following alternatives.

1. Determine whether additional on-campus space will soon become available for classrooms (for example, in Elizabeth Hall).
2. Determine whether space is available for temporary use as classrooms at nearby churches and hotels.
3. Acquire portable classrooms for deployment at Gulf Park , either as classrooms, or as auxiliary space (such as for the bookstore, or offices) or both.
4. Establish a USM-Gulf Coast scheduling authority to assure optimum coordination and use of available space, thus spreading classes over more daytime periods and over all four nights, and eliminating the two nights a week classroom crunch that ostensibly requires the library conversion.

Last Modified: July 27, 2005 1:40 PM
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