With the recent completion of the Library Addition and Renovation project, it seems like a good moment to reflect on those areas still in need of attention. While the $76 million project has addressed some major needs of the campus and the library itself, there are still critical problems facing the staff who work in the building every day.
A recent study by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that 98.6 percent of UCSB clerical support staff do not make enough to support themselves and a child on their salary in the Santa Barbara area. The situation in the library is even worse. The library assistants who directly serve the campus community are hurt twice — first, by being forced to stay in an outdated job classification that does not reflect the high level of their professional library work, and then again as UCSB salaries are among the lowest of all UC campuses.
In 2014 the library employed 82 library assistants who made, on average, $34,596.63. To put that in perspective, the median family income for Santa Barbara is $75,400. The EPI study calculated that you need $59,268 to meet your basic needs, and none of the library assistants received that kind of salary. Worse yet, 61 of these staff members meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of low income.