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Three schools, one campus and the politics of possessing the past
By Ruthanne Johnson
rjohn180@mscd.edu

It may seem strange that Auraria’s Archives and Special Collections Department – an oft-overlooked repository for documents and collectibles – could become a hitch in campus politics. But the Auraria Library, which houses the department, is set up with a complexity that goes beyond its endless rows of books, computer work stations and quiet study spaces.

The library procures most of its material through funds pooled from all three Auraria schools – Metro, UCD and CCD – which can complicate even simple decisions.

“Currently the budget toward library expenditures, which is changing as we speak, is decided by a formula driven by enrollment,” said the soon-to-be-retired dean of the Auraria Library, David Gleim. “If enrollment goes up, the library’s budget goes up.”

Although simple to use, the formula does not address the broader issues concerning the different goals of the three schools, such as the difference in tuition costs.

“Ten years ago it was different. We had no policy, except that the three schools contributed on kind of an ad hoc basis. They could contribute whatever they wanted, and we never knew if we could pay the library employees or keep the lights on,” Gleim said, adding that under the shared cost formula the library has been lucky, because enrollment has been increasing every year.

But lurking behind this functioning relationship is the sticky issue of ownership of the thousands of books, computers and other library property purchased over the years with the pooled money. Auraria’s archives are wedged firmly in the middle of it all.

“We are a shared campus, a shared library with shared books and other resources of which students from each college freely use. The shared library system was originally set up as an egalitarian effort in 1976, and it works,” Gleim said, adding that when students come through the library doors they feel like it is theirs because there is nothing to overtly remind them of the other schools.

According to some library employees, however, the issue of ownership could become a problem if UCD, Metro or CCD decided at some point to move away from the Auraria Campus. With the addition of UCD’s Health and Sciences Center – which recently opened at the old Fitzsimmons military base – UCD would be most likely to consider a move. And the issue of ownership is delicately entwined with this recent administrative merge.

“An example I remember is of a case in Florida, where on a shared campus the community and state colleges went their separate ways. The library had to go through their property book by book, journal by journal, to divide up all the property, including technology,” Gleim said.

Auraria archivist Rosemary Evetts said a move by UCD is highly unlikely.

“But in the event that UCD ever decided to move, it would be kind of like a divorce,” Evetts said. “In that situation, the archives would not be a problem because those are each school’s records and official documents, which would be easy to identify and divide. But the special collections would take some time and effort, especially the more valued ones.”

In theory the archives belong to the Auraria Library, which falls under the UCD umbrella, said Mike Gryglewicz, a library tech and UCD English professor. And it would definitely be a problem if UCD relocated to Fitzsimmons, he said.

“We have a deed-of-gift form for donors, a legality that recently began. But most of our collections have no deed of gift formally signed. We just know where each collection came from and who donated it,” Evetts said, adding that in the case of a campus separation, archive employees would have to look at each collection and then determine where and how they got it before dividing it up appropriately.

“Lots of professors will bequeath papers to us, and the family will donate the collection to the archives to process it because we have the expertise and knowledge,” said Jennifer Goodland, a student assistant at the archives.

But if a donor does not designate to which college they want something donated, the property will fall to UCD, Evetts said.

Archive property protected under the UCD umbrella includes the highly valued Amache Japanese Relocation Center collection, some recently donated Civil War letters, the Donald Sutherland collection, and KOA’s “Colorado Reflections” audio series, among others.

“Most of what we have here falls to UCD, but there are some things that belong to Metro and a couple owned by CCD,” Evetts said.

While a move of any one of the three colleges from Auraria seems far-fetched, Evetts emphasized that anything can happen.

“Although a separation is extremely unlikely in the future – that each institution would want to take back their stuff – we never want to progress to the point of conflict,” she said.