When Garren Porter arrived at work on Oct. 14, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  

All he knew about what was happening came from an email sent by Eastern Illinois University President Jay Gatrell earlier that morning.  

After Porter’s coworker returned from a meeting and told him what happened, Porter was next to receive the news. 

“It was incredibly sudden,” he said.  

Porter is one of five positions laid off at Booth Library, in addition to one nonrenewal, as a result of the 44 staff position eliminations announced last month.  

Porter is a library assistant for the Library Technology Services desk, located on the 4000 level of the library, and he represents the desk on Staff Senate. 

Porter said that Gatrell’s email notifying all campus staff about the layoffs came out of nowhere. 

“Usually, things like this get spoken about to some extent and mentioned to employees at large,” Porter said. “The question of layoffs was brought up by Staff Senate, but nobody had heard anything about them.” 

Porter is also one of two student worker supervisors at the LTS desk, both of whom were laid off. Porter’s last day of work is Dec. 31. 

Whether or not the positions will be refilled is still uncertain, but Porter doesn’t expect it to happen. 

“Businesses and organizations thrive on new blood, and the fact that all of it is currently being kicked out is a very grim prospect indeed,” he said. “It would be a lie for me to say I’m not heartbroken to a certain extent.” 

Student workers impacted 

As a result of the layoffs, student workers at the LTS desk can expect to see lots of changes, said junior political science major John Slater, who works at the desk.  

These changes include the process of checking out cameras, the making of the work schedule with the library’s administration, and not having someone around to help the student workers perform their duties, according to Slater. 

“We no longer have somebody to ask that will know what to do,” Slater said. “Granted, somebody in the library might know, but that’s a phone call and then, ‘Oh, well, I’m dealing with somebody. I will be out there in 10 minutes,’ and so we have to just stand there awkwardly for 10 minutes as somebody’s on the other side of the desk looking at us waiting.” 

Slater also said that students may experience longer wait times because there will be fewer people at the LTS desk to help when the library gets busy after classes end.  

LTS student workers were notified about the layoffs by the other supervisor at the desk, Library Specialist Christie Otis. Other than that, students haven’t had much communication about the situation. This causes a level of uncertainty about the future, Slater said.  

“I think whatever does happen, we’ll make work. But, it’s been really agitating,” Slater said. “We aren’t sure what’s going to happen.” 

Operating and materials budgets cut 

In addition to the layoffs, Booth Library’s operating budget was cut by 3% and the materials budget was cut by $185,000 at the start of the current fiscal year, according to Vice President for Business Affairs Matt Bierman. 

Booth Library’s operating budget is used to run things in the library, such as printing paper or hosting events, while the materials budget is used to buy more books and journals to stock the shelves, according to Head of Scholarly Communications Todd Bruns. 

Bruns said that the operating budget’s cut was tough because there wasn’t much left after paying the subscription to remain a part of the Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois, which helps the library afford different databases. 

Slater said that he doesn’t like the budget cuts, due to their impact on students. He is particularly concerned about the materials budget cut. 

“If we see those books either diminish or just those books don’t grow over the next few years, that’s really going to hurt the student body,” Slater said. 

Booth Library’s future 

Bruns said plans regarding the future of the library are still being discussed. 

“We’re going to be talking through all of this and trying to figure out what’s the best way forward,” he said. 

One idea currently being considered is how the roles of those being laid off can be done differently or if certain roles will be let go, according to Bruns. 

For Porter, his next steps are updating his resume and sending out applications in search of a new job. 

“With the current job market, it’s rather difficult for this to be such short notice, but I can’t really do much about it but try and find another job,” he said. 

Luke Brewer can be reached at 581-2812 or at lsbrewer@eiu.edu.