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Published: May 19, 2009

“Like burning the furniture to keep warm”

USF may sell rare books, valuable art if “economic emergency” develops

Some faculty members at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco are up in arms over economic contingency plans that include selling some of the university’s rare books collection and auctioning off pieces of valuable art owned by the school, the Foghorn, USF’s official student newspaper reports.

“The possibility of selling items from the Donahue Rare Book Room in the Gleeson Library has garnered the strongest responses from faculty members,” the Foghorn reported. “USF history professor Martin A. Claussen is one of several faculty members concerned about the future of USF’s collection of historic items, noting that USF has already consigned a collection of prints by Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer to an auction house.”

“Selling parts of the library collection in order to pay current costs is like burning the furniture to keep warm,” Claussen told the student newspaper.

The university “is sifting through a range of university assets and compiling a list of items that may be expendable in an economic emergency,” said the Foghorn, but USF president Fr. Stephen Privett told the newspaper, “We are not selling anything right now.”

With regard to the Dürer prints, Fr. Privett told the Foghorn, “They were discovered by accident. We have an art gallery, not a museum. We didn’t have a place for them.” Though the collection has yet to be sold, once it is, the money would be used for an endowment to support the library, Fr. Privett told the newspaper.

If the time comes where USF is so financially strapped it needs to sell some pieces of its rare books collection, only “non-book items, duplicate volumes, or single volumes, not part of a series or collection” would be sold, Fr. Privett told the Foghorn. Most of the proceeds from the sale of items in the rare books collection – if any are sold – would be used for renovating the Rare Books Room and protecting existing pieces of the collection, Fr. Privett said.

But Professor Claussen is apparently not buying Fr. Privett’s explanation. “Selling items in the Rare Book Room to pay for renovations that would keep them safe? That logic sounds odd,” he told the Foghorn, adding that he was also concerned about USF selling items that were given to the university as gifts.

“The concern over the list may have more to do with USF’s recent actions in similar situations,” reported the Foghorn. “Years ago, a former USF library director discarded a number of science and math books from the Gleeson collection without input from the faculty. This led to a faculty uprising that gave birth to a coalition of librarians, faculty, and staff who set procedures for weeding through collections. The procedure allows professors from affected departments to view and make amendments to the list.”

Fr. Privett expressed a willingness to follow that procedure, according to the Foghorn, but with a caveat: “What [professors] don’t know is I know when and how often these books are checked out and used,” said Fr. Privett. “Should professors who use them have a say? I think so. I’ll leave it to the library to handle that.”

Despite faculty concerns, Fr. Privett said the development of a list of items from the rare books collection that could be sold is moving forward. “Never say never,” he told the student newspaper. “It’s possible that they could be sold one day. It’s also possible that one day we may sell Lone Mountain.” Lone Mountain is a conference center owned by USF described on the university web site as “providing customized, full-service quality meeting and catering facilities amidst the award winning grounds at the University of San Francisco.”

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