State librarians from 21 western states are concerned, and they have reason to be.

Since the administration's Jan. 14 announcement of proposed cuts to the university, the library community has taken action to save their school.

President Pete Likins and Provost George Davis made the Focused Excellence criteria clear on Jan. 14, stating educational excellence, research and creative excellence, student demand, vital public impact, revenue generation and interdisciplinary need were "the touchstones for evaluating mission centrality and quality."

If these were the actual requirements, it seems the school would get some more attention ÷ not just a potential spot on the cutting board.

The school is a valuable part of the university and is the only library school in the state.

Of course, not many are arguing that. But Likins wants to see the school become financially self-sufficient, and so library sciences made its way onto the UA's list of potential cuts.

Mostly likely, the school will survive. Hopefully it will be merged into a college with the departments of communication, journalism, and, who knows, maybe even media arts. This would be a valuable, information-centered college, serving as a magnet for research and outside donations.

But UA's approach to making the school financially self-sufficient is skewed.

Rather than helping the school move in the direction of becoming reliant on its own funds, the university threatened expulsion.

And this isn't the first time the college has acted to save their program.

In a review process by the UA Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee, the library sciences undergraduate program was hand-selected for proposed elimination. This was not last year, nor under the Likins administration. Let's talk 1994.

In a horrible case of deja-vu, library sciences has again been targeted.

"I think we need to demonstrate to the campus that graduates from this program are desperately needed," Carla Stoffle, dean of libraries, said recently, pointing to a national librarian shortage.

She's right, and the university administration probably doesn't disagree with the importance of the library school.

So why not assist library sciences in relying on its own funds in UA's hard budgetary times, rather than running at it with a crowbar?

The university can't sell itself as a major Research I institution and then treat librarians ÷ a very diverse group of researchers ÷ like second-class citizens, particularly in this age of e-information.

The proposal may have just been a political move to make library sciences independent, but it sends an embarrassing political message about the importance of research and academics.

Mostly likely, the library school will be saved, but why threaten it with expulsion?