There is a palpable, hushed feature to the daily academic hum on College Hill Road. As far as I can recall from faculty meetings, student newspapers and random conversation, very little has been discussed or done about those who toil daily for us on campus. There are town hall meetings about important issues like Diversity, alcohol abuse, Title IX requirements and so on, but I don’t believe I have ever heard about a town hall meeting called to discuss the conditions of work of those who serve us on a daily basis.
In my own experience with life on the Hill many of us faculty and senior employees stay within our lane, worrying about issues like how many trips we can acquire per year, travel reimbursements, classroom chalk and technology, library book deliveries, photocopying, our campus mail and other relatively trite areas of campus life. …show more content…
For workers who clean our offices, trim the lawns, plough the snow, make our buildings work, and feed us? What is the state of employees’ health insurance? Conditions of work? Relationships with bosses in senior administration and academic staff and faculty chairs? Are there glaring imbalances in salaries and promotions? How are those centrally involved in assisting departmental offices, namely Academic Office Assistants (AOAs), doing in general across the campus and how do they manage with some faculty prone to prima donna expectations? I understand that a section of the staff on campus are unionized, but what about other
In my own experience with life on the Hill many of us faculty and senior employees stay within our lane, worrying about issues like how many trips we can acquire per year, travel reimbursements, classroom chalk and technology, library book deliveries, photocopying, our campus mail and other relatively trite areas of campus life. …show more content…
For workers who clean our offices, trim the lawns, plough the snow, make our buildings work, and feed us? What is the state of employees’ health insurance? Conditions of work? Relationships with bosses in senior administration and academic staff and faculty chairs? Are there glaring imbalances in salaries and promotions? How are those centrally involved in assisting departmental offices, namely Academic Office Assistants (AOAs), doing in general across the campus and how do they manage with some faculty prone to prima donna expectations? I understand that a section of the staff on campus are unionized, but what about other