Students’ association says off-campus hiring is not a trend
By Rachel Kelley
Daily Bruin Contributor
Since the introduction of off-campus employees this summer, the
percentage of student workers has declined at the students’
association. But officials said the replacement of students with
workers from an outside agency was not the beginning of a
trend.
Charles Mack, the association’s executive director, assured that
student employment opportunities are not being eliminated.
"We want as many students as we can get," Mack said.
However, what the association wants and what the association
gets can be two different stories. This can be especially true
during the summers when fewer students are on-campus students and
they often aren’t available at the times the association needs them
to do work, said Sally Amato, the assistant director of Human
Resources.
And in some circumstances, officials said, student employees are
much less efficient than off-campus workers.
Such was the case this summer, when 22 student workers were laid
off from their jobs at the association’s warehouse and replaced
with off-campus employees. That move caused some fear that the
association was moving away from it’s long-held motto of "students
helping students" by taking away student employment
opportunities.
But the warehouse layoffs was a unique situation that was not
intended to set a layoff trend for student workers, Mack said.
By teaming up with Norrell, the outside employment agency that
hires employees for the association, productivity increased and
money was saved, Amato said.
"An added benefit of hiring outside workers was that they stay
on the job for longer periods of time than students," she said.
"Student turnover rates are high," Amato explained, "And each
time a new student needs to be trained, it costs the association
money, so the move was really best for everyone."
Indeed, association officials said they are pleased with the
compromise between the student work force and limited employment of
outside workers.
"Things are going reasonably well – the standards of customer
service have gone up," Mack said.
However, some students said they were dissatisfied with the
selection of jobs available. While looking up job opportunities on
the association’s employment board, business-economics student Kim
Ly was frustrated by the limited opportunities.
But association officials said employment opportunities had
little to do with the hiring of outside employees, and more to do
with the times employees are needed most.
"Any student just can’t walk in the door and get a job to fit
their schedule," said Kert Evans, the association’s food
director.
Most job openings are between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m, which is when
many students are in class, Evans said.
In any case, nonstudent association employees represent a very
small percentage of total workers. And as far as the administration
is concerned, they plan to keep it that way.
Association officials said that students will continue to have
priority filling student association service jobs. They explained
that the selection of student jobs was not linked to the usage of
outside employees, even in the food services sector where the
Norrell workers are primarily concentrated.
Overall, "the outside workers are just like any other student
employee," said David Lacey, a student employee at the Cooperage.
"Sometimes they don’t like to listen, but that’s all right because
students don’t listen either sometimes."Comments to
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