This has been going on for at least 30 years at SIUC, but let's touch on it anyway because it will allow me to write a nice post next.
A majority of student workers do (almost) nothing at work and it is damaging to their education IMHO. As Jim Muir would say, "let me explain further." We all know that the federal and state government gives students aid based on need. One of the funding devices is to allow the students to earn money is student work grants, so the students get a job on campus and SIU pays them the grant money. I'm sure it is more complicated than that, but not much.
If you walk into almost any building on SIUC's campus there are students hanging around behind desks reading books, watching DVD's on their laptops, basically doing nothing. Turns out they are earning money doing their "student work" job. Give it a try, it is remarkable how many student workers there are on campus once you know what to look for.
I know that SIU is doing the students a service by allowing them to sit there and do nothing for 15 hours a week, but is this really good for the student? We all know that the do nothing work habits formed in these first few jobs are going to stick with many of these students. Does someone want to claim this is a good idea?
Let me propose a solution of a paid study hall for every student worker that is going to do nothing at their job. Just have them mail in their timecard and send them a check, wink, wink, nod, nod. If you are going to employ them, you have to give them something to do. If you don't you are hurting them and that can't be the mission of SIUC.
6 comments:
"A majority of student workers do (almost) nothing" says Peter. I can't let this one pass by. The student workers in my building work hard at hanging lights in the TV studio, working in computer labs at the help desk, running the printing press at the Daily Egyptian, keeping McLeod Theatre humming along, keeping All Things Considered on track at 91.9, and much more. They take pride in their jobs and we literally could not run the public broadcasting stations, campus newspaper, and theatre without them. You, Mr. Gregory, owe them an apology.
I think that mostly we agree that there are places on campus where student work is done right and students are really doing something. I point to the Rec Center and you point at the College of Mass Comm complex. I think your example is sound.
SIUC doesn't do very well by a majority of the student workers and they can and should do better. It costs nothing, just takes some hard thinking and some work. That is the point of this series of blog entries. More effort, more planning, better results.
If you were an Electrical Engineering major could you get a student work job that had merit? How about English, History, Math, University Studies, Business? Just because you are very, very lucky, doesn't mean that other people who are right next to you are as fortunate.
Your demand for an apology is just silly. My post is a correct and insightful idea of how to improve education at SIUC. Your comment just reinforces that it can be done well and is being done well at SIUC now in some very limited areas. Remember what you wrote when you are 40, I bet you will look back and wonder if you were really that naïve (I have been there and I know).
Peter,
But you say "A majority of student workers do (almost) nothing". A majority. I just don't think that's anywhere close to the truth. By painting with that broad brush, you taint the many, many dedicated student workers. Are their enough jobs available to every relevant field? No. But does an engineering major also learn teamwork and responsibilty by setting up chairs on the Arena floor? Of course. My criticism of your remarks was never about whether you might not have good ideas about improving SIU. Where did I say that? I simply criticized your basic premise that "the msjority" of SIU student workers do almost nothing. I've given you several specific examples to try to refute that claim. You have given no examples other than saying there are students "hanging around" in almost every building. I also don't think I "demanded" anything. I stated my opinion (which hasn't changed) that you owe those students an apology. This has nothing to do with the overall fine job you do in this blog raising questions that we should all be asking about our university.
I was giving a talk to a class of senior industrial tech majors last spring and made the same comment about student work and one young lady told me I was wrong. I asked where she worked and she named an administrative office on campus. I told her it was great she had a good job, “but tell me, how many hours of work do you do a week?” “Around 20 hours a week” was the reply. I asked her, “how many hours a week do you really work?” She finally realized I wanted to know how much she worked and not how many hours she was there. She told us she studied at her desk for more than half the time she was at work. Everyone else in the class had already figured it out, it isn’t work it is paid study hall.
It isn’t like this is the first time I’m talking about this. I have a broad and mature perspective about student work. Let me suggest you might do more study on this issue.
For why I don't go into specifics, it is because I don't really care. I needed a post about this to write my tip of the hat to Bill McMinn and so I generated it. Student work being messes up is just the tip of the iceberg of mismanagement at SIUC.
Honestly, I don't think you know what you are talking about or (and more likely) my idea about (hard) work is so far beyond yours that it is hard to converse about this. Have you read my bio? Do you understand what it takes to do what I do?
I respect what you are trying to say, but I don’t think you get it yet.
As to whether I should do research on student workers, I am the one in this conversation who actually deals with student workers every day.
And if you "don't care", then should you really be raising the issue in the first place?
Are you suggesting I don't know anything about hard work?
I guess I'll have to try to convince you otherwise the next time we lunch at Quatro's. Again, I appreciate your motives and concern, but I still disagree with you on this one. I guess we'll have to just agree to disagree.
Next thing you know you are going to become convinced that the junkies in the slums are going to solve the problems in the inner city.
I don't know where you will go in your life, but let me assure you that you have no idea what hard work is about yet. Maybe you never will.
Remember this on your 40th b'day, you will get a laugh out of how much the world has taught you.
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