Voluntary workload/pay reduction

[Ruralguy]

I'd be surprised, but not utterly astonished, if there isn't a "financial exigency" clause in your (or any) Faculty Handbook.

[polly_mer]

I'd be surprised, but not utterly astonished, if there isn't a "financial exigency" clause in your (or any) Faculty Handbook.

For the readers at home, the exact phrase "financial exigency" may not appear in the handbook so you'll have to do more than a quick word search in some cases.

Even Super Dinky had that clause, but they didn't call it "financial exigency".  It was termed something like "emergency actions".

[polly_mer]

But where is the second tier of administrative positions? The temporary, part time positions staffed by people who want to give back to the community and therefore don't need money,

I've seen this attempted.  The problems are:

* What those folks usually want to do aren't what needs to be done. 

It's hard to get someone competent who wants to volunteer to clerk in the registrar's office or learn all the nuts and bolts of processing financial aid forms.  Accountants aren't lining up to do day-to-day accounting for free.  The necessary meetings out of various departments require more time than the typical qualified volunteer wants to give, especially those who have the relevant background to be an asset to the meetings instead of just a warm body representative.

* When those folks' interests do align with the institution's needs in the big picture, the details are often at odds. 

Fundraising is a key area in which people want to give back, but often are actively harming the entire endeavor by not being appropriately trained in the legalities, by not having the light touch required to maintain the relevant relationships, and by not doing the budgeting to ensure that events at least cover their upfront costs.

Recruiting for admissions likewise often attract enthusiastic people who don't know the rules and often are more effort than they are worth in the overall picture.



Teaching works as an (essentially) volunteer activity in many cases because there are so many highly qualified people willing to do it and do a job as good as paying full price.

It's not really a joke to list trustees/governors as the relevant volunteers that match the description.  Those folks can be assets to the institution on no pay.  However, often they are not assets for the same reasons of focusing on what they want to do instead of what the institution needs and learning the relevant background/skills/legalities.

Getting volunteers to do the job right is often harder than getting paid temps to do the job right because volunteers have nothing to lose by being told "your services are no longer needed".