Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[dismalist]

For real?

UWM asks faculty to volunteer to work in the dining hall

Labor shortage or worse?

From the article:

On Friday, Sept. 2, the school administrators sent faculty and staff an email asking them to volunteer their time to cook and serve food and help clean up those dining halls.

That is freaking insane. (Not just the volunteer part, but that they're so ridiculously understaffed in the first place.)

They could hire students and pay the going wage for food service.

If I understand the article correctly, the university now offers free food at the margin -- eat all you want, and that, with the best of intentions. I cannot judge whether this is a bright idea or not -- how needy of food are those who are paying tuition [?] -- but I suspect not. In any case, the mess duty is voluntary, so there cannot be a problem for any faculty member.

It seems many believe that mess duty should be carried out for pay. The extra money for the extra free food has to come from somewhere.

There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

[Wahoo Redux]

In any case, the mess duty is voluntary, so there cannot be a problem for any faculty member.

I believe the faculty think this is idiotic.

I think it sounds demeaning for a campus setting.

It seems many believe that mess duty should be carried out for pay. The extra money for the extra free food has to come from somewhere.

No one said anything remotely like that.

There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

Methinks the people who came up with the tradeoff should perform the tradeoff.  Let the deans, provost, and president serve the midnight snack line.

Would you volunteer, Big-D?

[dismalist]

In any case, the mess duty is voluntary, so there cannot be a problem for any faculty member.

I believe the faculty think this is idiotic.

I think it sounds demeaning for a campus setting.

It seems many believe that mess duty should be carried out for pay. The extra money for the extra free food has to come from somewhere.

No one said anything remotely like that.

There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

Methinks the people who came up with the tradeoff should perform the tradeoff.  Let the deans, provost, and president serve the midnight snack line.

Would you volunteer, Big-D?

The well endowed place I used to work for for many years came around with request to donate cash each year. I hated the firs half of my time there. I studiously ignored the requests all my time there. The now dump, not then, I studied at I give cash each year.

I'm actually good at kitchen work. If I liked the employer and the kids, I would volunteer. If not, I wouldn't.

Look, bosses do what bosses do, for better and for worse. But the mess duty is voluntary man! That can't be demeaning. If it is, don't do it.

[jimbogumbo]

This happened somewhere last year also. Don't remember where.

[Wahoo Redux]

Look, bosses do what bosses do, for better and for worse. But the mess duty is voluntary man! That can't be demeaning. If it is, don't do it.

By and large, I don't think they are.

More importantly, dumb ideas get bad P.R.

[RedArrow]

This happened somewhere last year also. Don't remember where.

It was at Michigan State: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/10/20/msu-asking-faculty-volunteer-dining-halls-amid-staffing-shortage/8538013002/

[onthefringe]

We currently have a custodial staff of 10 for a campus of 15,000. They had to call in a temp service to cover the dorms. So I believe that it's a labor shortage. What they should do instead is convert all those jobs to student work study.

You can't force students to take work study jobs (even if they are technically part of their aid package) and in many cases they can make more money working an off campus job. So unless they can find work study related to their career goals, many won't bother to take work study positions, and converting jobs to work study is unlikely to solve staffing problems (even at the "going rate" for food service jobs).

[bio-nonymous]

Look, bosses do what bosses do, for better and for worse. But the mess duty is voluntary man! That can't be demeaning. If it is, don't do it.

By and large, I don't think they are.

More importantly, dumb ideas get bad P.R.

HA! I don't have enough hours in the day to even get my own job done, much less take on bussing tables for free as a side-hustle...

[dismalist]

Look, bosses do what bosses do, for better and for worse. But the mess duty is voluntary man! That can't be demeaning. If it is, don't do it.

By and large, I don't think they are.

More importantly, dumb ideas get bad P.R.

HA! I don't have enough hours in the day to even get my own job done, much less take on bussing tables for free as a side-hustle...

So don't do it!

What the bosses did may be smart, may be stupid [I'm inclined to think the latter], but I don't see what the hubbub is about: Mess duty is voluntary!

[Wahoo Redux]

Look, bosses do what bosses do, for better and for worse. But the mess duty is voluntary man! That can't be demeaning. If it is, don't do it.

By and large, I don't think they are.

More importantly, dumb ideas get bad P.R.

HA! I don't have enough hours in the day to even get my own job done, much less take on bussing tables for free as a side-hustle...

So don't do it!

What the bosses did may be smart, may be stupid [I'm inclined to think the latter], but I don't see what the hubbub is about: Mess duty is voluntary!

We know you don't get it, buddy, and it's okay.  Relax.  It's time for the Washington Examiner and Glenn Beck reruns anyway.

[kaysixteen]

Are you likely to be able to get student work study kids to work as janitors?

[artalot]

What they should do instead is convert all those jobs to student work study.

They tried something like this at Yale with first gen students. It did not go over well. The students felt like they were put in the position of being servants to the wealthy Elis. Also, work study usually pays minimum wage. It's clear that no on wants to do these jobs for minimum wage, that's why they're having trouble filling them.

Many of these jobs are filled by marginalized people who are not paid enough to afford tuition at the institution where they work. They are often outsourced so that even if tuition benefits are available to staff, they are not eligible. They are usually laid off over the summer, meaning that they have no pay and no benefits for three months out of every year. This isn't a labor shortage, it's people refusing to work under these conditions. 
I don't think the work is demeaning and that attitude feels incredibly classicist. People who work in food service and janitorial services deserve to be paid fairly and treated with respect. I think faculty should refuse to be complicit in a system that attempts to recast labor as volunteerism rather than paying a fair wage.

[apl68]

What they should do instead is convert all those jobs to student work study.

They tried something like this at Yale with first gen students. It did not go over well. The students felt like they were put in the position of being servants to the wealthy Elis. Also, work study usually pays minimum wage. It's clear that no on wants to do these jobs for minimum wage, that's why they're having trouble filling them.

Many of these jobs are filled by marginalized people who are not paid enough to afford tuition at the institution where they work. They are often outsourced so that even if tuition benefits are available to staff, they are not eligible. They are usually laid off over the summer, meaning that they have no pay and no benefits for three months out of every year. This isn't a labor shortage, it's people refusing to work under these conditions. 
I don't think the work is demeaning and that attitude feels incredibly classicist. People who work in food service and janitorial services deserve to be paid fairly and treated with respect. I think faculty should refuse to be complicit in a system that attempts to recast labor as volunteerism rather than paying a fair wage.

If the school is going to offer the elaborate dining options they seem to be offering, then they need to be prepared to pay for them.  It would be one thing to ask for volunteers to work with a one-time event, but dining services is a real job that ought to be paid like a real job.  I suppose dismalist is more or less right that there's no harm done if no effort is made to coerce faculty into "volunteering," but it still sounds incredibly out of touch to ask busy faculty members to do something like this in the first place.  Whoever came up with the idea ends up making the university look very, very foolish, and garnering some unfavorable publicity.

I can see how expecting first-generation students at an Ivy League school to do work study in the service of the more affluent could have terrible "optics."  I don't see anything inherently wrong with trying to get students whose families can't easily buy them an education to earn their keep to some extent, though.  That said, if federal work study is only paying current federal minimum wage, it's small wonder they're having trouble finding takers.

Speaking from the other side, as somebody who has worked as a staff member alongside work-study students, I've got to say that in my experience their motivation and usefulness is all over the map.  Some do great, some are pretty much useless.

[Wahoo Redux]

Are you likely to be able to get student work study kids to work as janitors?

Actually, I was straight hourly, but I was a campus janitor as an undergrad, and for one summer as a grad student.  Of all the crappy jobs I've had, janitorial work was not that bad as long as one could stand the occasional horrorshow.

[secundem_artem]

I would predict their food waste will triple under their new model.  Artem U removed trays from the cafeteria.  Diners can go back multiple times, but can only bring back to their table what they can carry.  Food waste declined precipitously.