Support Campus Staff

 

     WAGE is sometimes perceived as an organization primarily for faculty women. Our mission includes all women in the academic community-faculty, students, and staff, part- and full-time, temporary and otherwise. This article is an effort to raise the consciousness of faculty women about the situation of staff women. Staff need support more than ever given the horrendous impact of budget cuts, the changed structure of staff jobs, and the ongoing psychological divide between faculty and staff.

      In the current national budget crisis in college and university funding for both public and private institutions alike, some of the first to suffer are support staff. These include among others clerks who process the mountains of paperwork necessary to run an university; administrative assistants who perform the reception, clerical, payroll, and administrative work in most units; student affairs officers who advise undergraduate and graduate students and handle things like graduate admissions in departments. "Career" staff are the most vulnerable of all employees in an institution in that they can be laid off with impunity when budgets are cut, no matter what their rank. Even if there are no layoffs in a unit, not replacing those who leave adds a terrible burden of extra work to those who remain. It is high time to pay attention to staff, particularly staff women.

      For years the University of California has been consolidating staff positions, reducing their number, generally increasing the diversity of duties, and raising the level of responsibility-without raising salaries. Moreover, many of the vast holes in staffing made during the 1992-4 budget cuts have never been filled, at least on the Berkeley campus. Administrative enthusiasm for "efficiency" has also led to various reorganizations, and such disasters as the Berkeley Financial System. This is a computer-based accounting system designed by a business consultancy, which is so complex and illogical that even with a great deal of training-which was not sufficiently provided when introduced-it created at least two years of accounting headaches. But no reorganization was so pernicious in its effect on staff as the reorganization of the humanities. Within two years, according to former long-term humanities staff in consolidated departmens, most had transferred to other departments. The reason usually was that their specialized field knowledge and often twenty years of working relationships with students and faculty were not valued by new supervisors. These supervisors knew nothing of how departments and their staff had worked together in the past, and reassigned women to different jobs or different tasks, often in a way deemed disrespectful and humiliating.

      What are the substantive problems? The most concise general statement is from an article in the Berkeleyan (2/16/2000), which begins, "A growing rift between faculty and staff at UC campuses has prompted the publication of a new resource guide." This statement comes from a report prepared jointly by the Council of UC Staff Assemblies and the systemwide Academic Senate. Although the report addresses issues of incivility and the staffing cuts of the early 1990s, it falls far short of examining the fundamental structural issues. What are these? Staff members are excruciatingly underpaid. Many are in the Administrative Assistant II classification and earn all of $30,720 to $38,256 although often carrying the full administrative burden of either an entire unit or a subsection of a unit. Usually her (or infrequently his) tasks are numerous, technical, and have unyielding deadlines. 2) Staff have too much to do in their positions. Most units lack a full complement of staff, and/or the activities of the unit have increased, so that the work of the unit is performed by too few people. 3) Staff can be easily viewed by faculty as expendable due to distance in outlook, living standard, and status. 4) Too many faculty view staff as idiots, as troublemakers, as inefficient. The result is rudeness and disrespect toward staff. While staff members are no more perfect than faculty members, such behavior toward them is unacceptable.

      Tragically, staff members are very vulnerable. Despite unionization, codes of conduct, staff ombudspersons, and formal administrative procedures for handling complaints, staff members can be harassed out of their jobs by a malignant personality, a power-hungry staff member, or even policies that fall under the cold name of "efficiency." When this sort of thing happens, very few people-almost never faculty-ever intervene or insure that the staff person being persecuted is treated fairly and honorably. Even faculty who have been well served by a targeted individual will either be uninterested in ensuring that fairness is maintained, or will believe the supervisor over the staff person. This newsletter regularly reports cases of staff harassment and firing, from the Ryan case at UCSD ( Fall 2000 Newsletter), to the recent settlement of Tina Murch ( Spring 2003 Newsletter). Tina was successful partly because she knew how to involve the prominent and politically powerful, including Senator Jackie Speier. Very few other staff women have been so successful.

      WAGE faculty members have the power to make a difference in the lives of staff members in their unit. There are several ways to achieve this. Getting acquainted with those who work in your office is a good beginning so you have some understanding of who the person is and the kind of job she (or he) has to do. Normal courtesies of everyday life should be practiced, including expressing appreciation for work specifically done for you. If problems develop in the office particularly if someone you have worked well with for years is suddenly being harassed, find out what is going on and intercede to make sure the staff person is being treated fairly. Do not fade away after one conversation, but keep in touch with the staff person to monitor the situation. Although there are departments with more than 25% women on the faculty, most of you do not have that many female colleagues and quite possibly are affected by the rudeness and lack of respect too often shown by male colleagues to staff women. Fairness, civility, and respect are in everyone's interest. Their absence can impede the smooth working of a department, lead to faculty or staff resignations, and, at worst, help to create horrific experiences like those of Gloria Ryan.