Small Institutions 2007 Conference Reports
Moderator
Patricia Poet, York College
Charge
A small education institution has many challenges not faced by larger schools, including lack of space for facilities, restricted staff sizes, and complications with resources, all of which can often be deemed budgetary. The Small Institution Interest Group is intended as a venue to discuss these special needs, help find creative ways to overcome them, and exchange information on any other topics. The group focus will be on institutions of less then 4,000 FTE.
Topics of Discussion
The session will be a group discussion to outline the challenges unique to smaller schools. Discussions will focus on ways to help meet those challenges and explore the role CCUMC can play in these areas. Starting points of discussion include personnel matters, budgeting, and workspaces.
Conference Session Report
Recorder: Stephen Hartner
Attendance: 30
Pat Poet began the session by defining the members of the Small Institutions group as schools with approximately 4000 FTE. She also noted the new CCUMC website will have discussion boards for each interest group to share information.
The floor was opened for comments or topics.
The first topic for discussion was support for faculty instructional technology needs. Most of the group agreed that not all needs could be met and compromises were reached. One method for support was to provide snapshots of technology solutions on a case by case basis. Several institutions provide workshops for further instruction. One institution attempts to make faculty self sufficient across five campuses with only three staff members. They use online instructions and posted troubleshooting tips (FAQs) for equipment so faculty has specific references for help. One school posted instructions in WebCT for faculty use. Another suggestion was to use faculty with technology experience as a resource to promote peer acceptance. One participant noted that brownbag workshops did not work at their institution. At another institution, the use of faculty release time to complete projects has been successfully implemented to encourage faculty participation. Some people have to reinvent their jobs on an as needed basis to provide the attention faculty require.
A question was raised about how groups from different areas (ex. Media Services, IT, Library, Faculty Development) can work together to provide services. Many of the schools represented still work in this way with separate reporting departments. Many felt that alignment of the various services into one unit might be on the way. There were reports of positive and negative experiences when merging service areas. One solution was to apply for grants to fund training and support. It was noted that IT and faculty often clash on many campuses.
A question was asked about how many participants handled faculty training for course management systems such as Blackboard/WebCT? Approximately 30 % provided these services. Another question was how many media service units have fewer than 2 full time employees? The response was approximately 15% with most units having student help to supplement the full time staff. Most participants have seen their workload greatly increase with no additional help. Sixty percent of the group is required to provide all types of media services such as classroom support, special events and athletic events. All agreed that classroom support is the first priority on their campuses.
All participants were interested in the use of student help to provide services. One school has used work aid students and volunteers with great success. These students are well trained and trusted to do all levels of work. Another school uses twelve work study students. They use a very selective hiring process and treat the employment as a real job responsibility. They also use current student workers as mentors for new student staff. One institution hires students from a cattle call. Good relations with the Human Resources office can be very helpful with student staff issues. EEO guidelines are strictly enforced at state institutions. Another institution relies heavily on student staff that is trained on the student/faculty help desk and they are used as first responders and to perform preventative maintenance. It was noted that high turnover of student staff can be a very difficult situation at a small institution.
Another difficulty with student staff is retaining student workers when they are often paid low wages. Some ideas for retention were to create a sense of ownership and initiate team building with all employees. Intensive training was required for all jobs and students need a clear set of responsibilities. Some schools are allowed to institute a tiered payment system or allowed flextime to fit with student schedules. Students also were reminded that the training is transferable to a future career. It was noted that it helps if you have students who might be looking for a media based career.
On a different topic, the increase in job responsibilities brought about the question of what do you do when you reach the breaking point? Solutions offered were to request more staff, shift staffing responsibilities by expertise and need and to discuss changing priority of services provided. These solutions do require discussion and approval. A thorough and regular documentation of workload is necessary to prove needs for staffing. Several participants finally had to say no to requests they could not provide with the resources at their disposal.
A question was raised about whether institutions provide their own installations or use outside contractors. Forty percent of the group handled all the installations on their campus. Many had concerns with the quality of outside vendors although several had good relations with outside vendors and were very pleased with their work. All agreed that it was important to have a contract for vendors and that vendors should not be paid with out a complete punch list provided. Schools that have successfully used outside vendors tried to have the vendors do all the campus installations for consistency.
The session ended with encouragement to all to keep sharing, learning and exchanging ideas.