Power & Privilege

I had a meeting yesterday with the powers that be to discuss “what we can do on campus” regarding LTE rights. I went into the meeting hopeful, yet they made it clear they did not want to talk about state-regulated things that are out of their control, you know, the small things like inequitable wages, no vacation or sick time, and no representation. I suggested that, despite state regulations, UW-Madison has set an admirable model regarding LTE hiring and retention, yet that was quickly dismissed in favor of the next topic…

Immediately, one of the powers that be stated that she CANNOT discourage LTE hiring on this campus because it is the ONLY option, given the FTE restrictions set by the state. I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even think of what I wanted to say, that I don’t truly believe hiring LTEs is our ONLY option. I know people have been hired under Project positions and other special contract positions, which gave them more benefits than LTE status. We should promote consideration of other hiring options before taking the LTE route, which gives the employee the least amount of equity and the lowest wages. I had hoped they would want to encourage a hiring model where “just hiring an LTE” is not our default protocol, but rather a last resort and truly for limited term positions.

When discussing that LTEs make 20 percent less than the minimum starting wage for permanent employees in the same job classification, she looked up the lowest wage, subtracted 20 percent and arrived at roughly $9.00/hr. She then stated that this is “not a bad gig” for a wage in this area. She then did concede that making this wage with no benefits is not so good. In her huge window-paneled office I wanted to scream, “Really, with your Juris Doctor and your life and position of privilege, you know what it would be like to live off of $9/hour with no sick time or vacation? To support a family on these wages? To take unpaid leave if your child got sick?????” The other side of this is that the LTE's maximum wage is the minimum starting wage for a permanent employee, so there is a very small window in which to increase the LTE's wages (e.g., $10.14-$12.67/hour for a University Services Associate 1).

She then stated what initiatives she is willing to support and they include the following bold initiatives. A weekly email from HR that details open positions and upcoming Civil Service examinations. A new LTE excellence award, to complement the awards that have existed for years for faculty, instructional and academic staff, and classified staff. And some related items, such as encouraging Directors that LTEs deserve regular performance reviews. When I emphasized that there are no standards of treatment for LTEs, that they can be let go at any time for any reason, and that LTEs worry about losing their jobs when asking to take any time off, she stated that a Director or Manager wouldn’t just go out and hire someone else because they would have to retrain the person. I should have told her that the office across the hall from me has gone through three LTEs in the past few months, hiring them and discarding them as they see fit…

She also told me I had upset the people in the HR department. Oh well. I guess, at least they are willing to do some things, and change happens slowly, but I still left the meeting feeling like I have lost my faith in something I used to believe in.

Recent Events in Anatomy & Physiology

What I am studying in Anatomy & Physiology....in pictures. I wrote detailed captions for each picture--if you'd like to see those then click on the picture and view the slideshow directly on flickr.

A Microscopic View of Life

Here is a glimpse from my biology class. There are four main types of tissue in the body: nervous, muscular, epithelial, and connective tissues. Each tissue is specifically adapted to fill specialized roles and functions within our bodies. The following are some of the microscope slides we looked at. I find the complexity and specialization to be intriguing, beautiful, and miraculous.

Nervous tissue: The cell body of a neuron and its cell processes (axons, dendrites), responsible for transmitting electrical impulses throughout our bodies.

Muscular tissue, specifically skeletal muscle: Highly striated (striped) cells called muscle fibers (lower half of the slide), which are responsible for our voluntary movements. These cells are specialized to contract in response to various types of stimuli.

Muscular tissue, specifically cardiac muscle: This slide is specially stained to see the tiny vertical lines called intercalated discs, which are responsible for cell-to-cell communication in the heart. Note the faint striations in cardiocytes (cardiac cells) as compared to the skeletal muscle slide.

Epithelial tissue, specifically stratified squamous epithelium: Many layers of flat cells comprise the inner lining of the esophagus. Why? The food swallowed is quite abrasive and wears away at the epithelium. By having many layers of cells, there are always new cells developing in the deeper layers to replace the cells being worn away at the surface next to the food. In general, epithelial tissue covers body surfaces, lines body cavities, covers surfaces of organs and glands, and more.

Epithelial tissue, specifically pseudostratified columnar epithelium with cilia: The cilia move mucus up out of the trachea. The mucus captures inhaled particles. In this way, particles from the air don’t travel to the deeper areas of the respiratory tract.

Negativity or Reflection?

I am a proponent of education. I have several degrees, with a possible third degree in progress. As a student, college was a transformational experience for me, which I would not trade for anything. My experience as a teacher and as a tech support person in higher education, has been, like any job, surprising, challenging, sometimes unpleasant, sometimes rewarding...sometimes in complete opposition to the values of a liberal education.

It is my liberal education that taught me to always question, critique, and analyze the world around me. And so I do not accept this world I experience at face value. I will always be wondering why and what if and for some reason, I guess I will always see the irony in things.

I hope that I can share my view of the world without being negative. I hope that I can critique and analyze without being negative. I have high standards and believe we can always be better, but we'll never get there without reflection and analysis. This is the core of what my education was all about.

An Impending Pandemic = Suddenly We Care About Technology?

For years we have offered technology workshops to students, faculty, and staff. We publicize these workshops on the web, via email, in brochures that are sent campus wide. Even during a significant upgrade, like switching from Office 2003 to Office 2007, we were lucky to get five people attending each session. There simply has never been any push from the administrative level, or from department heads, for staff or instructors to advance their technology skills.

Our new teaching & learning center, formed to encourage professional development, does not address technology. There are no plans to employ an instructional technologist, even though instructors are struggling to integrate technology into their curriculum. They see technology as the domain of the IT department. This means that our people who understand assignment design and pedagogy don’t understand technology, and our technology people don’t understand assignment design or pedagogy. People who train others on technology, and who are sometimes invited to classrooms to teach technology, get caught in this conundrum.

The attitude here is that curriculum is one thing and technology is another, separate thing, and if instructors want to assign students to create a website or make a video, they just order up the technology training and have someone else teach and support it, and patch it into their syllabus like a band aid. The problem with this is, for many disciplines, there is no division between technology and curriculum. Take journalism for example. The instructor is the only person who can provide a meaningful context for the technology. As an IT person, I can teach the technology, but I cannot teach how a journalist or a market analyst or someone in another discipline would use the technology. It is the instructor who has the potential to blend the mechanics of the technology with the best practices of their particular discipline.

And this is where the anti-technology sentiment is most troubling to me. Instructors ask me to come to their classrooms and teach beginner students who are not computer science or information systems majors to design and develop websites, after receiving one short training session. We just provided two full weeks of instruction for three sections of a three credit course because the instructor can’t support his own technology-based assignment, but he is also unwilling to modify his assignment. Because departments are at risk of losing their accreditation because they haven’t incorporated technology into their curriculum and they are looking to me to fill that gap, rather than learning the technology themselves, even though that technology has become a core component of their discipline. We’re asked to teach old technology, advanced technology that isn’t appropriate for beginners, and things that seem pointless.

Integrating technology into curriculum is a struggle, an after thought, no one’s responsibility but that of the IT department, which just received almost three quarters of a million dollars worth of budget cuts.

But suddenly, now that this institution is worried about an impending flu pandemic, about the possibility of having to GIVE BACK TUITION MONEY, now they are concerned about instructors’ ability to maintain communication with students, and continue sharing course content in a pandemic situation. Because guess what this means??? That you’ve learned how to put your course content online. That you’ve learned to use email. That you know how to access your files from home. That perhaps you have even experimented with new, online tools for communicating with students, such as instant messaging, and an abundance of free online tools for holding virtual meetings. Above, all, that you've TAKEN OWNERSHIP of your skills and your ability to teach and learn and communicate in the highly virtual twenty first century.

Emails were even sent out from administration about using new “social distance” tools to keep courses running if your class can’t meet face to face—things like instant messaging and virtual meeting tools. I found this announcement to be extremely out of touch with the technology skills of instructors. Do administrators seriously think that, when stricken down by the swine flu, instructors will finally be motivated to learn to use new technology tools? That after we have cultivated an anti-technology attitude, now, when faced with a pandemic, people will suddenly be interested in advancing their technology skills?

Now, they are concerned about this.

Maybe if technology had been a priority all along, most of our course material would already be available online right now, instead of a small fraction of it.

I can see the official press release already: “We had a comprehensive pandemic preparedness plan in place and took systemic measures to provide training and support for these procedures.”

I wish I had no opinions about things. It would make things a lot easier. I would just go to work, complete tasks, not think about them, and leave. But I think it’s really sad that this is what it takes for people to care about technology.

Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 4

Part 4, with names changed...

The chair of the Status of Women says, “The Commission has historically been concerned with issues of fairness and giving a voice to those who don’t have one. I’m afraid that Limited Term Employees have no Norma Rae to rally them.”

In 2006, after scrutiny about its long term use of approximately 2,500 limited term employees, UW-Madison implemented an LTE reform plan: use LTE employment only for seasonal or irregular functions, set wages for LTE appointments at or above the living wage defined by the City of Madison as 110 percent of federal poverty rate for a family of four, and begin a five-year plan to convert existing LTE positions that are not seasonal or irregular to permanent status.

According to the Director of Classified Human Resources at UW-Madison, they currently have 1600 LTE appointments. According to the March 2009 report of the advisory committee, 288 of these positions are identified for conversion to permanent status (the rest are seasonal or irregular positions). Since the LTE reform plan was implemented in October of 2006, 50 LTE positions have been converted to permanent status, creating the equivalent of 36.4 new FTE positions. In addition, the committee reports that 89% of LTEs are now paid at or above the living wage of $10.92 per hour.

When asked whether LTEs have any rights, our HR representative says it depends on what you mean by rights. “In terms of progression and transfer, LTEs have no rights,” she says. But she cites a sexual harassment situation as an example where LTEs have the same rights any employee has. She adds that LTEs are told about their limited rights when they are hired. “When an LTE starts they sign documents saying they don’t have the rights or benefits that regular, permanent employees have,” she says.

For some, working as an LTE can be a stepping stone into permanent state employment, which guarantees higher wages, better benefits, and union representation. Karen is the advocacy model needed to promote “limited term” workers into permanent positions throughout the UW-System. Gaining equal rights for Wisconsin Women working in “limited term” positions in Higher Education is critical to women’s economic success in Wisconsin. We must be the ultimate model for our own liberal education learning goals –for students to “develop and use skills for promoting equity, diversity, and inclusivity in civic and professional contexts.”

Karen—who made so many changes for her limited term employees—currently serves on the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee and contends that we can all inspire positive change. “I look at my circle of influence and say ‘what can I do?’” she says. “When I became a manager—I could do something. That’s what we have to do with diversity. Look at ourselves as one person making a difference.”

Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 3

Part 3 with names changed...

My colleagues and I worked many years as LTEs before we were able to apply and compete for our own permanent positions. If not for our manager, Karen, who crusaded to get equal rights for her LTEs, I am confident that we would all still be “limited term.”

In 1976, Karen took a job doing data entry for the Admissions office. “I spent eight hours a day typing in information off the application into a computer terminal,” she says. Less than four years later, she was promoted to the Registrar’s office. While working full-time, Karen earned a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and a Master’s of Business Administration. Today she is the Associate Director of the IT department.

Karen's department has successfully converted all of their long-term limited term employees to permanent state employees. Converting LTEs to full time equivalencies (FTEs), or permanent positions, is not impossible, but it does require challenging the status quo. Karen converted available FTEs, from retirements and position vacancies, into permanent positions that long term LTEs could interview and compete for. Karen found support from her department director. “He knows you have to treat people well, build up a staff that cares, to get good performance,” Karen says. Karen also gathered support from other department managers. “I just said we would make do with less people, or cut services. I had to convince the other managers that our group would take on more if we could have the FTE.”

Karen says the problem occurs when there is money available to fund a position, but no FTE, which is set by the state. For example, Student Senate wanted my position and funded it, and so it remained a limited term position.

Our Human Resources representative says this model would be different for other position classifications. For example, for a University Services Associate position to be converted to a permanent position, it would first have to be posted for any permanent employee in the UW System to transfer into. If no one transfers into the position, the interview process begins. The interview candidates are selected based on their Civil Service exam scores. So it’s possible that the LTE wouldn’t be selected to interview and compete for the permanent position. Once hired as an LTE, it is very hard to become a permanent worker.

Our University Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI) fellow says that to date, EDI has been focused on UW System student-centered equity initiatives (e.g., the Equity Scorecard), but he hopes there is a lot we can do with LTE equity at the campus level. “This is a flawed system that we have routinely supported,” he says. “The system has created, in some cases, second class citizens within their own departments.”

He adds that we have only just begun to have the necessary conversations about LTE equity issues, but that staff equity relates to student success, which we are all responsible for. “With the way we do business now, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness should be engaged in the service of student success at every level…everyone is responsible for student success.”

Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 2

Part 2 with names changed...

According to a University of Wisconsin Press Release, the definition of LTE appointments is for UW System campus units to carry out short term or seasonal work. One LTE position is limited to no more than 1,043 hours, or six months, of full-time work per year. However, an individual may hold one or two LTE positions, resulting in ongoing part-time or full-time work.

Our University currently has 144 limited term employees, according to our Human Resources representative, who also says that about fifty percent of these LTEs have two positions, meaning the number of LTE positions is likely around 200. This constitutes about 27 percent of all University staff (classified staff and LTEs), or 13 percent of all University employees.

Many in “limited term” positions are working long term without receiving the benefits that permanent state employees receive. In a May 2009 survey of xxxx’s LTEs, 24% reported working less than a year, 22% reported 1-2 years, 14% reported 3-4 years, 11% reported 5-6 years, and 29% reported six years or more. The average length of “limited term” employment was 11.6 years.

Survey respondents represented a variety of positions, such as custodial, clerical, police, early childhood education, marketing, communications, event planning, and technology support. In addition, 84% were female (72% of all current LTEs at our University are female), 26% reported they are the sole provider for their families, and 59% had a baccalaureate degree or higher.

LTEs qualify for minimal benefits, depending on how many positions they have and the number of hours they work. LTEs qualify for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) when they are expected to work at least 600 hours within a 12-month period. Once eligible for WRS, LTEs become eligible for health insurance coverage, and have the option of paying the full premiums for a variety of other benefits, such as supplemental dental and income continuation insurance. Some of these benefits are explained below.

LTEs are paid a minimum of 20% less than permanent workers for doing the same work. According to the LTE Handbook, LTEs start at 20% less than the minimum rate for the Civil Service position classification, with wage increases up to the minimum rate for that Civil Service position classification. This minimum rate is the most an LTE can ever earn, while a permanent employee in the same position classification can earn up to the maximum rate plus receive wage increases as negotiated by union contracts.

To become a permanent state employee, I had to interview and compete with others, including permanent state employees, for the position I had worked in for three years. My wages increased $5.51 per hour—over $200 more per week—for doing the same work, along with annual wage increases as negotiated by union contracts, vacation, sick leave, personal and legal holidays. However, in some ways, my LTE service doesn’t count. An employee’s seniority date is the original date of employment as a permanent employee. Although I’ve worked for the University for five years (3 years LTE and 2 years permanent), I earn vacation benefits at the rate of a two year employee—a difference that amounts to 32 hours/year of vacation time.

Treatment of LTEs, in terms of wages and performance, varies widely. Thirty-seven percent of survey respondents indicated they receive annual performance evaluations from their managers, and 41 percent indicated they do not; 21 percent indicated they receive annual wage increases, and 45 percent indicated they do not. In my three years as an LTE, I was given annual performance reviews and received two fifty cent raises.

In this difficult time of budget cuts, the workload only increases without any reward for limited term employees. One person wrote on the survey, “My boss has continued to give me more on my plate, and I have kept up with his demands. All the while staying at the same pay for 6 years.” Another wrote, “I've worked as an LTE for 9 years now. What does LTE stand for? Limited Term Employee. They are taking advantage of LTEs by not giving them vacation, sick days, paid holidays and personal days.”

One LTE wrote, “I think it's hard for a university to state it's concerned about equity when they essentially create second-class citizens within its own workforce…being an LTE can make you feel worthless; no matter what you do, or how well you do your job, there are no promotions or rewards…Your heart breaks when you resent your child for being sick, because it's another day without pay.”

Be an Advocate for Women’s Equity in Higher Education: Part 1

I am going to post in segments my article about higher education's use of “limited term” positions that keep women in low paying jobs with few benefits. Names are changed...


“Across Wisconsin, I see talented and tenacious women poised to lead this state's economic growth -- if only we clear obstacles from their path.”
-Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton

When Karen became the manager of a campus help desk and software training group, she quickly realized that her staff was comprised mostly of women who had worked five to ten years in “limited term” status with low wages, earning a minimum of 20% less than permanent workers in the same job classifications, with no vacation, sick time, personal or legal holidays, and in some cases, no health insurance.

I experienced these inequitable conditions. In 2003, with four years of professional work experience and a Master’s degree in progress, I was hired as the coordinator for Karen’s software training program—a position that had existed in limited term classification since 1995 and remained “limited term” for twelve years, until 2007. Almost three years into my employment, my mom suffered a massive stroke. As a limited term employee (LTE), I had no vacation, sick leave, personal or legal holidays. Fortunately, my co-workers showed their support by taking up a collection, which helped pay my bills while I took unpaid time off to be with my mom during her four-month hospital stay.

Karen became concerned about people she supervised working long term in “limited term” positions while studying the attributes of successful companies, as part of her MBA coursework. “Successful companies took care of their people, and then the people in turn worked hard,” Karen says.

Despite Karen’s concern, the status quo at this institution is to maintain “limited term” positions for many years. “I know people who worked here in various offices as LTEs for more than 20 years,” Karen says, now the Associate IT Director. “I do think this is a significant problem here and I believe it may even be worse statewide.”

While a common response among managers and administration is “this is the system we’re stuck with,” or “people have choices,” Karen challenged the status quo for her “limited term” employees...