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...

Renegade Immune System

My eyelids were red, stinging and burning. I was extremely sensitive to light. I had a dentist appointment one morning, and I almost cried with that light on my face. In the past my symptoms had been redness, acne, and flaking skin on my cheeks, nose, and forehead area. This eyelid situation is ocular rosacea, or blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids). I debated going to an ophthalmologist but I knew what he or she would do: prescribe antibiotics. I had just finished a six week round of antibiotics that completely screwed up my body and triggered rosacea symptoms that were worse than before I started the antibiotics.

I began a twice daily regime of washing my eyelids with Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo, and also putting a warm washcloth on my eyelids at night (recommended in many things I read online). It helped, but the symptoms persisted for about two weeks. I stopped taking my multivitamin and lysine supplements, meaning levothyroxin (for hypothyroidism) was the only thing I was still taking. I noticed that my hair was falling out, and I had bursts of tingly electrical sensations in my fingers and toes. One morning I woke up and felt like my face was swollen…especially under my eyes. My eyes felt like they could pop out of my head at any moment. I had no appetite. My eyes felt gritty. Suddenly I realized, could it be the levothyroxin? I looked online, and I was horrified by the side effects: swelling of the face, hair loss, etc. When I received this medication, the pharmacist told me to take it on an empty stomach and “just start feeling better.” My TSH (the stuff that tells your thyroid to produce more thyroid stuff) had ranged from 4-6 for the past few years, which was too high, in my primary physician’s opinion (I have since read, and was told by a nurse, that some physicians consider TSH as high as 10 to be normal). How could doctors have recommended that I take a medication that can promote inflammation, when they know I have a condition where I am already susceptible to inflammation? I specifically asked my dermatologist if the levothyroxin would be a problem and she said no.

I called my primary physician and talked to the nurse, to let them know that I was stopping the levothyroxin. When I explained this, the nurse said, “You should be assessed by a physician before stopping your medication.” She insisted I go to the walk-in clinic that day. She made a comment about inflammation moving into my throat, which made me panic. I was already extremely emotional about this situation.

Reluctantly, I went to the clinic and explained all the problems I’d been having to the nurse, who then said, “Are you usually this emotional—this labile?” She then asked if pregnancy was a possibility. I resented this, as I am familiar with the term labile, a clinical term that was frequently applied to my mother by medical professionals during her four month hospital stay and stroke rehabilitation. I believe it is a convenient way for medical professionals to discredit you, and therefore not have to look at you as a whole person.

Then the doctor came in, and I told her all the same things. She said she didn’t think my face was swollen, and she said, “You’re really upset about this, aren’t you?” She told me my TSH was down to 3.62 (I’d had my blood drawn that morning). I asked her what normal range is and she said it is very wide, like .5 to 6. She said most people feel best when their TSH goes down to 2.0-2.5. She looked up the levothyroxin side effects on her computer, read off hair loss and facial swelling, but then said that these things can also be caused by stress.

When I explained to her my concerns about long term use of antibiotics, especially the side effects, she told me to eat a cup of yogurt every day.

Then she told me that if I think it’s the levothyroxin, then I should quit taking it for at least two weeks and see if the symptoms go away.

Well that was a huge waste of time!

My symptoms improved dramatically after I stopped taking the levothyroxin. I have no doubt it was aggravating my rosacea. What if my TSH level is my body’s natural way of trying to reduce the inflammation I’ve been experiencing for so long? Obviously I experienced more inflammation at a higher metabolic rate.

I felt so good after I stopped the levothyroxin, and my nephew was visiting and we were doing all sorts of stuff that I slacked off on trying eliminate glutens and eat mainly fresh fruits and veggies. I ended up at a lot of fast food restaurants. Then, one day this week I ate a tuna salad with honey mustard from Subway for lunch, and immediately after, I felt terrible. My eyelids began to swell, and I was extremely bloated…I’ve since read that canned tuna can trigger rosacea flare-ups; it’s one of several foods that can induce a histamine release. I also read about protein digestion and sugars…protein is the most difficult food for your body to digest…eating sugars along with protein can interfere with the protein digestion, meaning that the food will linger in your stomach for way longer than usual, creating a perfect environment for toxic yeasts, fungi, and bacteria, creating an unhealthy intestinal environment. Also, your skin is a major way through which your body eliminates toxins…at this point, let me remind you, that my dermatologist told me that nothing causes rosacea.

I am reading Rosacea: Your Self-Help Guide by Arlen Brownstein, a naturopathic doctor, and Donna Shoemaker, a nutritionist. It is the most helpful and thorough resource I’ve found on rosacea, including various medical approaches to managing rosacea, as well as in depth information on nutrition and your digestive tract. I am convinced that long term use of antibiotics has completely upset the natural balances of my body, especially my digestive tract. I also believe that I may have a problem with glutens and with some meats. This is an opportunity to improve the overall health of my body. I went to the farmer’s market yesterday and the organic local foods store, and bought many fruits and vegetables I have never even tried before.

I have begun talking with a naturopathic doctor, and I am very hopeful that this will be a positive experience. “This sounds like a renegade immune system issue,” the naturopathic doctor said when she replied to my email. “Make sure you know what your triggers are.” Somehow I sense that this isn’t going to be a ten minute doctor visit in which I’m written off as labile and sent away with a prescription in hand.

The Big Old Machine

I just got off the phone with the director of Human Resources. She feels that my article about higher education’s use of limited term employees (LTEs) in long term positions, for low wages and few benefits, is extremely negative and would have a detrimental effect on LTEs. In fact, she said she “panicked” when she read it. The final article is much different than my earlier post, and has not yet been published anywhere. At this point I don’t know if it will be…

In reflecting on my past ten years of work experience, I now view corporate software development as an animal, like a sleek, fast leopard, or a fox—small, yet cunning, sly, and powerful. In the end, looking out ultimately for itself. This is why I left. I thought higher education would be different. I thought I would be happier. And as long as I was ignorant about the inner workings, I was. After five years, I now see higher education as a big, old, archaic machine, professing to teach the values of liberal education and to promote equity and diversity, yet clinging to ancient philosophies about employment, which result in keeping those who have the fewest rights silent and in their places. Perhaps I will be proven wrong. My article has the support of several committees and is being circulated to the higher ups…

Hopefully I will not get laid off tomorrow…

I do not intend for this article to harm anyone; however, I do feel that this is a serious social equity issue that needs to be better understood in our academic community, and perhaps even by a general audience.

Here are some things the HR director said, and which reflect a common attitude among management: people take these jobs knowing what they’re getting in to, this is the system we’re stuck with, these people sign statements of their limited rights when they start working here…ok, all of which might be fine, if you were truly using LTEs to do short term work, like seasonal or special projects. But when you’re using them to do the same work that permanent state employees do, work that is not limited term, denying them equal wages and benefits IS A PROBLEM.

The whole experience of writing this article—the fear and reluctance of many schools to even talk about this issue—is destroying any remaining belief I have in this institution actually practicing and promoting the liberal education values it professes to teach.

A few hours after my conversation with the HR director I realized why I was so surprised. I wasn’t expecting a positive reaction. But I was expecting corrections. Like you got this number wrong or this fact is not actually true. But there were no corrections. Just her vague, high level statements attempting to instill fear.

I was educated by this institution…two degrees and many thousands of dollars. More and more, the words of a wise friend come to mind: “You cannot educate people to be free thinkers and then penalize them when they question the system.”

NYTimes says no natural remedies for rosacea

The New York Times article Natural Remedies for Rosacea? poses a question that many rosacea sufferers ask – are there any effective treatments for rosacea that don’t include the use of antibiotics or other prescriptions? This article also presents understandable definitions of different types of rosacea.

It is great to see articles on rosacea in a publication like the New York Times. However, it is discouraging to find an unsatisfying answer to such an important question. Surely there are good natural treatments out there somewhere???

This article says, "Self-care and dietary measures may also aid in the management of roscacea, but there are different forms of the disease, and each may require different treatments." According to what I've been reading by rosacea sufferers, diet may play a huge role in this skin condition. I am trying to find out, by reading books and changing my diet, and I'll let you know.