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.

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 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...

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.”