The Active Learning Space room of Kresge Hall was the spot for the inaugural WSAB Show and Tell on December 14, focusing on all things student workers. After grabbing some lunch from Mount Everest, the audience settled in for 4 panelists followed by a Q&A / open discussion.
The panelists included Liz Murray (French & Italian), Amanda Bartosiak (Spanish & Portuguese), Josh Ippel (Art Theory & Practice) and Cecile-Anne Sison (Media and Design Studio). Liz started things off talking about “Using Student Workers for Events”, which is a job whose hours seem like they would be more free-form or dependent on what was being hosted. Liz shared the official job description listed on the Work-Study job site and explained how her work-force did more than just set up and break down on-site, but also handled aspects of preparation for future events. Amanda’s topic was “Having Difficult Conversations with Student Workers”, where she gave suggestions of how to show empathy when a student is underperforming but also finding the fine line because you also need them to do the work that they are hired to do. Creating an environment where the student can be honest and talk to you as their manager is paramount though. Josh delved into a more technical aspect for his talk on “Training Students on Technical Equipment”. His student workers help in the lab, showing students in classes how to use the equipment available to them (which can sometimes be dangerous!). Josh trains his students with demos and walk-throughs, has checklists for them to refer to and evaluates their skills. Teaching the equipment in multiple ways is a valuable approach, and having a motivated staff also helps – many of his crew also take the classes that use the equipment! Cecile’s final panel overlapped a bit with Josh’s as she talked about “Motivating Student Workers through Ownership of Assignments, Creating Legacies and a Culture of Traditions”. Her student-worker team write the training manuals and there is a lot of knowledge passing from returning students to the new hires. Cecile also talked about her new performance evaluation process of holding timed Olympic-Style events.
The discussion was lively as people stayed to chat. How do we retain our student-workers? How do we motivate them? What is our responsibility to them as students and we as their employers? Even funny stories emerged about the widening generation gaps were shared (i.e. students need to be told how to answer a phone).
WSAB looks forward to hosting similar future events, as the opportunity to share with our colleagues seemed very much appreciated by everyone who attended.