Council Follies

To the Editors of the Crimson:

After the recent series of letters in the Crimson criticizing the depth of the reporting in the editorial "Divestiture Follies." I found it most ironic and unfortunate to read Charles T Kurzman's. "The Most Lucrative Job on Campus." Of particular concern to me was the fact that Charlie neither spoke with me not any of Brian's other employers at length regarding this matter. It seems to me that in order to understand why we hired a student to fill this position, Charlie would have to speak with us.

But Charlie has had a fascination with this topic since the beginning of this term--when he made it an issue at the North House Committee and subsequently came to a meeting of the full Council to vent his views. Unfortunately, Charlie's zealous instincts are as misplaced as his arithmetic is bad ($3808 is not one-twelfth of this year's $70,000 budget.)

To begin with, we never intended for this position to be a student position. This fall, when our executive secretary left, we "posted" the availability of the position and received a number of applications. In reviewing the applications and interviewing the applicants, the Administrative Committee--Brian's employer--strove to choose the most qualified applicant. That applicant proved to be Brian, who also serves as the Council Vice-Chairperson (he puts in over 40 hours weekly dispensing his duties for the Council).

The issue then seems three-fold: 1) Should we hire anyone in the first place: 2) should we hire students exclusively: 3) should we hire students at all?

Charlie is the only person I know to suggest the first. He thinks a secretarial position is an "honorary leadership role," Wrong. The executive secretary has no say in Council policy or direction. He is just that: a secretary and administrative assistant. I don't know any students who are willing to put in the 20-25 hours weekly (we only pay 17, though) typing, filing, maintaining correspondence, answering inquiries, and answering the telephone for no pay.

Who needs this stuff anyway, you might ask. The Council does for one. Without up-to-date files, we're lost--the files are our memory. Quality of presentation matters as well. Last month, in fact, we were commended for the quality of the presentation of our reports. It may be unfortunate, but an unseemly job of typing a report can kill its recommendations before they are ever read. Plus, we are not speaking of 10 pages per week--our weekly meeting packet averages 20-30 pages, letters go out daily. These are not the types of duties for which students volunteer even 17 hours/week anywhere on campus--PBH. The Crimson, etc...all hire typists and secretaries.

Ok, then, it is suggested, hire only students and pay them less money. After all, Brian even said that "there will always be undergraduates qualified to do this job." Brian also added that he doesn't think the Council will always, or ever, be able to get them.

We ask a lot of our employee. He may get paid 17 hours per week (the maximum allowed for casual employees on the University payroll), but he usually works 20-25 (which decreases his real hourly pay to the $4.75 to $6.00 range). In fact, each applicant for the job was asked whether he/she would be willing to work extra, unpaid hours for the Council. Also, the skills for this job are not found in all students--filing skills, typing skills, office maintenance, and the ability to work unsupervised.

Certainly the Council could offer the job as a 25 hour week job paying only $5 hour. Yet this costs the Council more money and dramatically reduces our pool of applicants. The Council needs quality help. The job was not too little for Stan Butler, our previous employee, who had extended office experience and numerous degrees. So this brings us to option 3, the one which we currently follow--hire a casual employee (Staff Assistant II) on the University payscale. This requires us to pay on the University payscale (minimum pay $6.93) and follow University guidelines (17 maximum paid hours)--regardless of whether he is a student or not. And certainly we cannot advertise a position as Staff Assistant II, decide to hire a student, take our position off of the University pay-scale, and pay the student less than required by the University.

As for the issue of whether we can even hire a student: this happens to be a new issue. Brian's pay sheets clearly label him as a student. It is clear to everyone, personnel, the Dean's office..., that he is a student. In fact, the personnel office of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences informed us that 1) yes, a student could be hired as a Staff Assistant II; and 2) if so hired, he must be paid according to University guidelines. I certainly hope we can clear up this matter with Dean Mintz.

In closing, then, we are not talking about a job any student can do. I know I couldn't do it. That we are fortunate enough to have a hardworking, qualified undergraduate working for us should not be an issue. We intend to get the most qualified employee we can find. This year I think we did quite well. Gregg Lyss '85, Chairperson   Undergraduate Council