The multiversity today; In Triplicate, Please

For eight hundred years Western societies of turn to universities for the teaching discovery and preservation of advanced knowledge. From small beginnings in Bologna and Paris men have built giant educational complexes to serve not only students but governments industries and the general public as well. They huge American Multiversity these are the subject for this series Multiversity today. The programs were produced in the studios of WRAL the University of Illinois Broadcasting Service. Dennis Corrigan is your host for today's program about what's going on inside the Multiversity today. Miss Nelson would you get out a memo about the conference on the theme. Oh and type up this information in triplicate please. OK just do things I can't. Someone once commented that a university isn't built with stone its foundations are made of paper while construction personnel will assure you that this is not literally

true. Most staff members will agree that at times it seems so. Everything from replacing a light bulb to granting a Ph.D. degree requires paperwork with copies of everything to appropriate people. This gargantuan task is handled by the clerical staff some twenty five hundred strong at the University of Illinois on. The clerks typo's stenographers and secretaries are a major part of the non academic staff required by a multi Rossetti but only a part. A multi bar city with its multitude of tasks and interest requires a highly versatile non-teaching staff to operate. For instance if the Multiversity includes a college of agriculture an experimental farms you must hire personnel to care for cattle sheep hogs and poultry. If you have a theatre putting on public performances you need stage hands and lighting groups. If you are running experiments on operations requiring accurate watches and timing

devices you need watch repairmen. If you have frequent demands for special glassware you need glass blowers in addition Multiversity is need people to prepare and serve food they need janitors groundskeepers physicians nurses lab technicians policemen firemen lawyers inspectors carpenters draftsman computer operators and several hundred other trained personnel. At the University of Illinois there are five hundred thirty three different types of jobs performed by nonacademic employees. We had to look no farther than our own offices to get some idea of the many skills needed to keep a Multiversity functioning. We have a program director assisted by two full time employees who handle discussion and public affairs programs such as this one. We have a music supervisor and two assistants who select music and write continuity. No small job when you consider it requires knowing at least 50 different ways of

saying the next piece you will hear is our station has a new staff headed by a news director and an announcing staff including this commentator to keep our station on the air and to produce programmes. We have seven full time engineers and at least four part time engineers two clerical workers are buried under our paperwork. What kind of people do common nonacademic employees. We asked Mr Carl Gates manager of Urbana personnel services for the University of Illinois. Practically every type of individual that walks the streets has at one time or another applied for a job with the university. We hire everything from the long term employee such as the professional people that we spoke of before and the

service people to the short term people that would be with us maybe for just a few hours or a few days such as part time busboys ice years parking lot attendants and stagehands for the larger theatrical shows that come to the campus. Susan Nelson is a clerk Steno one working in the wy allow radio offices. She represents one group of nonacademic employees. The recent high school graduates while in high school Ms Nelson participated in a business practices vocational training program. Well see while I was in high school I went to school in the mornings and worked from morning till 5 at the booth and counting. And then I worked there through the summer up until August and then I left town for a month and came back. And looked around town for a job and couldn't find it. It appealed to me. And. Then applied to university.

Miss Nelson did not at first like Bea idea working at the university. At first I didn't like the idea of being around so many people everything. And then my mother worked at the university before she got married and she liked it really well and she talked me into going down to take the test and then I took the test in about three weeks later Star yallow radio and I like it like that. We asked Mr. Nelson if many high school girls planned to become non academic employees this. Especially the girls who were like in my typing classes and shorthand classes. Most all of them have come to the universe to except for a few who had good jobs. While they were in the vocational training program. Some of them stayed at the job that they were working at while they were in school.

Do these girls look for a career or are they looking for something to do until they marry. I think something to do until they get married although. Quite a few times you have to stay on working anyway that they don't mind this much I guess when I'm a graduate student lives and career women are two other groups of people who seek non academic positions at the university. Mr. Gates the career women are probably the core to the operation of a university where you have turnover in your educational unit such as your professors going to more and greater jobs. And so these people tend to provide us with a constant source of employee. The actual count of the graduate student wives is is really a undeterminable thing in other words we would be

unable to separate out which were just grad students wives and which were wives of other citizens of the community. And as a result of this we've never really made a study of how many graduate student wives we have on the payroll by our large turnover in the female or female clerical areas. We have concluded over the years that there are a large number mean hundreds of graduate student wives who help support their husbands. What kinds of jobs do graduate student wives seek. Well at that point in their life they'll take just about anything to support their student husband. No task is too mean yo. The money is the important thing to these people. And they tend to stay with us far from one to three years approximately.

They will be utilized in clerical positions in library clerk positions secretarial and clerical and even in the kitchen. Yes in some cases where they haven't spent any great amount of time preparing themselves for an office position while in High School short term positions save for only a few hours or a few days are hard to fill. Especially when these jobs require special training or special skills such as stage hand positions. These are our greatest. Short term chore in other words a good stage hand is a very critical person to have. It's surprising the amount of work that goes on back behind a large the trickle production back behind the stage during these productions. And so it's necessary that we use a specialized person who has either received a great

deal of training or at least has done enough of this sort of thing to be qualified to hold a union card in the African stagehand Union. And as you mention we do have to seek them out and we try to keep a constant list available for such things as operas and orchestration performances and then the big name shows such as the Bob Hopes the sort of things that hit the campus. Before we give you the impression that all non academic employees are women or part time help. Let's point out that at the University of Illinois about ICAP us about 68 percent of the full time non academic employees are men. Their jobs range from work requiring little or no special training to professional positions demanding years of schooling and experience. Mr Gates

explained that in some cases the university has trouble finding people with needed skills. The interesting point here is the nucular reactor operator. I don't think you'd find too many of those walking up and down the street I know we have an awfully hard time recruiting them we have to wait until the Navy discharges one of their submarine operators before we can add any nuclear reactor operators a rule we have as you mentioned glass blowers who are a very critical skill anymore. There are only two places in the entire United States to train these types of people. And there are constantly new and different critical shortages arising from the standpoint that new and different research is done that uses new and different titles and new and different types of jobs. How

often does the university have to look beyond the local area for needed personnel on almost all of our professional and critical skill levels we have to go beyond the immediate local area. The lawyers and accountants other than those we take out of the Screw are fresh graduates each year have to be recruited from the state wide area. We are limited to state my area by the job selection procedure. Know that we utilize through the civil service system. But when it comes to the point of the very critical skills such as you mention glassblower it might be necessary first to go to the East Coast or West Coast to attract someone with that sort of a skill. Now the university has a very.

Competitive environment in which to attract employees. We have some awfully good local industries and as a result they pay very good wages and have some awfully good fringe programs. And as are you with this in mind and as a result of this it's necessary that we continually update our salary programs and continually review our friends packages to make sure that we remain competitive. How does one go about getting a non academic job out of all diversity. Well details of the procedure vary from campus to campus and Multiversity to Multiversity. However the basic procedure is similar on all campuses. If you have not been sought by the university the first step is to go to the appropriate employment office and fill out the first credit form.

You will then have an interview with one of the employment officer was there any particular interest in the form if you would like you to. Do. Your current vacancy with the people who are seeking employment with the university are as a rule those who fall in those classes where we have more than enough people already Phelim. But this in itself is a general statement and cannot be applied generally. The job is always of fitting the right person to the right job and this requires a great deal of expertise and a lot of time and effort to mix the appropriate

background with the appropriate person with the appropriate salary with the appropriate supervisor and come out with a satisfied and happy relationship between us a barrier and a subordinate in court primarily in the filing needs your answer you see eyes in his eyes that you are interested in the color position I'll send you to a higher place specializing. And we thank you. He would have thought you know after the interview the prospective employer takes examinations to demonstrate his or her qualifications to handle the job or jobs being sought from this stage on Multiversity hiring practices vary considerably. The University of Illinois using a civil service system for hiring places an

applicants test score on a register. Individuals having the highest test scores are sent to specific locations to interview for a specific position during these interviews. Not only is the employer interviewing the applicant but the applicant is interviewing the employer too looking for several things besides salary. Mr. Gates if they're in such a financial condition that they can be selective. The next thing that they probably look for is job satisfaction. By that we mean are they doing something that they feel is important and has and is satisfying a need for either humanity or their employer and it's not just a make work type job. There's often a lot of argument between experts in the personnel field as to whether salary is the most important thing or whether it's job

satisfaction. And then this is usually followed by good supervision and employee will not only be interviewed by the prospect of employer but in most cases the employee is during the interview sizing up his future supervisor see whether he would like to work for him or not and so it's really a two way street. But I would say that probably job satisfaction the idea of going home at night and being able to say to your wife that you have contributed something and if you don't say it to her at least thinking in your mind that you've done something that was worthwhile today is of prime importance even above money in some cases. Miss Nelson described her experience in getting a job. I just went in and told them not to take the test. And. They made a date for me to take it and and I took it on that day and that two weeks later they sent me the

results and they asked me to come in to the office again and I went in and. Tell me if they are not doing. Your radio station. And I came down here and they offered me the job. In the end I did take a physical which takes about a week to get their thoughts on their thing and start work their story. Not everyone however finds it easy to obtain a job in industry business or even Multiversity has some lack the training that will qualify them for available skilled jobs. Others find employment offices frightening and simply refuse to go to them. A few are so convinced that nobody wants to hire them they just don't bother to try. Realizing that

minority groups culturally deprived unskilled workers are an important source of potential employees many Multiversity s have made attempts to contact and hire these people. Urban multi-verse cities are making special efforts in this area. Dr. Robert E. Corley dean of student affairs at the new Chicago Circle campus of the University of Illinois described their situation an employment program. We have been working very diligently to try to overcome some of the difficulties that we faced when we first came to this campus. We have a number of different types of communities in the immediate vicinity of the campus. We have the Italian community immediately to the west between here and the medical school. We have slightly to the southwest a rather large negro housing project and extending on the west very large negro ghetto.

We have some Spanish American people in the immediate vicinity also. Then we find that one of our most difficult problems is how to become a good neighbor to all of the people who have thought of us as an interloper or an intruder into the neighborhood rather than as one who lived with them and grew up with them as universities very often do in smaller communities. We have. Done some or taken some positive steps in this regard. We have particularly in terms of employment policies established aid and employment programs in the area. We have four recruiting centers that we have set up in the immediate neighborhood and which are non academic personnel people go out and interview people near their homes or add

more familiar places. We sometimes take the testing services out and have on occasion actually hired people on the spot. We find that many of these people find the university rather ominous place and to come over here into this building and make an application for a job is kind of frightening experience. So they just simply don't do it. And what one of our most successful efforts has been in this point program of re-establishing ourselves in the community and it's been particularly successful with some of the more hardcore ghetto people we have hired for some of our physical plant positions. The champagne about ICAP us of the University of Illinois has developed a similar program. Mr. Gates described its history and operation. Over the past two years. The personnel office here

to Urbana champagne campus has probably had the same types of problems of all large state universities. But we have spent a great deal of time and money attempting to encourage minority groups and the economically and culturally deprived candidates for employment to apply for positions with the University of Illinois. We work with an advisory Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. We have a Human Relations Committee and various other agencies such as the Urban League that we cooperate with rather extensively. About a year and a half ago we established a remote recruiting office out in the NW and the north end of the champagne Urbana area which is primarily a Negro community. And we have had some luck with this remote recruiting.

The some of the examinations have been changed some of the entrance requirements have been changed to make it easier to enter the employment of the University of Illinois by these culturally deprived people. Examinations are currently under study for revision some 40 percent of our own recruiting staff and the personnel office are Negro in an attempt to encourage these people to apply. It's best if they have someone of their own race that they can discuss employment with. And in the future we'll be working to increase the percentage he grew employees of the university employment the nonacademic employment office of any Multiversity faces many problems including an annual fluctuation of employees and positions during the months of June and the months of February there is quite a bit of fluctuation in the student wise.

I tend to leave the university in large magnitudes during the months of June after their husbands have completed their academic work and the service workers such as food service and that type of employee leaves us when the major part of the students leaves university in June. We asked Mr. Gates how serious is this employee turnover. Be present or past year as averaged anywhere from in July 4.4 percent to October a one point five percent. And so we feel that were luckier in the realm of turnover than a large lot of industries are. We find that this turnover is relatively low when you consider the large numbers of employees on the campus. And the fact that we would expect a normal pattern of turnover to be an official to the university. Because in

any working situation it's good to have fresh ideas and new ideas and to also provide for additional. People who are experienced and thereby to help our academic people continue their jobs their research and teaching. What is the most serious problem facing the nonacademic employment office. Surprisingly the major problem that the personnel office faces is not that my arty relations or civil rights problems but the money problems. As you probably realize the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has one hundred seventy four departments both large and small which fall into approximately 34 colleges and administrative units. Each unit has operated similar to a separate small

company. Each of these units handles the item such as merit or salary increases promotional salary increases and general merit increases in a different manner which results in unhappy employees in those departments without large sources of fun. The fact that the university is a state tax supported institution provides that they get their running expense money from the legislature. And as a result have to work within the narrow confines of a budget. Now the problem as you could surmise there are as many experts on the subject of employer relations and on the disposition of salaries as there are people. Now the problem will never have an ideal solution here at this campus or any of the large institutions which will be satisfactory to everyone.

But it does result in a continual turnover in personnel people involved in salary administration. Every position with animal diversity is important for its functioning no matter how unimportant the job may seem at first. Food service personnel janitors repairman clerks technicians lawyers editors stagehands and hundreds of other personnel are a part of the Multiversity community a community that in addition to administrators teachers and students requires hundreds of other skills and talents in order to operate. This means jobs for citizens and economic growth for the community. In triplicate please. Just a common office

phrase especially in an institution as large as a multi versity. But it represents one way in which individual citizens have an important place inside the Multiversity. Today. During the past half hour you have heard the sixt program in a series about what's going on inside the Multiversity today next week at this time we'll hear what administrators and trustees have to say about the schools they operate. Your host for today's program was Denis Corrigan. The music was performed by the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Charles Delaney. The program was produced and directed by Louise

Geissler is in the studios of WY L.L. the University of Illinois Broadcasting Service. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.