Talking Stick - September/October 2008 - (Page 46)

Think Globally, React Locally Subtle Economic Influences by hiring part-time or hourly staff, housing practitioners must struggle with the ethical A number of economic influences on college issues of employing staff who are at the lower housing are subtle but have real implications end of the pay scale and may not have benefits, for policy and budget decisions. Public health and they must recognize that staff, too, are is a good example. Institutions nationwide affected by rising costs. “Senior housing officers have developed emergency response plans for need to realize the increasing costs also affect pandemic flu, for example, and campus housing our staff. We need to do what we can to assist is a driving force for decisions made to safeguard them,” acknowledges Vickie Hawkins, director students’ health, like quarantining infected of housing at Georgia Southern University in students or canceling classes. Also, health Statesboro. “In addition to educational programs concerns about indoor pollutants lead to budget on the housing budget or personal finance programs that could help housing staff members, ideas could include a Monitoring trends is one way to ensure that ride share program with the planning process is proactive and sensitive housing staff employees and creating attractive to change, and student activism is often a and convenient spaces good barometer for changing expectations. For (indoor and outdoor) for lunch and break times instance, students are increasingly concerned to reduce the need for transportation.” about our collective environmental footprint, and they have lobbied for creative strategies to conserve energy. decisions related to assessing, monitoring, and improving indoor air quality, which have an economic impact on housing departments. The increase in minimum wage provides another example of a subtle change having direct economic implications, especially for operations that employ students in the variety of leadership positions offered by campus housing. Obviously the wage increase has a direct impact on budgets, but housing practitioners cannot simply look at the bottom line; they must also grapple with the ethical dimensions of human resources. For example, although costs could be reduced Hawkins offers a number of ideas that could be considered by housing professionals in response to changing economic conditions: “Removing land phone lines to reduce telecommunication costs (placing a panic button in the room in lieu of the land line will provide the means for emergency communication that parents and students desire), introducing electronic housing contracts to decrease labor and package costs, going from a five-day work week to a four-day work week when feasible, and getting students involved in reducing the budget through competitions, especially involving utility costs.” Talking Stick

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Talking Stick - September/October 2008

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