Talking Stick - July/August 2018 - 65

importance of always being aware of
your shelf life within a certain position and also ensuring that you are
earning the necessary experiences
within your entry-level tenure in order
to achieve internal or external advancement. I am more familiar with
two- to four-year tenure for entrylevel positions being implemented
more frequently with colleagues who
have worked at West Coast institutions. In fact, there were a number
of colleagues in those capacities who
said that the institutions held to that
tenure standard regardless if they
were able to successfully rehire for
the anticipated vacant position.
Professionally, at UNCG we have
recently established five-year tenure
expectancy with our entry-level professionals, which is the coordinator for
residence life role. We established the
five-year threshold to coincide with
our current institutional guidelines
regarding vesting in the university
retirement program. The impetus for
the implementation of the tenure limit
was related to a decision to significantly increase salary levels for our
entry-level positions in order to remain
equitable and competitive. With the
salary increase, we were concerned
that when our live-in staff were preparing to advance in their careers, they
would find it difficult to give up their
compensation package to potentially
take an overall cut in a move to a more
advanced live-off position. In essence,
we were worried that we were creating
the proverbial golden handcuffs, when
staff felt like they could not afford to
take the next step in their career. Providing the tenure limit was meant to
help staff plan and prepare for making
career advancement moves within a
timeframe that seemed prudent and
beneficial for both the employee and
the university.

Kathy Bush Hobgood: Term limits
are a tool that I have been aware of
through my career, but I have not been
subject to them, nor have I implemented them during my time as a director.
I have always felt that there had to be
other ways to accomplish the stated
goals without the need to create an
HR tool that applied to one segment
of staff, but not others. Similarly, I am
aware of departments that utilize the
practice of requiring entry-level staff
to declare, often by an early spring
date, their intention to leave or stay
put for the following academic year.
This request certainly follows and
maximizes the cycle of the traditional
recruiting season but always seemed to
set up a dynamic that was challenging
to manage for both the staff member
and their supervisors. My goal has
always been to create dynamics, policies, and procedures that worked for
all staff levels. I am certainly aware
that I have worked mostly at large
public institutions, whose HR departments have been non-unionized, and
in environments that have allowed for
the autonomy to design the structure
as we desired.
Lauren Shulman: While I'm aware
that institutions utilize term limits for
a number of reasons to serve both staff
and the department/institution, I've
not experienced term limits personally or professionally. CSU does not
employ term limits for our entry-level
live-in position, the residence director, and supervisors work to provide
professional development opportunities and collateral assignments across
campus to help staff prepare to take
on their next role. We are incredibly
mindful of the term limits staff often
place on themselves, or feel as members of the student affairs profession,
and support staff when they decide it's
time to search for their next position.

Vik Arunkumar: The institutions
that I have worked at have not had
term limits for entry-level professionals. However, my mentors have
always encouraged me to set my own
term limits so that I get the maximum
experience out of my stay at an institution. I have had colleagues who were at
institutions with three-year term limits
and a potential fourth year if enrolled
in a graduate program or having an
extenuating circumstance. They have
enjoyed their experiences being in a
term-limited position.

Temetria Hargett: It was an unwritten rule that the hall director position
was a three to five-year commitment. Thinking about this now, I'm
not sure where I learned this. I have
never worked at a university that used
term limits, but I know they exist,
specifically in the Northeast. At LSU,
we do not use term limits but are rethinking our professional development
experiences to be more mindful of the
opportunities for our residence life
coordinators within each year of their
employment with us.
TS: What are some of the benefits of
term limits for the individual in this
type of position?

Merritt: The major benefits are
holistic with respect to the current
and future state of student affairs and
higher education. It is an opportunity
for the professional to be strategically
engaged with the types of professional
development and skill acquisition
experiences sought after during that
time. For current professionals, I
believe it may provide a stronger stability of financial status, particularly for
what seems an increasing and varying
post-graduate student debt that can
be incurred during a graduate career.

JULY + AUGUST 2018

65
Talking Stick - July/August 2018

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