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Remote Students and Manager Positions

by Jenalyn Reyes

Blackburn College had a few new manager positions open toward the beginning of the semester. The departments that had open manager positions were the Bookstore, Campus Services, Dining and Hospitality, and Athletics. Due to the continuing pandemic, learners are split between those who are attending classes in person and those who are attending remotely. 

Because of this, many students who may have been interested in the open manager positions are unable to apply due to being a remote learner. Furthermore, some former managers have resigned. “There has been a constant number of students going remote from the start of this semester, and some managers have stepped down because they decided to go remote for a variety of reasons,” said general manager Katie Chase.

Department managers are responsible for several meetings, mentoring, skill training, and aiding other students with their work. Although some of these tasks can be handled remotely, a lot of the job is more efficiently handled while being physically present. “You may be able to provide the needs of the department through emails and virtual meetings, but a part of being a manager is being seen working alongside those in your department,” said Chase.

Those who applied for the positions will go through an interview process with the supervisors, the two GM’s, Angie Morenz, and sometimes the previous manager to determine who will get the position. Although there has been some interest in the open manager positions from remote learners, there is more interest from in-person learners. 

“We would not consider at this point and time a remote learner because of the needs that must be done by someone in-person,” said general manager Haley Crider. “The Work Program policies that can be found in the B-Book are rules that managers decided upon and are revised to fit and fill the needs of the campus every spring semester.” Many of the policies and information detailing the application process is also included in the B-Book.

“In a normal year, we would still require managers to be on campus because the work of being a manager of the department doesn’t fully translate online,” Chase said. In regards to the possibility of remote learners filling higher positions in the future, she added, “There has been a lot of talk about this topic and the answer is we do not know yet. Opportunities should be available to everyone that is a full-time student enrolled at this school. That is the easy part. The hard part is putting those words down on paper in a way that makes sense and is equitable to everyone. We are trying to provide as many opportunities to students in the Blackburn community, no matter if they are in-person or remote.”

 

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