The Blackburn College Campus Services (C.S.) Department made the controversial decision this year to have write-ups rollover from last semester. This means if you got two write ups last semester, you’re only allowed one this semester before you will be issued a work contract and put on probation. This rule has also been applied to dining hall and snack bar workers. As a result, this program’s numbers have dropped recently because of the increase in students being fired. What many people don’t know is that this has always been standard policy at Blackburn. Associate Dean of Work Rob Weis explained, “We have 12 different departments, and they all have to follow the policies outlined in the B-book. As long as they aren’t directly crossing over B-book policy, they can generate policies within their department.” Weis gave the following example, “Campus services said that they wouldn’t be issuing verbal warnings with write-ups. We are just going to write you up if you’re missing and it will be your job to appeal that write-up.” This is an example of a department staying within the context of the work departments guidelines, but supplementing it with its own policies. For the last couple of years, the C.S. department has used the “clean slate” policy, through which write-ups reset every semester. This school year they decided to go back to having them rollover.
We already have enough trouble retaining workers from first to second semester without the write-ups rolling over.
C.S. assistant manager Ursa Matlock described the dilemma: “We started out this semester with over 60 workers and now we are down to the low 50s. (C.S. manager Christina Newton confirmed that the department had 59 workers at the beginning of the semester and has 51 now.) This has definitely put a strain on workers… on the best of days when everyone shows up, everyone’s schedule isn’t ideal so we might only have three workers to clean two whole buildings.” Matlock also spoke about the write-up policy and said, “That policy has definitely made it difficult on some workers… I’m not personally a fan of the write-ups not resetting, but I do understand the reason why.” Matlock explained that having a set number of write-ups per semester might allow some students to skip or goof-off and that resetting them at the end of each semester allows them to begin again. “So like I said, I understand why they do it but it does make it very hard, even on those who I would consider good workers who just had some family issues, personal issues or might have just been sick with no opportunity to go to the doctor,” said Matlock.
This policy has negatively affected several students. Former Blackburn freshman Benjamin Billings said, “I think it’s absurd that I didn’t know about this rule sooner. I know it was in the B-book but I feel like it should have been stressed more, especially if there was so much confusion about it.” Billings was forced to drop out of Blackburn after getting too many write-ups and being fired from his job. Crew head Sebastian Hitzelburger was very surprised by the rollover of write-ups. “A lot of people were unaware of the rollover of write-ups. Most of us thought that they were going to reset like they had in previous years. I personally was surprised when I had to have a meeting with Nate [the general manager] and had to be put on contract for the month because I wasn’t aware that the rule had even changed,” he said. He wasn’t fond of the rollover either and said, “I personally think that the write-up system should go back to how it was previously, at least for campus services. We already have enough trouble retaining workers from first to second semester without the write-ups rolling over.” Hitzelburger also mentioned the shortage of workers and believed that it made his job harder. “We make it work the best we can. Workers have to pick up extra slack if we’re down on numbers for that shift,” he said.
Weis said, “One of the things that I’m going to be encouraging the work committee to look at is the process. The write-up process needs to be reviewed and I think we need to take a look at the disciplinary process all around.” Weis revealed that Blackburn’s present work program general managers are in support of a revision of disciplinary procedure and that it is likely that future general managers will be too. “… Are write-ups necessarily serving their purpose? Are there some things that we can put in place … that helps people to navigate the work program?” said Weis.
Weis didn’t confirm that a revision of disciplinary procedure was imminent but said, “What I will say is that the work committee is going to be encouraged to review the policy and procedure. And if people have an opinion of that it would be great if they would share that with their department managers.”