|
by Jessica
Howard
F. Clark
Williams,
president
of the
University
Staff
Advisory
Council
and
director
of the
Office
of Information
Technology
Services
in the
Division
of Student
Life,
joined
the
University
in 1984.
As a
longtime
employee,
Williams
has
seen
much
change
during
his
18-year
tenure.
He recently
spoke
candidly
to the
Register
about
his
vision
for
USAC
helping
the
University’s
3,000
non-Medical
Center,
non-union
employees
become
fully
vested
partners
with
the
University.
USAC
meets
August
through
June
on the
second
Tuesday
of the
month
in Room
189
Sarratt
at 8:30
a.m.
All
staff
members
are
invited
to attend.
Q: How
has
the
role
of USAC
changed
in recent
years?
A: Let
me answer
that
question
another
way.
What
I have
expressed
to the
Executive
Committee
of the
Staff
Council
and
to the
membership
of the
Staff
Council
is a
desire
to step
back
and
look
at the
big
picture
as much
as possible
this
year,
instead
of focusing
on individual
issues
and,
by focusing
on and
looking
at the
big
picture,
come
up with
the
issues
that
we might
want
to address.
Q: And
what
kind
of issues
will
USAC
address
this
year?
A: What
we have
done
is asked
the
question,
“What
would
it look
like
if staff
were
full
partners
with
faculty
and
students
in the
educational
enterprise?”
When
I mentioned
this
to Chancellor
[Gordon]
Gee,
he said
he had
been
thinking
about
how
we integrate
staff
into
the
education
process.
Those
are
the
things
we are
taking
under
study.
What
we did
at our
first
meeting,
was
to break
into
small
groups
and
fill
in the
blank,
the
blank
being
"the
staff
will
be full
partners
when
…"
We came
back
into
the
large
group
and
took
the
concepts
that
came
out
of the
small
groups,
put
them
together
in batches,
and
came
up with
seven
or eight
statements
that
the
Executive
Committee
[of
the
USAC]
is going
to look
at,
polish,
flesh
out
and
work
with
the
administration
on addressing.
One
of the
things
that
we need
to look
at very
carefully
is,
how
are
staff
going
to fit
in to
the
residential
college
experience?
…
The
Chancellor
is coming
to see
us in
October
and
we will
be looking
at issues
of involvement.
Being
a “full
partner”
doesn't
mean
being
the
“same
as.”
We will
not
be the
same
as students
and
we will
not
be the
same
as faculty,
but
we need
to figure
out
what
it means
to be
a partner
in the
enterprise.
We will
not
have
tenure,
we will
not
earn
degrees,
but
beyond
that,
how
do we
participate
in this
educational
experience?
If you
ask
people
why
they
work
at Vanderbilt,
you
get
any
number
of answers:
"Because
the
benefits
are
good"
or "because
the
employment
is secure."
Almost
every
time
you
will
get
some
version
of "because
it's
education,
higher
education"
or "because
it's
an academic
setting."
We have
lawyers
working
here,
we have
architects
working
here,
we have
accountants
working
here,
all
of whom
could
go out
in the
broader
world
and
find
jobs
with
some
ease,
but
they
choose
to work
at Vanderbilt.
I think
they
choose
to work
here
largely
because
it is
an educational
enterprise.
So how
do we
take
advantage
of that
sentiment?
Q: What
do you
think
that
initial
exercise
accomplished?
A:I
think
it got
us thinking
about
our
relationship
to the
institution
and
our
relationship
to students
in ways
that
we had
not
thought
about
before,
or in
ways
that
we had
not
thought
about
in a
long
time.
Q: How
will
you
use
the
information
that
you
gathered
from
these
exercises?
A: Anything
that
comes
to us
as a
concern
that
a staff
member
might
have,
we would
try
to see
where
it fits
in one
of the
seven
or eight
categories,
and
would
then
try
to see
if we
were
already
addressing
that
through
the
larger
vision
and
the
larger
picture.
If not,
then
we would
try
to see
how
we might
address
it in
the
wider
view.
Q: Has
the
USAC
set
any
goals
for
this
academic
year?
A: The
only
goal
that
we have
really
set
is to
complete
the
study
of these
statements;
what
would
it look
like
for
staff
as full
partners,
how
do we
integrate
staff
into
the
educational
process?
Q: Do
you
feel
staff
members
feel
fully
integrated
into
the
University
community?
A:I
think
the
Chancellor
is desirous
of the
staff
being
heavily
engaged,
and
I not
only
support
that
notion,
I embrace
it.
I am
hoping
that
we migrate
away
from
the
notion
of there
being
separate
ceremonies
for
faculty,
staff
and
students
so that
every
event
is a
community
celebration.
Q: Would
it be
beneficial
for
USAC
and
the
Medical
Center’s
staff
advisory
committee
work
together?
A: In
some
ways
we share
some
of the
same
concerns,
but
in many
ways
we have
different
interests.
And
I think
the
reason
for
that
is that
the
Medical
Center
is largely
driven
by patient
care.
I know
they
have
teaching,
research
and
patient
care,
but
what
makes
them
tick
is patient
care.
In University
Central,
what
drives
the
wheel
is undergraduate
education.
It is
interesting
to me
and
maybe
even
ironic
that
what
drives
departments
is graduate
education,
but
what
drives
the
institution
as a
whole
is undergraduate
education.
So finding
common
ground
on which
to build
a relationship
with
the
Medical
Center
is challenging,
but
the
relationship
is likely
to be
rewarding.
Q: What
else
should
our
readers
know
about
USAC?
A: They
should
know
that
because
of the
reorganization
of the
University,
we are
going
to be
going
through
a reallocation
process
so that
the
groups
and
representatives
will
be better
organized
to represent
their
constituencies.
Posted
9/27/02
at 10
a.m. |
