Office assistants staffing residence hall front desks will no longer be allowed to crack open a textbook on the clock. Housing & Residential Life has issued updated workplace expectations that bar homework, personal devices and other non-work activities during day and evening desk shifts, beginning this fall.
Overnight shifts are handled differently: homework will still be permitted for students working those hours, but the policy bans use of computers, phones and tablets at any time during a shift, day or night.
Housing & Residential Life Senior Director Susan Stubblefield said the change is about keeping desk staff focused on residents and guests. "To ensure our team delivers attentive, high-quality customer service to residents and guests, day and evening desk shifts will focus on primary desk responsibilities and customer interaction. During which personal devices and non-work activities, including homework, will not be permitted," Stubblefield said.
The department is pairing the new rule with a scheduling change, standardizing office assistant shifts into three-hour increments, which it says is meant to give students more scheduling flexibility even as the homework ban takes something away. Office assistants are paid $15.25 an hour and staff the 24-hour information desks in residence halls, handling key management, emergency procedures and campus tours in addition to routine desk coverage.
Student workers say the tradeoff doesn't balance out. With homework off-limits for most shifts, students who relied on quiet desk time to chip away at coursework between visitors now have to find that time elsewhere, on top of the same job responsibilities and pay.