Training and Managing Student Employees in the Computer Center


Copyright 1990 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 13, Number 1, Spring 
1990. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is 
granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for 
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further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, 
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                 TRAINING AND MANAGING STUDENT EMPLOYEES
                          IN THE COMPUTER CENTER
                            by Jan A. Richard

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Jan A. Richard is Assistant Director and Head of User Services for
Academic Computing at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. One
of her responsibilities is to hire, train, and manage forty student
employees. She earned a BA in classical civilization from Yale
University and an MS in computer science, with emphasis on artificial
intelligence, from Villanova University. Prior to joining the staff at
Haverford in 1987, she worked as a scientific programmer for a small
company and taught high school.

************************************************************************

ABSTRACT: This article describes methods used by the Academic Computer 
Center at Haverford College for hiring, training, and managing student 
employees, including both successful and unsuccessful experiences. 
Problems encountered in managing students are discussed, and incentives 
for improving performance are suggested. The author offers guidance
concerning appropriate roles and expectations for student employees in a
computer center. Much of the analysis is based on responses to a
questionnaire distributed to current and former employees at Haverford.


Students are a significant resource for providing effective user
computing services. In a small college environment, where computer
center staff are in short supply, students are essential to the proper
functioning of the center. They can be employed in a variety of ways:
supervising computer clusters, responding to user questions, manning
help "hotlines," teaching seminars, performing system management
functions, repairing hardware, programming, and supervising other
student employees. At Haverford College, we have learned from experience
that the key to effective use of student labor is well-conceived hiring,
training, and management practices.

Academic Computing at Haverford

Haverford is a small liberal arts college located in Haverford,
Pennsylvania, with approximately 1,100 undergraduate students and 90 FTE
faculty.The community is close-knit, with most students as well as
faculty living on campus. An academic and social honor code governs
student behavior. There are no graduate programs, and the curriculum is
heavily arts and sciences oriented, with no professional majors such as
engineering, business, or education. A small computer science
concentration, introduced two years ago, is affiliated with the
mathematics department.

Most of the computer use at Haverford involves word processing and
electronic mail. Graphics and spreadsheet packages are used by some in
the sciences, and various statistical packages are used in both the
sciences and social sciences. There are some database users, mostly in
the humanities, and programming is done by a few individuals in various
departments.

A centralized VAX 6310 is connected to every college-owned device
via a data PBX network.[1] Every student and faculty member is
automatically given an account on the VAX, and most of them use it for
electronic mail exclusively. Microcomputer use has traditionally been
dominated by IBM PCs, but in the last two years the Macintosh has gained
significant ground.

The Academic Computer Center (ACC) at Haverford, which is entirely
separate from the Administrative Computer Center, is responsible for
serving the needs of faculty and students. We maintain three public
computer clusters and several workstations with limited access. The
center staff consists of six regular, full-time personnel: the director,
the assistant director and head of user services, an academic computing
consultant, an office manager, and two hardware technicians. A newly
added documentation and training specialist serves half-time in the ACC
and half-time as a computer science laboratory assistant. Among the many
responsibilities of the assistant director is the hiring, training, and
managing of student employees, a function that demands a large
percentage, perhaps fifty percent or more, of her time.

We currently employ forty student assistants (SAs) at the ACC. The
majority work in the three public clusters, distributing software,
responding to user questions, and solving problems. Each SA works about
eight hours per week for regularly scheduled shifts. In addition, there
are several "special" SAs who perform specific tasks:

  *  Two VAX and Unix system managers who are responsible for
maintaining the operating systems and performing tasks as requested by
staff members.

  *  A hardware assistant who assists the technicians in maintaining
and repairing computers.

  *  Two lead student assistants who serve as liaisons between SAs and
ACC staff and assist in training other employees. Lead SAs are
appointed as juniors and hold the position for two years.

  *  A VAX backup person who performs weekly and quarterly backups on
weekends.

  *  Four cluster managers who oversee the operation of one of the
clusters and perform tasks as requested by full-time staff.

  *  A programmer who performs short programming tasks for faculty or
the ACC.

Major Challenges and Issues in Student
Employment

Student employees differ from regular employees in many ways that
raise unique challenges in managing them. First, they are at school in
order to learn; their job necessarily takes second priority and the time
and energy they have to devote to their work is severely limited.
Second, they are necessarily part-time, temporary employees; this fact
limits the amount of training we can practically afford to do and thus
the level of work we can expect. Third, they are generally young and
inexperienced at work; this means we must not only train them in
computer skills, but must also work to foster basic qualities like
dependability, good judgement, communication, and the like.

The two most difficult problems with using student labor are
training and scheduling. Computer center jobs generally require more
knowledge and experience than other campus jobs. This means we have to
hire students early, train them well, and then keep them for four years
in order to have a reasonable return on our investment. Scheduling is a
constant problem, because we depend on them for specific shifts each
week, and they have numerous other commitments that may conflict with
their job. Helping them to establish priorities, while allowing for some
flexibility in the schedule, is essential.

A related issue in student employment is that many students are not
experienced with work. They often don't understand the problems they
create when they "forget" a shift or when they overcommit themselves and
cannot carry out their obligations. We view our relationship with
student employees in terms of our educational role as well. What they
learn in their jobs in terms of responsibility, commitment, skills, and
dealing with people may influence how they succeed after college as much
as what they learn in the classroom will. It is important for us to
recognize our commitment to them in this light as well as their
commitment to us.

It is also necessary to determine what are reasonable roles for
students and ones in which they can be successful. To expect a full-time
student to perform a task that requires an excessive amount of time or
responsibility can be disastrous both for the computer center and the
student. Student jobs must be well thought out and sufficient guidance
provided so that the student is capable of succeeding.

Another issue to consider is that of putting students in the role
of rule enforcers for other students. Although some may enjoy the sense
of responsibility and trust this involves, others feel uncomfortable
with being put in this position. Rules should be clearcut, so that
students do not feel responsible for making arbitrary decisions that
affect fellow students.

It is all well and good to theorize on the best way to train and manage
student employees, but we wanted to know what the students themselves
felt about the jobs we and they were doing. To this end we developed a
questionnaire which was sent to forty-five current students, and to
seventeen graduates who worked for us during the 1988-1989 school year.
The questionnaire focused on training, job attitude, interests and
motivation, gripes, self-image, attitude toward management, and policy
issues.

Of the sixty-two current and former employees who received the
questionnaire, thirty-eight responded. The responses served to reinforce
or disprove our suspicions about various aspects of our training and
management. The questionnaires also brought out some issues that
students were concerned about that we had never considered. Survey
responses are used throughout this article as anecdotal evidence to
support some of our observations and beliefs[2]

Finding and Hiring the Right Students

In a student body of 1,100 liberal arts majors, finding forty
responsible students with computer experience, interest, and willingness
to work is not an easy task. We prefer to hire freshmen because of the
amount of training and experience needed to become good at the job. For
the past two years we have lost about fifteen students each year to
graduation. This has created problems in terms of hiring and training,
as well as those associated with operating with a relatively
inexperienced group. In order to find enough applications, we have had
to advertise through the career development and financial aid offices
and with posters. Current student employees have also been very helpful
in finding qualified applicants.

As in society as a whole, fewer women college students seem
interested in working with and becoming proficient in the use of
computers than men. This is reflected in the approximately one to four
ratio of applications for employment from women students. Happily, we
are seeing a gradual increase in these numbers, partly due to the
increase in exposure of women to computers before college, and partly
from the excellent example set by our current female employees.

Another problem is deciding whom to hire. We ask applicants to fill
out a short application form assessing their skills in different areas
and explaining why they want to work for us. We then ask most of them in
for a ten-minute interview. The qualifications we look for have changed
considerably over time. At the beginning, we looked mostly for computer
experience. Now we find that this is not always an indicator of who will
be good. People who are "hackers" sometimes get bored with the low level
of assistance people need, and often are not patient with inexperienced
users. A much more important quality is enthusiasm for learning about
computers. We also look for people who communicate well and are
interested in helping people.

The most important quality for us has been maturity and a sense of
responsibility. We look for students who are willing to commit
themselves to eight hours a week, who have held other jobs or who think
it is important to have work experience, and who have a good reason for
applying for this job as opposed to other, less demanding jobs on
campus.

We have found it very important to explain what the expectations
will be, especially to freshmen, and make sure they know what they are
getting into. Many freshmen are unaware of the many demands of college
life, and have not considered how having a job might affect their
academic and social lives. Although we cannot always tell who will be
responsible in a short interview, we can often see whether they've
considered these issues.

Retaining and Motivating Student Employees

Next to hiring the right people, the most important thing is
retaining them. We have had considerable success retaining employees.
The few who have quit have done so because of academic or personal
reasons unrelated to their job.

Because jobs in the computer center tend to be more demanding than
other campus jobs, and because it is important to us to retain good
employees, we have had to make our jobs more attractive. There are
several factors involved in motivating and retaining students.
Pay and "perks." We try to keep our pay scale slightly ahead of
other jobs on campus. In the questionnaire, students expressed that
although money was an important factor in seeking a job, the higher rate
of pay was not what kept them in it. After-hours access to all computer
centers, the major perk, proved to be a more important incentive. But by
far the two most important motivating factors were helping people and an
opportunity to learn about computers.

Satisfaction and/or fun. Both our experience and the results of our
survey bear out the importance of enjoyment as a motivation for working.
Ninety-two percent of respondents said they enjoyed their jobs, and an
equal percent said the fact that it was more fun than other jobs was an
important incentive in their decision to continue in the job. Several
SAs mentioned getting to know other SAs and users as a source of
enjoyment.

Group cohesiveness. We have worked to foster group cohesiveness
among SAs, as they must depend on each other for assistance with
problems and covering shifts, and because being part of a group can be a
source of motivation. One successful group enterprise was a student-
organized intramural volleyball team. We also have monthly dinner
meetings in which we discuss issues and sometimes have a speaker on a
topic of interest. Surveyed students expressed the opinion that SAs are
a cohesive group, and most said they had made friends with other SAs
whom they would not have gotten to know otherwise.

Positive reinforcement. Many students have not worked much with
computers before, and may not have held a serious job. They need to know
that the work they are doing is good, and especially that it is
appreciated by users and by the full-time staff. It helps to make a
point of thanking students for the small things they do. To recognize
their contributions, we instituted an "SA of the Month" award presented
at our monthly meeting, with the prize a computer center teeshirt and a
letter outlining their contributions. Seventy-four percent of the
questionnaire respondents felt that being "SA of the Month" was an
honor.

Positive reinforcement also means the opportunity for advancement.
We have a four-tiered ladder: novice, intermediate, regular, and special
SA. Although the financial rewards of advancement are limited by the
college's pay scale for student employees, we try to make the promotions
offer a personal challenge. After their first semester working for us,
new employees are given a 20-minute oral test. If they pass, and their
work record is good, they are promoted to intermediate SA. At the end of
the second semester, they are given a much more difficult hands-on test
that may last two hours and tests how good their problem-solving skills
are. If they pass this, they are promoted to regular SA. When positions
for special SAs open up, the employee who is best qualified and most
dedicated is selected.

Opportunity to learn. We also feel that students needed to be
encouraged to do extra projects to help the computer center when they
have a quiet shift. In addition to helping us, this provides them with
an opportunity to learn something new and to be creative.

Responsibility and status. In the questionnaire, eleven students
expressed an interest in teaching classes, and several more responded
favorably to a mail message asking for people interested in teaching
computer literacy classes to freshmen the next year. Teaching is an
excellent way to provide student employees with a challenge, while
relieving staff members of having to teach the same introductory classes
many times over. It is important, however, to provide the student with
necessary guidance on how to teach, and to provide or to help him or her
develop training materials.

Promise of future rewards. Promise of future rewards is difficult
to use as an incentive, especially for freshmen. In fact, though,
freshmen are generally enthusiastic about the job, and the enthusiasm
wanes as they get older. So for seniors, this becomes an important
motivating factor. Only 26 percent of those surveyed felt that improving
their resume was very important in their decision to stay with the job.
However, 61 percent agreed that learning good work habits in college was
important and 97 percent said the computer skills they learn in the job
will be valuable to them in the future. Many of the graduates who
responded to our survey described how their job with the computer center
has helped them more than they expected in their current jobs.

In addition to providing incentives to students to stay with the
job, we try to recognize and minimize the negative aspects of the job.
When asked what they liked least about their job, students most often
mentioned: (1) demanding or ungrateful users, (2) not having enough
experience or time to do a good job, and (3) chaos during exam time.

Although the first problem is not one we can necessarily control,
we try to educate users whenever possible to the difficulty and
importance of the job the student employees are doing. The other two
problems are more within our power to deal with. We try to provide
continuous training for our employees so that they feel confident in
their abilities (see more on this below); we know the better trained our
employees are, the more problems they can solve without involving us.
The problem of exam-time chaos is a very real one. There are more
problems and demands for limited resources at these times. Besides the
budget constraints, the main problem with doubling up on staff during
exam time is lack of manpower. Students do not have time to take on
extra shifts during exams. Thus additional staffing during peak periods
must come from full-time staff, during the day, or special employees,
like our "lead SAs."[3]

We are also realistic in our expectations of students to retain
them. We expect them to take their job obligations seriously, but also
recognize that they are students first. We try to make the schedule
flexible enough so that they can fulfill their academic commitments.
This means providing them with a mechanism for accommodating schedule
changes and other commitments. At the beginning of each semester,
students are given a temporary schedule of shifts based on the class
schedule they hand in at the end of the previous semester. When they
have finalized their course selections, a swap meet is held so students
can trade away shifts they don't want and pick up new ones. After that,
we maintain a "swap" board on the VAX, where students send in shifts
they want to unload either permanently or on a one-time basis. They
retain responsibility for the shift until they find a substitute and
both parties inform us of the agreement. This system has worked well,
and most students agree this provides the needed flexibility.

Training Student Employees

There are three main areas that we cover in training: policy,
techniques, and skills. Policy covers rules and procedures that should
be followed and enforced by employees. At the beginning of the year, we
have all new student employees meet with regular staff members to go
over policy and allow students to ask questions. This ensures that all
students have the same understanding of the rules, and also opens the
paths of communication between supervisors and employees. Students are
given a written outline of what is covered in the meeting, and copies
are available to them in the workplace.

Techniques training involves teaching students how to help users
and what to do when they don't know the answers. This training can also
be done, in part, in a group situation, using role-playing to help
students learn helpful ways of instructing users. New employees are
introduced to available documentation and on-line tutorials and shown
how to use them. We also maintain a Student Assistant Handbook which
covers most topics they are responsible for and solutions to common
problems. This reference must be kept up to date and well indexed, or
students will not use it. Student employees must learn how to use
available documentation effectively, as we can not hope to teach them
everything they need to know to solve problems that will arise.

Teaching specific computer skills is by far the most time-consuming
and ongoing challenge in training SAs. This training needs to be hands-
on. We begin with a mentor system which pairs each new employee with a
veteran student employee. During the first month of the semester, the
trainees do not have their own shifts, but rather go to the mentor's
shifts. The mentor is given a list of topics to cover with the trainee.
This includes administrative duties, handling printers, DOS, Macintosh
and VMS operating systems, Microsoft Word (DOS and Mac), how to get into
and out of various applications, on-line tutorials, electronic mail,
Kermit, file recovery, and problem-solving skills. When they have
covered this brief list, the mentor observes while the trainee takes
over the job of distributing software and assisting users. When both
feel ready, the new employee is given his or her own shifts.

The mentor system is very successful, as it provides the new
employees with real experience without leaving them entirely on their
own. It also encourages a relationship between new and older employees,
and gives the veteran a chance to review skills which may have become
rusty over the summer. But this system must be supplemented by staff-run
training sessions as well. Particularly these past two years, when we
have had a large proportion of new employees, we have found that some of
the mentors themselves needed additional training. In response to this,
we have added a training session for mentors.

In the questionnaire, students strongly expressed the need for
additional training opportunities on all levels with experienced staff
members. Although they did not feel that it was too much to expect them
to learn what they were required to know, they did feel they needed more
help learning it. In response to the perceived need, we began this year
to offer one-hour training modules on a variety of different topics at
various levels. These were hands-on sessions, and students were given
outlines of what was covered. The sessions were well-attended and
productive, but limitations in staff time prevented us from offering as
many as we would have liked. The addition of a half-time training and
documentation specialist this year has allowed us to develop a broader
range of training modules, and to offer two to three modules a month.

Another attempt to deal with the training problem was the creation
of training groups. All the SAs were divided into four groups, each led
by a staff member or one of the two lead SAs. Groups met once a month in
the leader's room or office. The purpose was for someone to keep in
touch with each SA and make sure they were learning what they needed to
know. We also went over topics that seemed important to cover, and gave
the students a chance to express concerns or ask questions. These
meetings met with mixed reviews, with negative comments often referring
to poor group makeup. Nevertheless, leaders found them productive and a
good way to maintain communication.

Electronic mail is an indispensable means of telling employees
about new software and clarifying policy matters. It is the only way to
disperse information to the whole group in a timely fashion. Monthly
meetings also play a role in the dissemination of information.

Even if we can get all employees up to speed on the general
categories covered in mentor training, there are a large number of
software packages we own in small quantities that even the full-time
staff members are not familiar with. Two years ago we decided that, in
order to encourage veterans to continue learning, and to be able to
provide some support for these packages, we would require every SA to
have a specialty. All SAs filled out sheets indicating their current
level of expertise on various packages, and then chose at least two
products that they did not know well but would like to learn. New SAs
chose one of the basic topics on which to concentrate. This was a good
idea, but did not meet with much success because we did not have time to
follow up on each person and see what he or she had learned. Ideally, we
would have liked to have every person give a class to other SAs on one
of their topics. Only 55 percent of our surveyed students felt that
requiring SAs to develop a specialty was a good idea.

An important part of training is evaluating employees' progress.
Periodic testing, as described earlier, allows staff members to see how
individual students are progressing. and also provides feedback on the
success of the training program. Also important are students' own
perceptions of their skills. Responses to questions about their skill
level when they were hired compared to the present indicate that
students felt their skills had increased considerably as a result of
their experience and training.

Training, we have found, is an activity that must be ongoing -- not
something that happens only in the first semester of a student's
employment. Student employees must be kept up to date on the new
technology, and must continually be stimulated to learn new things so
they do not become bored in their jobs. Unfortunately, training is a
time-consuming project for regular staff, as it involves considerable
preparation in addition to the time spent with students. We have not
found a good method to reduce or eliminate staff involvement. At the
beginning level, the mentor system saves staff considerable time and is
successful. But students clearly expressed that they wanted regular
staff members to conduct most of the ongoing and advanced training. We
expect a certain amount of self-training for advanced students, but we
find that most of the training must be done in a group setting by
regular staff.

Managing Student Employees

We must remember that we are not only employers to our students,
but educators as well. More than teaching them the specific skills of
their job, we can help them develop the qualities that they will need in
their careers: responsibility, diligence, cooperation, and initiative,
to name a few. While recognizing that they have obligations as students,
we must also let them know that this is a "real" job with real world
expectations.

One of the biggest problems we have had with SAs is students
failing to show up for a shift. In fact, we have had to fire three
students for repeatedly missing shifts, and this concerns us greatly.
This is a problem that affects all departments that hire students, but
it is particularly troublesome to the ACC because it inconveniences many
other people when a student does not show up to monitor a cluster.
Usually the reason is that they: (1) forgot they had a shift, (2) knew
they had the shift but forgot what day it was, or (3) slept through it
(which happens at any time of the day or night). All of these are
typical student behavior, but none is an acceptable excuse.

Students surveyed were very responsive about how to deal with the
problem. Most suggested specific actions depending on the number of
offenses. The usual progression was: (1) give warning and/or explain the
consequences of their behavior, (2) demote or cut salary, (3) fire them.
Most recognized that this is basically what we had been doing, although
we have no formal policy about this. No one said that we were too harsh,
but some did suggest ways of alleviating pressures on students as a
means of dealing with the problem. For example, they suggested letting
students do homework during their shifts, or increasing the length of
shifts so students have fewer shifts to remember.

We have tried many different approaches to the problem, and each
has been somewhat successful for some students. We have found that the
most important thing is to let students know from the beginning what our
expectations are, and that we consider a sense of responsibility and
commitment to be as important for them to develop as the specific skills
they need to do their job. (Seventy-four percent of the questionnaire
respondents indicated students should be given a written list of
expectations when they are hired.) We also make sure students understand
that we will make an effort to help them be responsible, for example, by
providing them with a swap mechanism for trading shifts, and that we
will be reasonable in our expectations and treatment of them. Finally,
we have set limits to what we will tolerate. This has meant firing
people who are basically good employees, but who have not shown any
progress in this area.

Another management concern has been the number of hours students
work. We have stated that we expect students to work 8 to 10 hours per
week. This is because the training and overhead costs are too great if
students work fewer hours, and also because we feel the privilege of
having 24-hour access to centers requires some obligation on their part.
By the end of the semester, as a result of trading away shifts, several
students had worked only 3 to 5 hours per week. Although we try to
accommodate students with academic or medical problems, we feel it is
important to maintain a minimum standard for most students. This gives
students the message that this is a "real" job, and not something they
do when they feel like it.

Closely related to fostering a sense of responsibility is promoting
self-image. In a job where knowledge and experience are very important,
it is easy for students to feel inadequate or ineffective. Thirty seven
percent felt they did not know enough to be an SA; most of these had
worked for us for only two semesters. Ninety-two percent said they were
reliable workers and 89 percent felt they did their best at work. These
last two statistics are encouraging, but we can't claim that this
resulted from anything we did. Fifty percent felt they did not get
enough feedback about how they are doing. Clearly, it is important to
communicate our assessment of each individual's progress to him or her
as often as possible. Testing is valuable for this at the early stages.
We also try to send a short mail message to each employee at the end of
each semester, outlining areas showing improvement and ones that still
need work.

As students are making the transition from the adolescent to the
adult world, it is important to give them a say in policies that affect
them. They find it easier to enforce rules that they help create, and
their direct experience with users often makes them better judges of
what will work. Full-time staff must distinguish between issues that
affect only the operation of the computer center and those that have
repercussions in the community as a whole. Often the latter have to be
decided by the staff, who will have to answer to the community for the
decision.

Students have been consulted, however, on how to handle crowded
centers, how to deal with infractions of the rules, and other matters
that involve them. In addition to discussing these matters as a group in
monthly meeting, we meet with the lead SAs every week to decide on
various issues. Lead SAs play a key role in all decisions that affect
student employees.

In creating jobs for students, it is important to avoid both
extremes: a job that quickly becomes boring, and one that is too
demanding for the student to handle. Each student is different in terms
of experience and motivation, and it is important to be able to
challenge each appropriately. A job working in the public clusters,
helping users, is challenging at first, but it can become frustrating
answering the same questions again and again. To ensure that students
who desire a challenge are accommodated, we try to offer ample
opportunities for them to contribute in different ways.

We have been notably successful with our hardware assistant and
lead SA positions because of our efforts to select the right student for
the job, and to provide sufficient guidance and training so that the
students in these positions feel confident. We have had less success
with system managers. This is a particularly demanding position that
requires considerable time and experience, and few students have either.
It is also important to find a student who is mature and responsible,
but hiring an older student means high turnover. Supervision is
difficult, because the student spends a great deal of time working
alone. Although students have found system management to be a good
learning experience, it can be difficult to find the right student and
the right structure to make it work.

Concluding Advice

Student employees are a precious resource, but we must work hard to
foster their development. With proper training and management, we can
help students become happier and more productive in their work. Both
students and staff can benefit greatly if we follow these guidelines:

  *  Hire the best students and keep them. Look for qualities like
maturity, reliability, and willingness to learn, rather than specific
computer skills.

  *  Make expectations clear from the start. Expect them to treat the
job like a "real" job, but also recognize that they are students first.

  *  Make expectations reasonable. Provide sufficient training and
guidance. Use as many training methods as possible, recognizing that
different students learn in different ways. Provide feedback on their
progress.

  *  Encourage group cohesiveness among employees. They need to be able
to depend on their co-workers, and the relationships they develop will
often be a source of enjoyment and satisfaction.

  *  Recognize the importance of educating student employees. Help them
become better employees by teaching them about responsibility, about
relating to supervisors and clients, and other skills they will need in
the future. Be demanding and understanding at the same time.

  *  Give them a say in matters that affect them. Take their
suggestions and gripes seriously. Implement their ideas, or encourage
them to, whenever possible. Treat them as adults and give them
responsibility for their situation.

========================================================================

Footnotes

1  Haverford's data PBX network is described in Edmund Meyers' "A Data
PBX as an Alternative LAN," in CAUSE/EFFECT, January 1988, pp. 12-21.

2  Interested readers are encouraged to contact the author for a copy of
the survey questionnaire and a complete analysis of the responses.
Inquiries may be addressed to Jan Richard, Assistant Director and Head
of User Services, Academic Computer Center, Haverford College, 370
Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania 19041-1392, or to
J_RICHARD@HVRFORD. BITNET.

3  Another way that we handle the need for additional help during exam
time without increasing our budget or having to hire additional
employees is through our Volunteer Monitor program. Interested students
volunteer to work for a specified period of time, and are trained by a
regular SA. They are responsible for enforcing rules and for keeping
track of hardware and software, but are not required to help other
users. Under this program, the student government agrees to be
responsible for any damage or loss that occurs while a volunteer monitor
is on duty. The system has worked fairly well except for occasional
violations of rules and procedures, and no damage or loss has occurred.

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