Every Friday Tania Serrano ’08 arrives at Usdan around 7:30 a.m. to open the building. Wearing a red and black polo shirt, she unlocks all the exterior doors, ready to take on the varied responsibilities of a Usdan student manager.
Although all student workers at Usdan wear the same shirts, they certainly don’t have the same responsibilities. Usdan is managed in part by Serrano and 12 other student managers: Gabriel Abreu ’09, Helen Black ’09, Ruby-Beth Buitekant ’09, Luz Burgos ’09, Scarlett Feliz ’10, Harold Flores ’09, Noel Flores ’10, Wes Moss ’09, Vu Nguyen ’10, Miguel Ramirez ’10, Andres Rosario ’08 and Jessica Rosario ’09.
The student managers work four-to-five hour shifts that can start as early as 6:45 a.m., depending on when clients, which range from students and University staff to outside companies, plan to use rooms in the center.
A student manager since October, Feliz described the many roles that she takes on throughout her workday.
“[When] people say they don’t know what student managers are doing, it’s because there’s nothing that they can distinguish,” said Feliz. “People don’t really know unless they work in the building. Someone who’s moving around can be us or setup, someone who’s sitting at the desk can be us or info desk. We do everything. We have to pick up the slack.”
Given the building’s newness and constant changes, another student manager, Burgos, noted that some student managers had to work over the summer and winter breaks to ensure a smooth transition for Usdan into the next semester.
“I would definitely give a lot of credit to the managers from last semester to now,” she said. “They were really the ones that had to basically edit the logistics of everything and how to manage this building. Changes came from their experiences last semester. Protocols changed almost every week. A lot of the shaping of this building came from student managers.”
Despite this flexibility, student managers actually work under Coordinator of the Campus Center Frank Marsilli and Associate Director of Operations at Usdan Joanne Rafferty.
“Our student managers are a critical component to the operations of Usdan and often their hard work goes unnoticed by the larger campus community,” said Rafferty. “They are the eyes and ears for the administration staff and function many times in our absence.”
Burgos echoed these sentiments.
“Whatever [students] complain about to us, we communicate to the administration,” she said. “Any changes you see are because we fought for them.”
For example, when the condom boxes were taken away, they were soon brought back upon the student managers’ requests. The student managers were also responsible for the sanitary napkins in the bathroom and the additional corkboards where flyers are posted.
Student mangers’ responsibilities vary depending on their shift. In addition to opening the building, Serrano explained that they also unlock the game room, the multipurpose room and Fayerweather, and routinely check all rooms and bathrooms.
“Throughout your shift, you’re opening rooms, setting them up, working with vendors, doing rounds of the building,” she said.
Their job down to a science, Serrano and other student managers record statistics in a log at the end of their shifts.
Despite this commitment to precision and organization, the student managers sometimes face disrespect from clients.
“I try to be up front since I’m in a leadership position,” Feliz said. “Sometimes clients try to brush us off. That’s when we all try to stand up in whatever way we can.”
Feliz said that she has also seen clients treat cleaning staff and Bon Appétit workers unfairly, and emphasized that she tries to stand up for her fellow Usdan employees.
She recalled an instance in which a Bon Appétit worker stopped by a room to clean up the hot beverages provided by food service. Although the clients using the room had exceeded the amount of time allotted to them, they told the worker to leave when he came into the room.
“It would have been more work for him, [as] he would have had to have left and come back,” she said. “He has his own stuff to do, he can’t wait around.”
Feliz said that she went right into the room and confronted the clients.
“[The clients] were startled,” she said. “I told them that it was okay for him to take the coffee out. They said they thought he was trying to make them leave.”
Feliz stressed that student managers have to be able to handle these tough situations.
“If we have to go to Joanne, she knows it’s something serious,” she said.
Rafferty lauded her student managers’ ability to take on such responsibility, and encouraged students to apply for next semester openings as current managers graduate or go abroad.
“My philosophy is such that every opportunity on campus, even student employment, should be one where students can learn and gain experience,” Rafferty said. “All of our student employees are practicing and being evaluated on such transferable skills as communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork.”
Such student worker authority, Rafferty noted, is uncommon at other institutions.
“A few managers have let me know that during recent interviews employers were amazed at the level of responsibility student managers are given,” she said.
While Serrano’s shift may begin in the early hours of the morning with preparations for the day ahead, other shifts last late into the night.
“[We] leave at two o’clock in the morning,” Burgos said. “We have to get the drunk people out of Late Night and deal with that. One time some guy peed in the trash can.”
Burgos just shrugged at the memory.
“Sometimes we get no respect,” she said. “I was trying to introduce myself to a client who was going to be using the building, She was like, ’Who are you?’”
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