Kate's Testimony

"We would not be able to run an effective coaching program without the support and work of PCs. This is an essential truth that extends beyond our team... every aspect of OMD’s support program depends on their expertise and support. There are PCs who have done all of this work, in person, every day, for years... And they are telling you they need a caseload cap. I believe them and I hope you do too."

Kate Scheuch, Volunteer and Alumni Program Coordinator

OMD was founded with the mission to provide community college students the support they need to persist and succeed in school. The org saw that students faced academic, financial, professional, and personal barriers that were beyond the capacity of existing on-campus resources, so staff developed a new, holistic support program with the goal of addressing each of these challenges. To set our services apart, OMD has always prided itself on the fact that its direct service staff members (Program Coordinators, or PCs) had caseloads significantly smaller than the caseloads of advisors at our partner campuses. With that said, as years passed, these small caseloads began to creep upward and the numbers became quite variable - a PC hired to work with 50 students ended up with 70, a PC hired to work with 65 students was given 76. Additionally, PCs found that working with more and more students made it increasingly difficult to do their job - please go check out previous posts to hear detailed and direct testimony from these workers. It has been clear to our union from the start that to provide the best and most consistent service to our scholars, we need a caseload cap that is stable, enforceable, and low enough that PCs can devote the time and energy necessary to provide a high-quality service to each scholar.

Since 2017 I have worked on OMD’s volunteer management team, spending the majority of my time helping to recruit and support volunteer coaches who each work one-on-one with a matched scholar throughout the academic year. Every coach/scholar relationship is different, and our team fields a wide variety of questions and concerns from coaches each week. After 2.5 years of this work, our team of PCs remains one of my most consistent sources of information and advice. If a coach hasn’t heard from their scholar, I check with the PC about their most recent interaction. PCs provide detailed info about a scholar’s background, personality, and experiences, so that I can more effectively mediate relationship challenges. If a coach is helping their scholar explore next steps on their career journey, PCs can provide advice on when to go to the career center on campus and who to talk to once you’re there.

I don’t want to undervalue the work that our hundreds of great coaches do to find their own resources and work through their own challenges. I also don’t want to downplay the work my team does to research, mediate, and support where needed. Still, there aren’t many days that go by where I don’t check in with a PC about a scholar. I actually think this dynamic is wonderful - it is so valuable for students to have a coordinated network of people who care and can provide a variety of resources and support. But it takes work and time from everyone involved.

We would not be able to run an effective coaching program without the support and work of PCs. This is an essential truth that extends beyond our team. PCs meet with scholars every day to provide personal support, but (to call back to the four types of barriers OMD was originally designed to address) PCs also do work to implement every area of our support program - academic, professional, financial, and personal. Of course, there are staff members at OMD who manage our tutors, our events, our college and corporate partnerships, our data and technology, our finances, our funding, and more. They do great and difficult work to make our program work for students. But I can’t ignore the fact that PCs also end up taking on work to connect scholars to academic resources, build relationships with leadership at partner campuses, make space reservations, maintain records, facilitate workshops, and more. PCs perform the evaluations that determine if a scholar is eligible for a stipend, they hand out that stipend, and if a scholar hasn’t met the requirements for a check that quarter, it’s the PC who has that difficult conversation. Every aspect of OMD’s support program depends at least in part on the expertise and support of PCs.

There are PCs who have done all of this work, in person, every day, for years. I know these PCs would (and do) go to the ends of the earth for their scholars. And they are telling you they need a caseload cap. I believe them and I hope you do too.

Please consider signing our petition to support UWOMD's campaign for a fair contract and caseload: bit.ly/UWOMDcaseloadcap