Precious' Testimony

-

“Currently, one of the challenges that presents itself is that almost a quarter of scholars were not able to be matched with tutors. Although my goal is to increase the number of subjects offered, increasing the caseload cap further hinders my ability to improve the tutoring program.”

Precious McNeil, Program Operations Coordinator and OMD Alumna

When choosing between quantity and quality, I will always choose the latter. Every staff member wants to grow OMD, but if that means sacrificing the quality that we give to each of them, then it should never be worth it. This is why lowering the caseload and setting the cap to 45 is vital. Time is what PCs need in order to serve their scholars and if they are limited in this way, then what does that say about our mission?

To increase the caseload has a trickle-down effect. I'm in charge of the tutoring program and as I began to think about new innovative ways to improve it, I know that one of the challenges will be to recruit new tutors. Currently, one of the challenges that presents itself is that almost a quarter of scholars were not able to be matched with tutors. According to our data, there were 137 scholars for the 2019-20 academic year who weren't matched with a tutor; 71 or 51% of scholars requested a tutor. Although my goal is to increase the number of subjects offered, increasing the caseload cap further hinders my ability to improve the tutoring program.

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Melanie's Testimony

-
Image
"A caseload cap is one of the most important ways to ensure scholars get a quality program, and the Program Coordinators/Managers who work directly with students are best positioned to know what an appropriate number is. OMD management needs to listen to OMD's scholar-facing staff, and institute a mutually agreed upon, enforceable caseload cap so that our students get the time and energy they each deserve." Melanie Wagner, Senior Program Coordinator From the beginning, United Workers of One Million Degrees has been adamant about needing a caseload cap in order to better serve our students. In our initial statement of purpose from July 2018, we wrote: “Each scholar should always be treated with dignity and respect, not as if they were just another number. This can begin to be addressed by capping the number of scholars in each worker’s caseload; ensuring that each scholar will get the time and attention they deserve.” One of the big reasons that we need an enforce
Read more

Liz's Testimony

-
Image
“The lack of a clearly defined and standardized caseload cap forced us as Coordinators into determinations of who was and wasn't deserving of weekly support and compelled us to dole out our support unequally. We were stressed and rushed, which scholars picked up on and which affected our ability to truly be a support for scholars. By having a caseload cap, PC's could have supported every single scholar more effectively -- thus more effectively carrying out the very mission of OMD.” Liz Jones, Former Program Coordinator and Career Advancement Coordinator In my experience at OMD, high and unclearly defined caseload numbers made it impossible for PC's to effectively carry out OMD's mission of supporting community college students academically, professionally, financially, and personally. Every year, we saw that caseload maximums would change and shift arbitrarily. Sometimes there were maximums of 60-65, sometimes it would drift as high as 70. PC's never knew wha
Read more