Most units within the Memorial Union showed around a 10% increase in participation in their programs over the previous year.  This increase was accommodated without increasing staff levels only the increase in supplies to match the demand.   Staffing changes were:

• Student Media’s new coordinator responded to a need for fulltime advising.  Position was filled by a one-time spend down of reserved resources through an agreement with Student Leadership and Involvement.  Student Media requires a long-term funding source as outlined in the attached decision packet. Student representatives served on the search committee and the candidate hired was the unanimous choice of the students and staff.   Student Media revised and downgraded an administrative assistant saving the department $16,239.  Natural attrition presented opportunity to revise positions and downgrade new position descriptions for classified staff.
• Student Media underwent several administrative changes last year.  With impending retirement both classified assistant positions in Student Media have been down graded from Program Assistants to Office Assistant 2 for FY13-14.   We will address need identified in external review with a decision packet for 1 fte for editorial content advising.  New position will advise approximately 75 students including 30 receiving academic credit.  Lab fees for New Media Communications courses will be used offset some costs of the position.
• Student Leadership and Involvement recognized the need to further enhance our care for the International Student Organizations and Cultural Programming.  As such, we sought and received funding (through increased enrollment at no additional per student increase) two full-time staff.  Our new Cultural Programs Coordinator and new Community and Cultural Foods Advisor provide much needed support for our international and cultural programs as well as the Cultural Meals kitchen.

We are still able to manage the impacts to the Memorial Union building of increased load of students visiting to eat, meet, shop and nap with a two shift custodial recovery cycle.  This represents an estimated savings of 30% to the Memorial Union organization by not having to operate the building overnight. This has not been easy and certain processes are longing for a return to the night shift where cleaning processes didn’t have to wait on users to be elsewhere.  Some examples of this include:

• We started a floor care cycle of maintenance last year using a person that was hired to be a full time floor maintenance custodian at a half time rate and devoting the other half of their time to daily cleaning.
• To hold down the cost of ongoing floor care, we have reduced or eliminated the application of finishes everywhere except where foot traffic and cart traffic offer the greatest chance to damage our floor finishes through frequency of use.
• The number of events and meetings in the Memorial Union has increased the user population in both number and duration.  Meetings that run longer into the evening are also up in number, challenging the custodians to get all their building recovery from the day’s activities done before end of shift.  We are only able to accomplish this by augmenting our staff with additional student workforce and out-tasking longer-cycle maintenance, such as exterior window and building cleaning.

An increase across the board in student enrollment at Oregon State University is driving change in service expectations and provision.  Needs across the unit are similar.  Capacity to provide operational support to programs and activities is being challenged at all levels; maintenance of equipment, sustaining food service operations, meeting student-programming demands with services including providing space, cleaning, and information systems support, among others. Pinch points include:

• Growth – program and facility
• An increase in buildings supported to 8 (with addition of the Sustainability Center)
• A new Native American Cultural Center, with an assembly space possibly rent-able to the general public with cleaning and support needs well beyond current service provisions and contracted service levels.
• The possibility exists of adding cleaning and maintenance support for the Child Care Center.
• An increase in organizational staffing with no space available for growth
• An increase in building users and a subsequent increase in the rate of building shear
• A continued use of obsolescent mechanical and electrical building systems with the expectation that they sustain an ever-increasing level of operations