Thursday, November 21, 2013
Unintened consequences, or...
Why am I stuck in my job?
Financial aid is a strange way to make a living, even under the best of circumstances, and we don't have those right now. One of the memes under which I've operated is that FA is a dying profession. So much of what I do will be automated, and grants and loans are drying up anyway. There will always be a need for a few people, but instead of 16 employees, we would need 3 or 4.
Getting to that point is another matter. I always like to browse the SUNY websites and see which school are hiring, and for how much. The private schools aren't worth even a cursory glance; the pay is uniformly terrible. You cut your eye teeth in the private schools, often while earning your advanced degree (like myself!). After 2 years, you're ready for a real job, both personally and professionally.
Beginning with Upstate, I found the pickings mighty slim. This is was expected, but not to this extent. Even the other administrative jobs weren't available. I attributed some of this to reductions is state funding, and not just austerity. North of Poughkeepsie and Northwest of Newburgh, people are fleeing New York. Using my definition, there are 53 counties Upstate, and 35 of them lost population. Some of these people are moving Downstate (defined by yours truly as Southern Dutchess, which acts as a bedroom community for... Westchester, a county of bedroom communities, and Southeastern Orange County, which acts in a similar way to Rockland); others are leaving New York altogether, and still others are dying.
What I could not find was the breakdown of the people leaving. Based on anecdotal evidence from a friend who travels Upstate (though residents would bristle at that word), it's young people who feel they have no future. I agree with that to a point. Outside of healthcare and perhaps the colleges themselves, where are the jobs? Actually, prisons, now that I think about it.
Anyway, faced with this shrinking population, SUNY's and the community colleges are shedding students. At the end of our registration period, our Dean remarked that one school lost the equivalent of 500 students. Ouch. With that loss of students come the loss of state funding, and the scramble to keep as much staff as possible. I haven't heard of any layoffs, but schools aren't rushing to hire more people either.
That's not my main concern, however. There's another front in this war of attrition we're presently losing: consolidation. SUNY schools that are close to one another are combining back office services, saving money, space, etc. Many (though not all) of the functions I fulfill can be done with little, if any, student contact. Also, federal rules are standardized. As an example, verification is just reviewing tax transcripts, W2 forms, etc. The only real variance is in the schools' populations, but a well trained staff will know all the potential financial permutations anyway.
So all of this means I won't be moving to Buffalo, Plattsburgh, or Niagara Falls anytime soon. As for consolidation happening to me, I'm not concerned. The true risk to my job (besides myself), is automation. Eventually the FAFSA will be 5 questions and the IRS will do the rest. Mistakes will be made, and students will need counseling. We'll see who gets to be that one person who does all that.
Financial aid is a strange way to make a living, even under the best of circumstances, and we don't have those right now. One of the memes under which I've operated is that FA is a dying profession. So much of what I do will be automated, and grants and loans are drying up anyway. There will always be a need for a few people, but instead of 16 employees, we would need 3 or 4.
Getting to that point is another matter. I always like to browse the SUNY websites and see which school are hiring, and for how much. The private schools aren't worth even a cursory glance; the pay is uniformly terrible. You cut your eye teeth in the private schools, often while earning your advanced degree (like myself!). After 2 years, you're ready for a real job, both personally and professionally.
Beginning with Upstate, I found the pickings mighty slim. This is was expected, but not to this extent. Even the other administrative jobs weren't available. I attributed some of this to reductions is state funding, and not just austerity. North of Poughkeepsie and Northwest of Newburgh, people are fleeing New York. Using my definition, there are 53 counties Upstate, and 35 of them lost population. Some of these people are moving Downstate (defined by yours truly as Southern Dutchess, which acts as a bedroom community for... Westchester, a county of bedroom communities, and Southeastern Orange County, which acts in a similar way to Rockland); others are leaving New York altogether, and still others are dying.
What I could not find was the breakdown of the people leaving. Based on anecdotal evidence from a friend who travels Upstate (though residents would bristle at that word), it's young people who feel they have no future. I agree with that to a point. Outside of healthcare and perhaps the colleges themselves, where are the jobs? Actually, prisons, now that I think about it.
Anyway, faced with this shrinking population, SUNY's and the community colleges are shedding students. At the end of our registration period, our Dean remarked that one school lost the equivalent of 500 students. Ouch. With that loss of students come the loss of state funding, and the scramble to keep as much staff as possible. I haven't heard of any layoffs, but schools aren't rushing to hire more people either.
That's not my main concern, however. There's another front in this war of attrition we're presently losing: consolidation. SUNY schools that are close to one another are combining back office services, saving money, space, etc. Many (though not all) of the functions I fulfill can be done with little, if any, student contact. Also, federal rules are standardized. As an example, verification is just reviewing tax transcripts, W2 forms, etc. The only real variance is in the schools' populations, but a well trained staff will know all the potential financial permutations anyway.
So all of this means I won't be moving to Buffalo, Plattsburgh, or Niagara Falls anytime soon. As for consolidation happening to me, I'm not concerned. The true risk to my job (besides myself), is automation. Eventually the FAFSA will be 5 questions and the IRS will do the rest. Mistakes will be made, and students will need counseling. We'll see who gets to be that one person who does all that.
