Students’ union adds new staff positions

Administrative manager

A new administrative manager position has been created in the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union to work with the current administrative assistant, who oversees the activities of the front desk of the WLUSU offices in the Fred Nichols Campus Centre.

The goal of creating the new position is to make improvements in customer service, for both students and students’ union employees.

“Instead of doing [customer service] as an afterthought, by putting a department head in administration, I’m hoping that they start to see customers differently and it takes on a life of its own,” said WLUSU general manager Mike McMahon.

Charlene LaCelle, former health and dental plan co-ordinator, has been hired to this position. It will focus on areas that have been overlooked in the past, such as challenges at the front desk, with the phone services and in the payroll department. According to McMahon, tasks such as answering phones and taking customer concerns at the front desk were often forgotten.

With LaCelle vacating her previous position, Natascha Witt has now been hired as the health and dental plan assistant.

Kelly Lee, a Laurier employee who most recently worked in athletics and recreation, has been hired to fill the position of administration assistant. She is the permanent replacement for Tina MacKinnon – who left WLUSU Sept. 26, 2008 – and will focus on the business side of the organization and customer service.

There is also a plan to hire a student employee, which will allow the office to stay open until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Food and Beverage

After the resignations of both the manager and assistant manager of food and beverage for WLUSU in late August, the positions have now been filled by WLUSU employee Rob Sexton. Sexton has been managing the Terrace Food Court for the last nine months.

Sexton will serve as interim manager of Wilf’s, the Turret and the Terrace for the upcoming year, while the union conducts internal research on how to better manage the three businesses.

“Until we run a research project internally with our people, take a look at how we’re structured and decide how we’re going to manage in the future, Rob Sexton’s management assignment right now has increased,” said McMahon.

The three businesses will be run under one management head for the upcoming year. During this time, the students union will conduct internal research to decide how to run food and beverage in the future.

“The internal research will likely confirm that that is the best business model: a consistent department head for all this, because there are so many synergies that can be exploited that way,” said McMahon.

Sexton previously held the positions of food court operations manager in Waterloo and food services manager in Brantford.

According to McMahon there is expected to be a new structure of operations set by April 2010 that will address the needs of the department and likely open up two new job positions. A hiring process will follow to fill the vacant spaces and reconfigure the department to work more effectively.

Former food and beverage manager Tara Robinson and assistant food and beverage manager Brian Dymarski have left the union for an external positions.