As a summer 2022 Conference Assistant, Weinberg sophomore Alivia Wynn was expected to work 12-hourlong duty shifts. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. a couple of times a week, she had to be on call and stay around campus to respond to lockouts and facility problems. 

The 12-hour shifts, however, didn’t factor into the average number of hours she worked each week, Wynn said. Residential Services advertised the position as averaging about 20 hours each week. Because CAs were on standby for most of the time, she said Residential Services only counted a portion of the hours toward their weekly average. 

Residential Services did, however, count desk shifts toward hours, which were three- to four-hour shifts when CAs sat at desks in Schapiro Hall and Willard Residential College answering questions, issuing temporary keycards and checking people in and out of housing. 

By not counting the 12-hour duty shifts as full hours worked, Wynn said her weekly totals seemed much lower than they actually were. 

“We brought it up to them how if we divided up our stipend by how much we were working, we were being paid a lot less than minimum wage,” Wynn said. 

Summer 2022 CAs received a $1,650 stipend, along with on-campus housing and a meal plan, for their work addressing living logistics and providing customer service for Northwestern camp, workshop and conference attendees.

But former workers, like Wynn, said their stipend payments were delayed during the first two pay periods. She also said they took on extra work after two CAs quit, with no extra compensation. 

“The way that the job was initially advertised didn’t really fully encompass what we would be doing,” Wynn said.

This year, a Conference Services spokesperson told The Daily it intends to pay summer CAs $13.35 per hour for up to 20 hours of work each week. Other changes include spreading out CA housing between North and South Campus and providing scheduling templates ahead of time, according to the spokesperson.

Day duty shifts from Monday to Friday will be transferred to professional staff members, the spokesperson said, and the pay structure will also change. 

“As a result of HR recommendation, all CA shifts — including training, weekly staff meetings, desk shifts, special tasks, and duty shifts — will be paid hourly, rather than by stipend,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Wynn said that last year, CAs followed a randomly assigned order to select which days they wanted to work. The CAs had to commit to a schedule for the whole summer after one of their first training meetings. At some points, she said certain CAs would have back-to-back shifts for 24 hours straight because of poor scheduling. 

Weinberg junior Lena Rhie, another summer 2022 CA, said she also struggled with scheduling after the two CAs quit at various points last summer. She said she wished the process was more organized because they had to readjust their schedules multiple times.

“They fixed the scheduling thing. Giving people a heads-up is great,” Rhie said in response to new CA policies. “I would have loved to at least know how that works. They really just threw us in and made us set our schedule on the spot and we couldn’t make any changes afterward.”

Rhie said she also felt night shifts involved much more work than she initially expected and added she would have appreciated more convenient living arrangements. She said most CAs, apart from two who ran summer student housing logistics in Slivka Residential College, lived in North Mid-Quads on South Campus. 

The CAs living in NMQ covered “the majority” of North Campus duty calls, Rhie added. 

“Something that was hard for me was we were all living South mostly, and if we got a call (from) up North, you’d have to make that trek in the middle of the night, which was not always fun,” Rhie said. “I know a couple of people didn’t really feel safe making that walk, so that’s better as well. Generally, I feel good about the changes.” 

Wynn said she was really surprised when she heard about the bi-weekly pay for next summer and said it will make counting working hours easier. 

She said she hopes CAs from last summer will get an acknowledgment from the University that they weren’t treated “the best” but is glad the changes were made. 

“Seeing that I think duty hours are also going to be paid by the hour, I think that’s really awesome,” Wynn said. “Making better working conditions and then paying by the hours that you work is just so much more straightforward, and it doesn’t feel like you’re being tricked. I think it’s a really good decision.” 

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Twitter: @joannah_11

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