[Athen] Position: Adaptive Technology Specialist at Universit y of Wisconsin-Madison

[Kelmer, Susan M.]

>Susan,

>

>I've been here more than 13 years and not making near your 

>salary.  All of my job is AT and alt format related, but 

>there's a lot of it.


I think the difference for me is that I work for the IT department.  There
is an "uneasy peace" between my boss (IT Director who assigns most of my
work and signs my evals) and the disability services office director (who
directs some of my work and to whom I'm responsible for meeting AT needs).
They both would like to have me full time under them, but the job just can't
work out that way.  And I'm happy to be in the IT department, it gives me
access to resources I wouldn't have in the other office, as well as giving
me an incredible amount of control and freedom in how things get done (like
how AT is installed/deployed).  My job is broken into three parts:

1.  Adaptive Tech - includes everything AT related plus alt format
production (I get to hire some part-time temp people to help in production
during heavy times)
2.  Running of a high-traffic student computer lab in the library (I have a
staff of student workers as well)
3.  Lab/Classroom coordination activities (I'm one of four people with this
designation).  I work with faculty and staff on computer classroom
upgrades/changes each semester, forecasting of needs, production of budget
information for technology-related stuff, creating of images for deployment
to classrooms and/or labs.  I have 800 campus computers I'm personally
responsible for seeing that they have their patches, upgrades, are replaced
on our warranty cycle, etc.  I am not the tech who does the work, but I'm
the one that does all the planning, ordering, configuring, discussions with
faculty/staff on their needs, etc., for these 800 machines.

Which part takes the most effort and time from my schedule?  Believe it or
not, #1!!  

I know that I would not get paid what I get paid except that I work for IT.
I'm worth way more than what I'm getting paid, but there are a lot of perks
in working for a college (not the least of which is that my kids get to go
to school for free and I have a 17 year old ready to start his fall), and a
ton of perks in working for IT (fabulous equipment and toys and software).
And I was earning considerably less when I first took this job seven years
ago, but a reclassification by HR after taking a good hard look at what I
actually do as part of my job fixed that and I got a considerable increase.
But that took two years of negotiations/wrangling to occur.  Now I can
afford to buy the beef hot dogs instead of the mystery meat ones.  LOL

Susan Kelmer
Coordinator
Information ACCESS Lab
St. Louis Community College at Meramec
314/984-7951