Minimum wage, newly found respect for authority figures and daily campus complaints — what more could a student employee want?
For the students who work at the front desk of the Department of Public Safety, the job may not cater well to individual career goals or impatient tendencies, but it pays the bills and allows the employees to become familiar with the people behind the badges and uniforms.
“It’s given me more respect for police officers,” sophomore Kelly Langlois said. “They’re really not any different from anyone else.”
Six months ago, Langlois was buying a parking permit when she heard DPS needed help. After expanding her duties from filing and phone reception to handling records, Langlois said her biggest job responsibility is dealing with confidential information.
“It’s not so much that I view the info, but that I make sure it is handled properly,” the French major said .
With more than a decade’s worth of French language under her belt, Langlois plans to take a shot at international business some day and will be studying abroad next year. After she returns to the University to complete her senior year, Langlois said she will most likely go back to her 16-hour-a-week job at DPS for the experience, the dependable hours and the consistent paycheck.
As one of the currently employed students with the most experience working at DPS, senior Bereket Haily landed a work-study position at the department about four years ago. He said his opinion of DPS officers has remained positive as well.
“They’re just normal human beings doing their jobs like everybody else,” he said.
Looking forward to his fifth year at the University, Haily said he plans to work next year as well because it’s a guaranteed job. With varying weekly hours, occasional pay raises and experience working with computer data entry, Haily said the job is convenient and worthwhile but has nothing to do with his career goals.
“My ultimate goal is to have my own business,” the business and economics double major said. “This is just a job for school.”
Junior Cat Williams obtained a work study position at DPS her freshman year and currently juggles her 15 weekly hours at the department with a second job doing desk work at a local insurance company. Intending to work for DPS again next year, Williams said the biggest responsibility of her job is consistency, especially considering the position itself hasn’t changed much. As a sociology major, Williams is studying to work in law enforcement, specifically with violent crimes, and said her office duties at DPS are “a separate thing” from where she is going after graduation.
“This job hasn’t really done anything to encourage my goals to be in law enforcement,” she said. “But it has taught me a lot about dealing with the people who come to this counter.”
In dealing with people’s daily complaints and reports, Williams said patience and understanding are the best tools for handling annoyed or frantic DPS patrons.
“We’re not the ones that sign the cards or make the rules, but all of the complaints come back on us because we’re the ones they see first,” she said.
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