<p>I am wondering why Columbia bookstore at Lerner Hall doesn’t hire Columbia students to work there. (I think they hire local inner-city people to work there, which I don’t think provide good service). </p>
<p>And if there is job opportunity on campus, Columbia should give them to its own students first.</p>
<p>barnes and noble runs the store, firstly, they operate as an outside contractor who lease the space.</p>
<p>second, it makes more sense to find folks that can work long shifts than students that tend not to have the ability to work 40 hr weeks. fewer people you have to train, it is just good business sense.</p>
<p>third, this is a complication of being an urban university is the need to appear if not actually serve the immediate community by providing employment. </p>
<p>is it ideal? no - does this reflect the need to cater to the kind of community columbia has, yes. ultimately if students could promise to work 40hr weeks, which is absurd to think possible with the schedule (look at how often you see the same 10 or so folks working in the store) maybe that could happen. but unless you pay students dirt cheap money, of which they would wisely choose not to take as you can get more even doing work study than minimum wage, you aren’t gonna find enough students to take the jobs in long enough shifts.</p>
<p>At my undergrad school, almost all customer service / cashier employees at student union (and there are also many office jobs for students) are filled by full-time students on a part-time work schedule (at reasonable salary and flexible schedule) so that they can gain work experience and earning extra cash to help pay for education, without effecting their studying.</p>
<p>I suspect that what wages students expect aren’t what typical B&N workers get.</p>
<p>Lol…</p>
<p>“At my undergrad school, almost all customer service / cashier employees at student union (and there are also many office jobs for students) are filled by full-time students on a part-time work schedule (at reasonable salary and flexible schedule) so that they can gain work experience and earning extra cash to help pay for education, without effecting their studying.”</p>
<p>Good for your undergraduate school, then? Adgeek explained why B&N and Columbia choose, and rightly so, to hire those living in the community instead of students. When you have a school in the middle of nowhere, it’s not so much of an issue (though you still have the whole townie/gownie tension and I think many rural schools hire non-student residents of college towns).</p>
<p>Besides, it’s not like there are no job opportunities for students. Everyone who’s eligible can get a work-study job that could entail anything from swiping IDs in dorm lobbies to working as an administrative assistant for an academic department or affiliated organization. And, of course, plenty of students pursue internships with non-Columbia businesses and organizations in the city. Since the Times isn’t going to give your average Morningside Heights resident an unpaid internship, it’s good that Columbia will hire them instead of their own students to work in the bookstore.</p>
<p>Inner City People? O-o</p>
<p>lol. I wouldn’t want to work at the bookstore.</p>
<p>Well, the problem of hiring outside ppl is that the customer service gets awful. I’ve seen some dude get yelled at by someone who works in the bookstore. </p>
<p>And by the way, my ugrad school is also in a metropolitan area, not in the middle of nowhere (not in NYC, but comparable). </p>
<p>And I do find it weird that they wear red t shirt… isn’t Columbia school color “blue”…?</p>
<p><a href=“I%20think%20they%20hire%20local%20inner-city%20people%20to%20work%20there,%20which%20I%20don’t%20think%20provide%20good%20service”>quote</a>.
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</p>
<p>Welcome to NYC. Go in pretty much any store that isn’t high-end and it’s going to be staffed with “hire local inner-city people” who provide horrific service.</p>
<p>Geez, this thread got snarky quickly.</p>
<p>People should consider the fact that for many, a $9/hr job at B&N is a necessity? </p>
<p>As for poor customer service, that’s the fault of management in many ways. A good management team at a retail store can have high expectations of people from whatever background. Don’t blame the workers that much – look to the mangers.</p>
<p>I’d blame poor customer service on both the employees and the managers. </p>
<p>Managers are at fault for not enforcing, and workers are at fault for not executing. </p>
<p>For some students coming from low-income family, a part-time job on campus (for flexibility and convenience) is also necessity to help pay for education. </p>
<p>Why are the employees wearing red tshirt anyways? Columbia is all about BLUE!</p>
<p>@wifey</p>
<p>Did you not read what I wrote? Columbia students have PLENTY of opportunities to pursue low-paying jobs on campus through the work-study and casual employment programs. They also usually have opportunities to pursue exclusive internships in the city. They do not need B&N to hire them! Those who live in the community do not have the same opportunities as we privileged Ivy League students, so I find it the idea that we should be taking away their potential jobs in this community to be utterly absurd and profoundly unethical.</p>
<p>"Inner City People? O-o "</p>
<p>Several Columbia undergrads and grad students I know have cited such attitudes by non-native NYC resident classmates and their parents as one reason why town-gown relations between the Columbia University community and the neighborhood tends to be marginal-poor. Doubly sad that such attitudes are almost always expressed in their experience by classmates/families who are from well-off rural/suburban communities. </p>
<p>Most native-NYC Columbia students IME tend to cringe whenever such attitudes are expressed by fellow Columbians/their parents.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the term “inner-city” being used in public many times… they are many charity functions with title/purpose like “reaching out to inner city kids”. </p>
<p>How else would you put it (in a more polite way)?</p>
<p>But is it ethical that Columbia students have to put up with the horrendous customer service every time they shop at the bookstore of their own school?</p>
<p>I don’t know wifey, how about “community members” or “locals.”</p>
<p>Are we actually discussing the ethics of customer service?</p>
<p>I think we’re discussing the tradeoff between establishing the image of caring for community and sacrificing students’ priority employment and dealing with bad customer service at bookstore.</p>
<p>I like the bookstore employees. Maybe they just don’t like you.</p>
<p>"I like the bookstore employees. Maybe they just don’t like you. "</p>
<p>I never had an issue with the bookstore employees in the dozens of times I’ve been in the bookstore over the last 4 years at the behest of alum relatives or to browse with Columbia friends.</p>