Recent departures raise questions amongst staff

 A number of teachers and Missouri Southern staff have resigned in the past year, but there has been some confusion in what is going to happen next. 

After a teacher steps down, their duties and classes are divided up until a replacement is found. However, changes in the yearly budget have not been made. 

Pay increases have not followed with the addition of extra work. 

On the staff side, veterans around campus have had a notably difficult time. According to a auto-reply e-mail, received by a member of The Chart, the previous Veteran’s Service Official’s last day at Southern was Sept. 18, 2015. 

As a result, veteran’s on campus experienced a later certification time than normal for this spring semester.

The Chart reached out to Evan Jewsbury, director of human resources at Southern, to learn more about resignation protocol and replacement of staff.

“The recruitment process typically starts as soon as practically possible or when the hiring supervisor is ready,” Jewsbury said. 

Jewsbury was also asked about PR policies and procedures.

“The HR Department maintains the Employee Handbook,” Jewsbury said.  “The internal HR departmental procedures are developed and overseen by the Director of HR.”

The Chart also inquired as to the status of the veteran’s certifying position. 

“It’s my understanding that the intent was for this position to be refilled,” Jewsbury said. “However the position itself is going through some transition as part of a position restructure.”

Becca Diskin, director of financial aid at Southern chimed in about the VA official position. 

“The Veterans Service Coordinator position is currently in the hiring process,” Diskin said. “We have been accepting applications and plan to schedule interviews next week.”  

“This process has taken a bit longer to fill since we upgraded the position from ‘Records Assistant’ when the previous VA Certifying Official left her position,” Diskin added. “This required updating the job description, receiving approval for the position upgrade, etc.”  

When asked about the workload, Diskin said they are making adaptions to help with current projects.

“As for the current work load, we have increased the hours of our staff to help with processing the current VA certifications for spring semester,” Diskin said.

According to the Southern website, the position of Veteran Service Coordinator was posted on Dec. 18, 2015.