What Difference Does Diversity Make in Managing Student Employees?

Abstract

Most campuses in this country have made a commitment to increase the diversity of their student population. This presents opportunities and challenges for library staff as they supervise a more diverse group of student employees. The opportunities include employees who can serve as sources of information and who can contribute their perspectives about what might make the library more inclusive in the types of services it offers. The challenges are that library staff must rethink the way they select, train, supervise, and evaluate a more diverse work force. This article suggests some of the methods to adapt each of these dimensions of management as student employee diversity increases.