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ALLISON JOY TOMLINSON ![]()
ALLISON JOY TOMLINSON 
Redesigning Work with College Staff
My graduate thesis project centered on understanding the professional lives of the staff at the college I was going to for my master’s degree. This project took a look at work through the lens of the pandemic.
︎ Center for Social Design
︎ MICA Staff Empowerment Council
︎ Design Research, Design Strategy
︎ January - May 2022
︎ MICA Staff Empowerment Council
︎ Design Research, Design Strategy
︎ January - May 2022
Credits:
Partners: MICA Staff Empowerment Council (SEC) & MICA Staff Union Organizers
Instructors: Thomas Gardner & Pickett Slater Harrington
At any college or university, staff members are the invisible laborers holding the ship together. These are the Staff, those not formally teaching students. During my time at MICA, the staff had just begun a process of unionizing, which suggests a lack of trust between employer and employee was happening at MICA. This research project about how we can rethink work and consider how to better support staff, turned into an intervention of its own. A curiosity about how the pandemic has shaped work turned into a process of student advocacy.
The Process
Over the course of several months, I interviewed 20 Staff and Administrative members of MICA and surveyed 34. I synthesized themes, developed personas, and a framework for how decision-making was perceived at MICA. Next, I held two co-creation sessions, wherein staff chose which opportunities to ideate on, and then I rapid-prototyped four possible interventions and offered as much data as possible to the Staff and MICA Leadership. A huge goal of the project was data-equity, the sharing of information without the fear of retaliation.
The Process
Over the course of several months, I interviewed 20 Staff and Administrative members of MICA and surveyed 34. I synthesized themes, developed personas, and a framework for how decision-making was perceived at MICA. Next, I held two co-creation sessions, wherein staff chose which opportunities to ideate on, and then I rapid-prototyped four possible interventions and offered as much data as possible to the Staff and MICA Leadership. A huge goal of the project was data-equity, the sharing of information without the fear of retaliation.
Design Principles
Prioritize Staff Needs ︎At a college that put Staff last, these designs should put them as first priority
Redistribute Power ︎ Power is hierarchical at MICA. These power structures should be reconsidered/ dismantled
Center Equity ︎The diverse needs of staff in their diverse jobs, their diverse backgrounds, their diverse lives
Keep it Relational ︎Maintain what makes MICA great by not making it too formal or too robotic
Increase Transparency ︎ Quality communication vertically and horizontally will ultimately make MICA a better workplace
Avoid Adding More Work ︎ Avoid the addition of more work for staff members as many as already at or beyond capacity
