The University of Maryland is limiting the number of campus tour guides for the upcoming year, according to this university’s undergraduate admissions office.
With Maryland Images — the group that runs campus tours — shifting from a volunteer, student-led organization to a paid, student-employee model starting this fall, the university will only be able to hire about 50 guides for the fall semester, according to a message an assistant coordinator in the undergraduate admissions office sent on July 8 to the organization’s Slack channel.
There were more than 100 student tour guides last year.
According to an online job posting, the university plans to hire four student tour guide coordinators. Maryland Images previously had 12 student leadership roles, according to Connor Troy, a sophomore civil engineering major who worked as a campus tour guide last year.
In a July 8 email to last year’s Maryland Images tour guides, Rosemary Martín Edwards, this university’s associate director for undergraduate admissions, encouraged last year’s guides to apply for student tour guide positions.
Before the email was sent, however, some of last year’s tour guides found out about the listings from this university’s online jobs website.
Sadie Storm, a junior criminology and criminal justice major, found the tour guide listings while scrolling on the university’s eJobs website in early July and was shocked current tour guides weren’t immediately notified about the postings.
“The last we heard from the administration about our path to receiving pay, for me at least, it was an email talking about how there would be job postings for becoming a tour guide, that current tour guides would be encouraged to reapply, that we would be prioritized,” Storm, who served as a diversity, equity and inclusion committee head for Maryland Images last year, said.
[UMD tour guides will be paid starting this fall]
Some students said having to reapply for positions may discourage former tour guides from seeking positions in the fall.
Senior public policy major Brianna Cagan was a Maryland Images tour guide last year and said she feels disrespected by the university making her reapply for her position.
Cagan said she completed her training as a tour guide when she first joined Maryland Images and doesn’t think she should have to go through hours more.
According to the online listing, student tour guides will have to “attend all required training as set forth by your direct supervisor.”
Storm added the trainings may deter some of the organization’s “dedicated guides” from staying with the group going forward.
“I don’t really support asking them to reapply after they’ve already given so much time to the organization, after we train every tour guide so thoroughly,” Storm said. “It’s just something I disagree with personally.”
In a statement to The Diamondback, this university’s undergraduate admissions office said the change to a paid model would allow it to “ hire an impressive and diverse group of tour guides to represent the university to our prospective students and their families.”
“We have limited the number of students who will be hired and will seek students who will be able to commit to conducting multiple tours per week and to performing the additional responsibilities of the role,” the statement read. “As a result, the number of student employees will not be equivalent to the number of volunteer positions we could support.”
Troy said he would like students to have more input on the organization’s decision making process.
“I would really love for people to just sit down together and make this work in person, in an open discussion, where both sides are able to express their thoughts,” Troy told The Diamondback before the July 8 email informing former tour guides of the job posting.
[UMD tour guides demand hourly wages from university administration]
Members of Maryland Images sent a letter to university administration in February demanding to be paid for their work, The Diamondback previously reported.
In the letter, members also demanded all current student tour guides retain their positions as the organization shifts to a student-employee model. The letter said Maryland Images would stop running campus tours if the university did not acknowledge their demands.
The potential strike was averted when Shannon Gundy, this university’s assistant vice president for enrollment management, sent a letter to the organization announcing the university had secured funding to pay student tour guides starting in the fall semester.
“We are appreciative of the work that the university has done so far to turn this paid position into reality, but we would just love to take a more direct role in that process,” Troy told The Diamondback after the July 8 email.
Some students who worked as tour guides for Maryland Images last year said that despite the reductions in the number of tour guides, the shift to a paid model is still a plus.
Cagan said paying tour guides will create a more inclusive organization by reducing financial barriers to the job.
Storm said the journey for Maryland Images’ transition to a paid organization is not over and there could be more trial and error throughout the upcoming semester.
“We’re a group of people who really care about this university and want to share that love to visitors,” Storm said. “And I feel like keeping that in mind as what’s most important would serve us all.”
