September 3, 2008
U. of Wisconsin at Oshkosh Operates a Call Center for Yahoo
Watch out, Bangalore. Students at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh will work in a call-in technical-support office near campus, providing services to Yahoo employees. The students, who don’t need any advanced computer training to work in the office, can make around $10,000 a year in the job. (Hold on. If Yahoo employees are calling students at Oshkosh for technical support, who is helping me when I contact Yahoo with problems?)
Adam Kostrzak, a senior manager of Yahoo’s Global Service Desk, is an Oshkosh alumnus who set up the deal. He said that operating a helpdesk in Oshkosh was significantly cheaper than doing so in Silicon Valley. (Yahoo also has call centers in New York and India.) The jobs will go to 20 to 40 students who, the university says, will be learning valuable skills. Lou Dobbs might be pleased. —Scott Carlson
Posted on Wednesday September 3, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Ah, yes. “Valuable skills.” I wondered what the role of higher education in the 21st century would be. I guess it’s imparting “people skills” and “keyboarding skills” and finding employees for call centers. What a sham.
At least Kostrzak gave an honest answer: he wanted cheap labor. Fortunately, the Alma Mater is happy to oblige. What they need to do now is to track down a Wal-Mart alumnus.
BTW, what makes this a Wired Campus story? Is it because it’s about Yahoo? A call center? Cheap labor?
— HL Morgan Sep 3, 09:16 PM #
I am not sure how helping students build skills in the areas of problem-solving, interpersonal relations and technology is a “sham.”
Part of a liberal education, as defined by the American Association of College and Universities (AAC&U), is to empower individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills.
UW Oshkosh has embraced this definition, and recently adopted a set of learning outcomes rooted in the AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise campaign.
This collaboration and others like it provide opportunities for students to apply classroom knowledge in a “real world” setting.
It also allows for students to earn income to off-set the rising costs associated with higher education, in a setting that, I hope, will be more cognizant of students’ schedules.
Finally, if you read the article embedded in the story, you will discover there is more to the call center being located in Oshkosh than “cheap labor.”
I applaud the university and Yahoo for partnering to bring these jobs to Oshkosh. They could have very easily been exported overseas, but Yahoo chose to keep them here. I see this partnership as a win-win.
Bryan L. Bain, UW Oshkosh employee and City of Oshkosh Deputy Mayor
— Bryan L. Bain Sep 4, 11:36 AM #
Well, as a student if I’d been offered a job @ $10K a year, I would have jumped on it. In fact, as a college Administrator, I still might. What are the hours?
Seriously though, if it keeps jobs stateside and fills a (student financial) need, why not?
As for job skills, I don’t think it’s any less useful than the skills I picked up driving a delivery truck my senior year, or working in a hose factory post BA.
Maybe we should be concerned that it will take valuable labor away from our College Development Call Banks?
— Marshall Guthrie Sep 4, 12:20 PM #
State Contract Pricing for Headsets & Amps. for the University of Wisconsin – Please contact if any questions.
— ron ray Sep 8, 03:40 PM #
“Problem-solving, interpersonal relations and technology.” Having worked in two call centers when I was a grad student, I can tell you that students in high school can skillfully perform these jobs. Businesses, and universities that kowtow to businesses, like to elevate the value of “interpersonal relations” when they make their sales pitch. These “relations” are learned or not learned at a young age. If a person doesn’t learn them until they are in college, it would be considered remedial learning. Not usually something about which a university boasts.
Corporations make decisions solely based on their bottom line in order to feed their shareholders. That, according to Milton Friedman, is their only mission. As the article states: “The costs in Oshkosh are significantly lower than the Silicon Valley area,” said Kostrzak. “That was extremely attractive to us. But most attractive were the quality of the students and the ability of the university to work with us to create a successful collaboration.”
“Most attractive.” Yeah, I bet. That’s why he didn’t mention it first.
Furthermore, the article says that Kostrzak did his “due diligence” by looking at other sites. Apparently, UW-O was the most cooperative. (How diligent was UW-O?) The article doesn’t spell out what this cooperative contract is. Usually these deals are secretive and not open to public scrutiny.
I am glad students get to earn money for their tuition. They would be better off, however, if Yahoo gave them each a $10K scholarship so they could devote full time to their studies and be better prepared for the so-called “real world.”
— HL Morgan Sep 9, 02:09 PM #