FHSU University Communications
On any given morning, a friendly voice welcomes incoming phone callers to FHSU. Morgan Fischer is one of those friendly voices, giving directions to campus, helping with student schedules, and making sure each caller has their specific needs met.
Morgan will graduate from FHSU on Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a concentration in health professions. A former FHSU soccer player, Morgan’s legacy at the university stretches back to her grandpa, who took classes at FHSU. Her mother and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins have also attended the university.
Ever enthusiastic and cheerful, Morgan is the sort of person who lights up a room when she enters. She transferred from Butler Community College to FHSU as a junior and has worked as a TigerTech Tier 1 student employee since. In addition, Morgan is a substitute teacher at USD 489 on days that she doesn’t have classes. This summer, she will apply to medical schools with the hope of one day becoming a primary care physician in a rural area.
As a TigerTech student employee, Morgan has had many opportunities to assist others, finding her on-campus work highly rewarding.
“A lot of my job involves helping people get their FHSU accounts set up, which can be exciting because we can help them start off on the right foot,” Morgan said. “We have to ask a lot of questions and troubleshoot to figure out what people specifically need. It’s kind of like putting pieces together to get the caller to the right place.”
Morgan and her TigerTech team members, a group of twelve students from varied majors and hometowns, interact with students, FHSU faculty, and staff, as well as retired FHSU faculty.
“Working at TigerTech has definitely opened my eyes to the number of people it takes for the university to run smoothly,” Morgan said. “It has been cool to see behind the scenes of every little detail that goes into just one person having a successful time at Fort Hays.”
When hiring, Michelle Schlyer, TigerTech Tier 1 Help Desk Coordinator, said she looks for student employees who can contribute diverse knowledge to the team. Her team includes students from a variety of majors, co-curricular activities, urban, rural, and local backgrounds.
“I feel like all those different ways of life bring character to the job and that makes us diverse, so we can get to know our customers better,” Michelle said. “It’s important that the students come from different backgrounds because that makes our knowledge base wider.”
When the TigerTech phone rings, Michelle said, her team never knows what sort of question might come from the other end of the line.
“They could call and ask the time of graduation, or they could ask the first day of the fall semester,” she said. “They could ask for a password reset or help after being locked out of their account. Maybe they need help building a schedule on Workday, or they got a phishing email.”
“It’s a little bit of everything.”
TigerTech is made up of Tier 1 and Tier 2 assistants. Tier 2 employees install computer hardware, software, classroom support, and other technology assistance. Tier 1 employees are the first point of contact, triaging the assistance a customer needs.
TigerTech serves as campus directory assistance. By dialing zero from any campus phone, a caller can be connected to any phone on campus. In addition, TigerTech Tier 1 student employees help navigate FHSU systems.
Morgan is a model student employee, according to Michelle.
“She never seems to have a bad day,” Michelle said. “She is very patient, and she is a leader. Her co-workers look up to her, and I like that she is always positive with her ideas and solutions.”
Off-campus jobs often pay more than on-campus jobs, but Michelle pointed out that the flexibility of scheduling is a big plus when it comes to on-campus positions.
“Here you are a student first,” she said. “We will work around that.”
Letting go of her student employees when they graduate from FHSU is a bittersweet moment for Michelle, who once was an FHSU student employee herself. Her consolation is that her student employees often maintain connections with her, informing her of significant life events such as marriages and births.
“Student workers become such a big part of our university,” she said. “And I don’t think we always give them the credit that we should. They keep us going. They are the heartbeat of everything we do here.”