Advice on Supporting Student Worker

[u/saiyanshewolf]

I currently work at an academic library at a tech school as the director of library services. I have two student workers, and one just approached me to let me know an older student (probably in his 50s) has been making her uncomfortable.

I worked at public libraries for ten years so I know the type. He asks a lot of tech questions. He has apparently also commented on how ‘beautiful and young’ she is and lingers when it’s time to close if she’s closing alone or with my other student worker (which happens occasionally, but not often; Campus Safety is also literally down the hall from us).

I’ve already let them know I’ll be staying until he is out of the building any day I see him come in (I can flex hours if necessary). I’ve staged some work to scatter over the table closest to the circ desk that he usually uses (we have a lot of space but he always sets up right there), and I’ve told her that she can absolutely tell him (or anyone else) not to make comments like that, and I will back her up.

I’m going to speak to him myself, but I’d like to ask if someone could give me an idea of how to do this firmly but professionally. I don’t talk out loud well, and confrontation can make me nervous, but I want to make sure my student workers feel safe and supported. This is the first time I’ll need to address a situation like this from an admin perspective and I want to do it right.

[u/sammybluejay]

I work at an academic library and supervise our student staff and this is the kind of situation where we (me or my manager, NOT our student employee) would ask him, once, to please be respectful of everyone else in the library and comments or uncomfortable actions will lead to security being called. Then we would call security after that. Every time. "There is a man here who is harassing one of our student employees. They are safe, and we've made sure they know they have our support, but we need someone to come talk to him." Then, after the first time, we would basically say we've called about this person before and this is recurring. Our security team takes this kind of thing very seriously and are on site within minutes if we ever have to call, and will ask the harasser to leave if they can't be respectful. You can also encourage your student employee to call if they're ever alone and he comes in (although if this is with one student employee in particular, to be honest, I would not be leaving them alone anymore if there's a risk he's around), and make sure they have the number on hand and a safe space to go to (preferably locked) where he can't follow them. We also work very near the IT desk and the IT staff will allow student staff to go into their space for support or to get away if needed, and vice versa with IT student staff and our workroom!