McHenry County College’s staff of network technicians–the people who install software and rescue crashing hard drives–is now down to zero.
College President Daniel J. Lavista, alarmed at the situation, said fatter paychecks in private industry have caused the college to lose technical staff.
John Linehan, director of network services, said two technicians resigned in August for jobs in the private sector.
“It’s not a crisis situation,” Linehan said at a recent board meeting. “Fortuitous it is that we have Digital Services, a (Schaumburg) consulting firm that is familiar with the college’s systems.”
The college has posted openings for two network technicians and an associate director. Candidates should be certified netware engineers.
“We’ve been advertising for two network technicians since last fall,” said Laura Shuler, director of employment services at MCC. “It’s not that we don’t get bad resumes. We don’t get any resumes. It could be because the job is capped at $45,000 due to union agreements.”
After working with a headhunter on behalf of the college, Shuler discovered that the average business pays from $50,000 to $65,000 for the position the college calls “network technician.”
The associate director slot, a newly formed management position, will pay from $55,000 to $65,000 a year, she said.
“Because the associate position pays more, we’re hoping to get some reaction,” Shuler said.
“But what we’re talking about is not just the salary,” she said. “There are signing bonuses paid by private industry that we just can’t match. Our benefits include things like tuition reimbursement. The reality is, people can go downtown and make a lot more money than they can at MCC.”
Lisa Gordey, director of public relations and marketing at the college, said the high-technology staffing problem is statewide, a hot topic with the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Students, instructors and administration log on to 700 computers at MCC, 99 percent of which are linked to a network, Linehan said.
