When Ohio University’s classified employees’ summer and winter break hours changed Fall Quarter, OU President Roderick McDavis’ office also suggested employees cover telephones during the lunch hour, an OU official said.

“This was from the president’s cabinet, but it was definitely a necessary policy,” said James Kemper, OU’s assistant vice president for administration for human resources. “It’s not a change, but the president asked that we be available during lunch hours.”

Summer and winter break hours for the more than 650 classified employees — non-union OU employees including clerical, technical and information technology positions — changed in December 2005 from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to being 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to OU’s faculty and staff policy manual.

“It was never clearly stated, but it started when the president changed summer and winter break hours this fall,” said Ruth Webb-Duffy, an administrative assistant in the physics and astronomy department.

There was no mandate issued concerning lunch hours, Kemper said, but more of a suggestion because students need to be assisted.

The decision on how to arrange lunch hours for specific offices at the university is being made at the departmental level, said Marlene Swartz, a member of Classified Senate’s Policy and Procedure committee.

“If the supervisor wants phones covered, it’s the supervisor’s responsibility to schedule lunch breaks to cover the phones,” she said.

Some offices have enough employees that covering telephones during lunch hours is not an inconvenience, said Susan Hopkins, a records management associate in the environmental health and safety office.

“We just take different lunch hours, and administrators pitch in and help,” she said. “When neither of us is here, one of the contract staff answers the phone. It’s not a big deal.”

Even with student workers answering telephones during lunch hours, it is difficult to cover phones all the time, Swartz said.

Rearranging lunch hours makes it difficult for students to find the person they need, said Rena Peters of the Ohio Program of Intensive English at OU. Her students knew when she had lunch, but now the schedule has changed, she said.

“It’s done more chaos in our office than good,” she said.