USD OpX study part II

Students react to controversial engineering school project

SPENCER BISPHAM / ASST. NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

The USD Vista recently published a story about a study within the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering that some Toreros claim is non-inclusive. The study falls under the umbrella of the Operational Excellence Development (OpX) Program and is overseen by Dr. Leonard Perry, a professor of Industrial Systems and Engineering (ISYE). He is one of three contacts for the OpX Program and is the instructor of the ISYE 492 class where a group of students have been observing Facilities employees while they clean, timing them, and recording the results. This information is then shared with Facilities Management to help improve the employees’ efficiency. 

Associate Vice President for University Marketing and Communications, Peter Marlow, clarified the intent behind the study.

“The program’s intent is to identify areas of improvement to make the operations of the university more efficient,” Marlow said. “It also supports the Living/Learning environment for students, giving them a real life application of their Kaizan/Six Sigma training, consisting of tools and methods that are essential to define, measure, analyze and improve projects. It also helps our staff  to suggest and implement new ideas in order to simplify their work. The staff feel that they are a part of the improvement process, and that the students appreciate what it takes to give them a clean and safe learning environment.”

Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering Dr. Bradley Chase and Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management Dr. Simon Croom are the contacts for the OpX Program. 

In an email to the School of Business, Dr. Croom addressed the study and its controversy.

“I believe, but have not been told directly, that the current situation arose from one team of students and custodians conducting a trial in some new procedures which sadly led to a member of faculty viewing this as an intrusive observation of employees rather than a team exercise involving both students and custodians analyzing standard operating procedures,” Dr. Croom wrote.

USD sophomore and Ethnic Studies major, Sofia Hart, described what she saw on Thursday, March 31, when she witnessed students observing a Facilities employee as part of the OpX study. 

“I walked into Maher and I saw a group of maybe four students observing one of the custodial workers,” Hart said. “She was cleaning the bathroom and they were standing outside watching her clean the bathroom and said, ‘Ya he terminado,’ ‘I finished,’ and they started writing things down.”

Word about the OpX study also spread to the USD Association of Chicanx Activists (AChA). On March 2, leaders in the student organization sent an email to fellow community members with criticisms of the project as well as a request to meet on that same day. 

Ashley Gonzalez and Brianna Jacome, USD juniors and co-chairs of AChA, used the email to address what they knew about the project.

“This morning we had an urgent meeting with the Department Chair of Ethnic Studies, Dr. Alberto Pulido,” Gonzalez and Jacome wrote. “He informed us about a classist and unethical project that is emerging from the School of Engineering. … Students from the class were speaking with the workers through a translator and asked the workers to clean the toilets to test their efficiency of work.”

The two co-chairs also outlined a plan of action.

“We want to invite you to collectively have a meeting this week to write an email urging the Engineering School and Department Chair to answer our questions and concerns,” Gonzalez and Jacome wrote.

Two days after the email was sent, a meeting was held in UC 128 between students, faculty, and administrators to discuss concerns over the OpX Program study. 

At the meeting, Jacome specifically asked about the compensation for workers who were translating (English to Spanish and vice versa) for the students involved.

“Do you think that there should be some form of compensation?” Jacome asked. “They’re custodial staff first, and on top of [the] translation of complicated topics and understanding these things, do you think there should be someone else brought in or do you think that the staff members who are translating should be compensated?” 

Humberto Castaneda, USD Supervisor of Housekeeping, chimed in to speak on behalf of the workers directly involved in the project. 

“We’re real happy to help you, but we’re learning,” Castaneda said. “We’re really happy to be included in something like this, cause we’ve never done something with the kids. We start to know people and new ideas; we enjoy somebody else’s knowledge.”

In a separate email, Associate VP Marlow confirmed that the eagerness expressed by Castaneda was the only compensation necessary. 

“There is no additional financial remuneration, as this is a process-improvement initiative, which is a part of every employee’s role at USD,” Marlow wrote.

Finally, toward the end of the meeting, USD sophomore and Environmental/Ethnic Studies major, Jessica Fernandez, addressed the administration’s differing perspectives.

“From what I’m understanding, you guys didn’t consider this perspective of how it might’ve looked unethical and that’s okay, we’re all at very different points in our lives with our experiences,” Fernandez said. “But as a science major, as a woman of color, and as an Ethnic Studies major, it’s not hard to include these people in conversations.”

Since that meeting in early March, public discussions surrounding the OpX Program have died down quite a bit. However, President James Harris III attended the USD Associate Student Government (ASG) meeting on March 31 to address the controversy.

ASG Senator and USD junior, Ariadne Sambrano, asked President Harris for clarity when it came to the consequences of the OpX Program.

“I expressed in University Senate and many other students also expressed the disconnect in terms of the harm that is being done with the unethical research,” Sambrano said. “When it comes to occurrences like this, what type of repercussions will the institution take forth to ensure that things like this don’t happen again?”

President Harris responded in defense of the OpX Program.

“I understand what you’re saying, I don’t understand why you say it’s unethical,” President Harris said. “I understand it’s insensitive, [but] it is not violating any policies with regards to research at the university; it is not a research project, it’s a project to help improve processes on campus.”

President Harris also explained why stopping the project could do more harm than good.

“I think there is a bit of insensitivity here, I also think there is also misunderstanding here,” President Harris said. “Should we just stop all those projects? You have students who are engaged in this as a project as part of the class, students who are watching, so now you’re going to say to the students they cannot do that.”

Other students agreed with Sambrano that the project needs to come to an end. USD sophomore and AChA programmer, Shayla Rodriguez, said it is time to be “shutting it down” as well as increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion awareness.

“The way I feel in my College of Arts and Sciences classes compared to business… I can feel it,” Rodriguez said. “It’s weird to see that they [USD Schools of Business/Engineering] don’t have ethnic classes and I feel like that’s the basic class that everyone at USD should take.”

USD junior and fellow AChA programmer, Victoria Melendez, echoed Rodriguez’s call for change. 

“They say they have diversity, inclusion, and social justice in all the schools, but it’s different,” Melendez said. “The school of Engineering and the school of Business have their own classes, but I think it’s so important for everyone to actually be educated in these issues. If you go to a school that has so much money and has the power to make all these changes, why aren’t they enforcing this education on every student?”

Currently, there are no plans for the OpX Program to slow down anytime soon.

As the end of this particular study and the semester draws near, the partnership between the School of Engineering and USD Facilities remains intact. 

Administration has not released any statements on possible consequences or changes to USD’s management, curriculums, or communication in relation to the project at the time this article was written.