LV Life

Minor is major maintenance change

Tracie Minor, the only women maintenance worker at La Verne, was hired this summer. Minor, from West Covina, said she likes the "altogether teamwork that everybody has" in the Maintenance and Operations Department. / photo by Summer Herndon
Tracie Minor, the only women maintenance worker at La Verne, was hired this summer. Minor, from West Covina, said she likes the “altogether teamwork that everybody has” in the Maintenance and Operations Department. / photo by Summer Herndon

by Elizabeth Rodarte
Staff Writer

When people see a friendly new face riding in an orange maintenance vehicle and wonder why it belongs to a female, they should stop and find out.

Tracie Minor, who began working on campus July 21, is the first female maintenance worker to be hired in the history of the University of La Verne.

“It doesn’t bother me that I am the only female maintenance worker in our department. I don’t look at it that way. Besides, the guys are a great bunch,” said Minor.

In hiring her, Brian Worley, director of facilities management, said, “My expectations were no different than any other worker, but it is important to have a female working in the department.”

It facilitates access to the women’s residence halls. Normally, maintenance would have to wait until 10 a.m. to get into the halls.

“The Department of Human Resources had been pointing out for a number of years that maintenance needed to have a better balance in terms of gender,” said Worley. Other than his assistant, every maintenance employee was male.

“The Human Resources Department maintains information on the percentage of women and minorities in each of our job categories, and compares that with other information which tells us the percentage of qualified women and minorities in the outside work force who are qualified to perform our jobs,” said Oris Barber, director of human resources.

According to Barber, if the percentage of employees is less than the percentage available, then they attempt to recruit in such a manner as to attract women and minority applicants into their applicant pools and allow them to compete equally for jobs.

“We never say that a department head must hire only a women or a minority; that in itself would be against affirmative action guidelines and would be discrimination. Worley was aware that [ULV was] underutilizing women on our operations staff, and was successful in recruiting and hiring a woman,” said Barber.

“Brian was really professional in the interview, and overall. He did not make me feel uncomfortable because I was a female,” said Minor.

Though Worley did not make her feel uncomfortable, her co-workers were more apprehensive about a female on the staff.

“I knew the guys were going to have a fit when they knew I was hired,” said Minor.

“At first I didn’t think it was going to work out. I have been here eight years and all there had been is guys,” said Mike Maxwell, Minor’s co-worker, who thought she would not be able to handle heavy lifting and moving heavy furniture.

Maxwell believed that maintenance duty was designed for males only. After the interview, he confessed that he liked working with Minor and that she had proved him wrong.

Out of an estimated 24 applicants, Minor feels she was hired because of the confidence she carried in the interview.

“It was also her personality that made her stand out, and I knew that she could truly do the job,” said Worley.

Minor took the job for a change. Prior, she worked in a supermarket.

She is originally from Portland, Ore., but has been living in California for the past 10 years. She presently resides in West Covina. She has three sisters, two of whom graduated from La Verne and another, Laurie, is currently enrolled at ULV.

Minor’s hobbies are spending time with her husband, whom she has been married to for three years and her son, who she said has been her inspiration.

“I must say, I know I didn’t go wrong in coming to work for this campus. It is a small and friendly campus with a very safe environment. I look forward to meeting and serving the student body and faculty members,” said Minor.

Elizabeth Rodarte
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