Cross-Training Staff Leads to Cross-Department Wins

When William I. Brustein, PhD, arrived as senior international officer at West Virginia University in 2016, he frequently heard reports that students and faculty were dissatisfied when they visited the international office with questions about visas or study abroad programs. Often, they were told by staff who did not have answers to such questions that these were not their areas of responsibility.

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“We realized that wasn’t the message we wanted to send to our students and to faculty,” Brustein says. “We’re not that big of an operation that people who work in education abroad couldn’t meet their colleagues in international student services.”

The disconnect between international student services and education abroad was the result of years of each department working independently. They were only brought together when Brustein consolidated all international activities under the Office of Global Affairs. To remedy the problem and promote collaboration, he instituted cross-training across areas of expertise.

Cross-training gives staff the opportunity to understand the basics of their colleagues’ jobs, says Brustein, as well as how their unit fits into the institution’s overall mission. He says that cross-training staff over the previous 4 years allowed WVU’s global affairs office to respond more nimbly to the pandemic. 

“Because we’d done this cross-training and shadowing, if it comes to future decisions or a need to reduce staff, or people might retire...or leave, we have people who can step in