Reference no: EM132217366
Question: Emma Harrison is the Director of Student Advising for Kingston State University. She has 20 Student Advisors working for her who handle approximately 4,000 student complaints and problems per month. Each Student Advisor earns a monthly salary of $2,000, including benefits. The number of student issues varies each month, and in the past year has been as low as 2,750 per month and as high as 4,200 per month. Emma has been complaining that 20 Advisors is not enough to handle the level of student issues and that the problem will get worse as enrollment is expected to increase. In a recent study conducted by Emma, she found that it takes a well-trained Student Advisor approximately one hour to handle a student issue. This time varies, of course, depending upon the severity of the student issue. While Kingston State University realizes that 20 Student Advisors is not enough when student issues number 4,200 per month; however, during months when student issues total only 2,750, 20 Student Advisors can adequately handle the student issues. The Administration, therefore, concludes that 20 Student Advisors is adequate for the current enrollment and will not agree to hire additional Student Advisors until enrollment numbers increase by at least 10%.
Assume that each Student Advisor works an 8 hour day which includes two 15-minute breaks. Further, assume that each month has 22 working days. In the most recent month, June, the Student Advisors handled 3,950 student issues.
Emma has asked you to review this situation to help her make the case to hire additional Student Advisors.
Required: In a memo to Emma, discuss the following:
The type of cost center SBU Kingston State University appears to consider the Student Advising department.
If Kingston State University uses the discretionary-cost method to implement cost SBU's, what is the budgeted cost for Student Advising for June?
If Kingston State University uses the engineered-cost method to implement cost SBU's, what is the budgeted cost for Student Advising for June?
Provide an argument for Emma to hire additional Student Advisors.