I used to be one too. Anyone on a campus network could access the PDF of the budget, with everyone's name, position, and salary. I rather liked it. I could usually look at a salary and understand where the number was coming from. People in similar positions throughout the university had similar compensation. Basically, since it was very public, there couldn't be a lot of outliers without someone complaining. When your boss tells you there is no money for raises this year, you can verify that it was actually true.

Hire a couple of interns and co-ops to work the help desk, handle printer problems, etc. They are usually cheap and work hard. Give them a programming project to do on the side to make it worth their time and help with their degree, maybe even partnering with someone outside the IT group.

When they graduate, go to the management and try get them hired full-time. Even with a degree, they'll still be relatively cheap and they are already trained.

I don't think that is a good idea. My mother made me take an acting class one year after I had changed schools. I hated it! I'm not a very outgoing person, and making me act for a grade didn't help at all. It probably made things worse.

I did, however, enjoy the part of the class where we made a video. I got to skip most of the acting and work on the editing. This was rather technical (and probably more so today), but you still had to communicate with the actors. This works out well especially if the actors don't like to do the technical stuff.