UAF Staff Council President & Vice President for 2011-2012

UAF Staff Council has a new President and Vice President for the 2011-2012 year.  Join us in congratulating them.

Pips Veazey, UAF Staff Council President

(907) 474-5989 / adveazey@alaska.edu

Juella Sparks, UAF Staff Council Vice President
(907) 474-7115 / juella.sparks@alaska.edu

Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA)

A representative from the Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA) was in attendance at the June Staff Council meeting.  She informed staff council that the APEA union is now contemplating organizing the non-represented supervisory staff at the university.  The APEA has received a list from Human Resources of staff members the university considers to be supervisors.

An email, with a survey, will be sent out to these individuals.  The purpose of the email is to determine whether or not there is a climate to organize.  The union is requesting everyone who receives the survey to complete and submit for processing.  The representative has stated that if there is not a desire amongst the supervisory staff to organize the issue will be dropped, but the only way to determine this is to receive completed surveys by all affected staff.

Chancellor Rogers

Chancellor Rogers expressed his support of the wellness programs at the university and is look for additional ways on how to become a healthier workforce.  He encourages staff to provide input and ideas.

He stated that the legislature is moving towards a 50/50 funding module.  At this time it is 60/40.  This means the university will be responsible to find additional revenue.  This may come in the form of increase tuition and moving around of internal processes, etc.  The loss of the DOD funding has been huge for the university.  All but six of the ARSC staff have been placed.

There is a possibility of research to be done on building on permafrost.  As there is a big area down by the Cold Climate Housing Research facility, there is talk of building student housing in this area and using it for the research.  This will bring in research monies and provide additional housing for students.

Things Chancellor Rogers is working on:

• Outdoor Recreation Advancements
• Future plans of building additional dining areas onto the Wood Center
• Building more student housing on campus

Health Care Audit

The health care audit done by Consova is completed.  There are currently 200 cases being reviewed to evaluate whether removal of dependents is required or not.  The cases are being evaluated case by case.  The cases are being reviewed because some employees are not responding to requests made, additional paperwork is needed, etc.

UAF Staff Council is looking into how much this audit processed has benefited the university and its employees.

What Happened at the June Meeting?

New motions are being made and/or readdressed to the UAF Staff Alliance.  These motions include: smoker surcharge, employee tuition waiver, and a new health care task force.

What are these motions?

• Smoker surcharge requests the removal of the smoker surcharge to the FY13 Health Care Plan.
• Employee tuition waiver relates to not supporting any alteration of the current waiver to include a 6-month waiting period for new hires and the repayment of tuition waived for any classes failed.
• Health care task force - this is requesting a new group to be established to help review the health care plans provided by UAF.