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Monday, January 30, 2012

Staff Council: January 2012 Highlights

1. Ann Ringstad, Dir. Community Advocacy, UA System, reported on the Juneau Legislative session: the House of Reps is reviewing the budget that the governor approved on Dec 15th. Some University requests were removed by the governor, such as deferred maintenance and the power plant funding, but the Chancellor is hoping the House and Senate will put them back in. The pay raise for staff was still included.

2. The Staff Council motion to NOT alter the Tuition Waiver benefit was forwarded to system governance who will pass on to President Gamble.

3. The Strategic Direction team is conducting separate listening sessions for internal stakeholder groups at UAF on Feb 14th. Times/locations TBA. There will be 3 sessions, one each for staff, faculty and students. If you are both a staff and student, please try to attend them both. Come prepared to ask hard questions and make comments.

4. On Feb 10th, Staff Council is hosting an Open Forum/Q & A with the Chancellor from 12:30 to 2pm in the Wood Center.

5. On Feb 6th from 3:30 to 5pm, there will be a Faculty Seminar with Dr. Claudia Lampman, at UAF - Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom. Dr. Lampman, Professor of Psychology at UAA, will lead a faculty seminar on student bullying, incivility and aggression. The seminar is jointly sponsored by UNAC, UAFT, and UAF Faculty Senate. For additional information please contact, Jayne Harvie, at jbharvie@alaska.edu. Staff have been encouraged to participate.

6. The Chancellor is kicking off an Employee of the Month award soon--in Feb or March. More details to come. Bernie Karl has offered the prizes for the next 12 months: a night at Chena Hot Springs and tour of Geothermal project.

7. Chancellor Rogers discussed several upcoming construction and renovation projects including dedicated space for the Honor's program, a new dining facility, additional on-campus housing, work on West Ridge buildings, and the new addition connecting Duckering /Bunnell buildings.

8. Health Plan: The Tobacco surcharge is definitely NOT going to be implemented for FY13. However, new employees hired CANNOT be tobacco users. No implementation date has been set for this new policy. This is in line with other large companies, such as Providence Hospital and AK Airlines. In March, we should be receiving info about health care costs and how it will affect our paychecks in FY13. Expect to see an increase in premiums.

The next Staff Council meeting is February 17, 2012 8:45 am WC Carol Brown Ballroom.
 
Highlights provided by Debbie Gonzalez of Unit 3.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

What is the University doing at the State and National levels to fix our broken health care system?

Could we put ALL public employees in the State under one policy? As in State, Boroughs, police, fire, and every other person we could put under the same plan.

We need to be able to shop around also. The current Premera monopoly is not working out very well.

Given our healthcare and current high energy costs in the Interior, people will start leaving. The University is no longer an attractive employer.