Health Care:
It was agreed there is need to be more options. The committee discussed the option of Higher Dedcutible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA). To have the health savings account the pharmacy plan would need to be re-worked. It is not clear to us, as we have not had the time to do much research, this would be a great option of UAF staff. The health savings account allows you to make withdrawals outside of medical expenses and the amount in the HSA rolls over every year; neither of these are an option with the flexible spending account.
The committee agreed to create a petition for staff to sign expressing our concerns about health care and how staff feels devalued in the lack of fight for them by the administration. It is agreed the petition would not be electronic as it is important to get actual signatures. The petition will also provide represented staff and faculty to sign showing support of the unrepresented staff. Once the petition has been approved by the UAF Staff Council President, it will be sent out to all staff council representatives to staff signatures.
As signatures are gathered completed pages will be provided to the UAF Staff Council President and Vice President with a request to provide copies of the signed petition to the Joint Health Care Committee, President Gamble, Chancellor Rogers, the Board of Regents, etc.
Tuition Waiver:
Discussion about the possible changes to the tuition waiver recognize the increase in benefits with the increase in possible credit hours taken each semester and each academic year. However, concerns were voiced about capping credit hours and that the waiver would fall under the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) for students. The committee agreed to revew the proposed changes and SAP, then come back to the next meeting (April 16) to discuss a written outline such as SAP. The outline would be reflective of staff using the tuition waiver.
Tobacco Policy:
The committee is in favor of a Tobacco Free Campus and not a Tobacco Free Hiring Policy. It was stated UAKJobs has already instituted the Tobacco Free Hiring with a question asking if the applicant or any depedent living in the household uses tobacco. Before going further in action to draw up a motion, it was decided a member of the committee would contact UAF Human Resources to verify the UAKJobs information. See Staff Council Notes regarding this issue.
The University of Alaska regents believe that “the opportunity for faculty, staff and students to participate in the governance of the university is important to its effective operation.” UAF Staff Council is your “opportunity” to participate in governance and contribute to the future of our university.
3 comments:
Regarding the increase in the cost of health care for employees...does a non-represented staff, single-mom, living paycheck to paycheck pay the same percentage increase as represented faculty making 4 x as much?
The answer is yes. There is no tier on the health care. Meaning no matter how many children you have it is the same rate.
If the "U" wants to use Satisfactory Academic Progress then then need to use a modified version of 34 CFR 668.34. Federal regs would count a "W" as an "F". I have a dependent that broke a leg prior to classes starting. While there were no procedures that conflicted with class time and the instructor was willing to work with my dependent the instructor believed that the pain medication caused an inability to focus on abstract math and they agreed that a withdraw was a good idea and that my dependent could easily take the class in another semester. There is no reason under those circumstances to treat this like a failure. I'm certain that there are a multitude of other reasons that would be just as justifiable reasons for withdrawal.
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