Staff Council - April 2012 Highlights

Staff Health Care Committee discussed how effective a Patient Care addition may be to the current compensation package, where it would be, and who would pay for it.  Clinics on campus are being re-looked at and Chancellor Rogers believes it can be done.  There is currently no tobacco policy in place.  Chancellor Rogers wants the tobacco surcharge on new hires beginning July 1, 2012.  Committee members were tasked to reach out to individuals who use tobacco products to gather suggestions/incentives/comments on how to encourage users to quit.

President Gamble agreed to establish a Healthcare Task Force.  This would be a one-time task force.  The task force will not replace the Joint Health Care Committee or the Staff Health Care Committee, it will look outside the box, consider options, review and research plans.  The goal of the committee is to have proposals in by the end of August for proposed changes to take place and decided upon in December 2012.  The committee will have equal number of staff, faculty and administration.

Chancellor Rogers commented on how the current legislative session went great and the University came out ahead.  Their focus will be on some long standing issues such as the sewer lines and moving some parking lots.  Funds have been provided for advising, new programs, honors programs, 50% of staff raises, repairs to the engineering building, etc.  The voices heard the loudest were those not directly associated with the University.  He visited the Northwest campus and Chukchi campus in support of those partnerships.  He mentioned that it is important to attend any of the Staff Appreciation events this year and if a supervisor tell you no, you need to refer that issue to his office.

To-date there have been 160 signatures collected on the Health Care petition created by the Staff Affairs committee.  The signed copies of the petition have been submitted to UAF Staff Council President, Pips Veazey, to forward to Staff Alliance and Chancellor Rogers.  Signatures are still being collected.  There have been staff who have voiced a concern about signing the petition because of repercussions they may face from the administration.  For those who are concerned about repercussions they have been encouraged to visit the blogsite and place a comment anonymously.

A survey was conducted regarding the Code of Conduct sent out by President Gamble to all staff.  To-date there have been over 640 comments/responses submitted.  As of today the code of conduct has been unofficially withdrawn with a comment that President Gamble will work with governance in creating Institutional Values.

Chancellors Cornerstone Award – there were 91 nominations.  The committee reviewed all nominations and submitted four staff members to Chancellor Rogers for a decisions, along with recommendations for increasing the award prizes.  Committee felt the award for the Chancellors Cornerstone was deficit in comparison to other awards.

A system governance retreat will be held in June 2012 those in attendance will include President Gamble, Donald Smith, etc.

There are no changes to the University’s tuition waiver at this time, Standard Academic Progress (SAP) is the holdup.  Staff Affairs is beginning to work on a document that will be geared toward staff.

Thank you to all those who provided their notes to be included in this blogsite.

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

Plans For An Energy Technology & Research Builing

UAF has tentative plans to build a 31,000 sq.ft. building dedicated to energy research, everything from wind and hydrogen to coal. These plans are on the fast track.

University leaders are talking of building the $30 million center, which would house the Alaska Center for Energy & Power, during the next two summers. The plan is to sell bonds for half the proposed building and get the rest of the money through a state grant, is included in a short list of construction projects pitched early this winter by UAF's Board of Regents. The Board also is seeking a separate 5 year state grant that would partner the energy center with the state run Alaska Energy Authority on state-proposed research projects.

UAF's proposed construction budget, which has been forwarded to the Alaska Legislature for consideration, incorporates the proposed energy building alongside another, long-discussed proposal for a new Life Sciences: Focused Research & Instruction Facility.

resource: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 1-28-09: written by: Christopher Eshleman

Customer Services & Financial Commitment

Pat Pitney, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services was a guest speaker at the Staff Council meeting Friday, December 12th. She wanted the council to know that her and her staff are committed to following the Chancellors vision of customer service being the number one priority. Their customer service is mostly focused on staff and faculty as we are the ones that deal with students and the public and believe their customer service mindset will trickle down through us.

Ms. Pitney currently has four goals for the current fiscal year:

1. Rationalize the budget process internal to UAF and fully understand all aspects
2. Figure out the funding for Life Sciences and Energy Research
3. Business Structure
4. Risk Management

She reminded the council that when UAF commits funds to a project that those funds are pulled from another area of the university.