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.

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.

September Meeting of the UAF Staff Council

What happened at the September meeting?

Pips Veazey, Staff Council President, explained the most pressing issues for the Staff Council for the 2011 fall semester:

1. Staff Compensation - The Alaska Staff Alliance Compensation Working Group is proposing a minimum of a 3.5% increase for FY13 given inflation, recent increases in employee health care contributions and the loss of step increases. Juella Sparks will be representing Staff Alliance at the Board of Regents meeting in Juneau this week to address this issue.
2. Health Care - Another major focus for the first semester will be on proposed changes to our health care benefits, that are still in discussion. One change going into effect July 1, 2012, is the tobacco surcharge. The tobacco surcharge will add $600 a year to an employee's annual cost for health care if the employee or a dependent enrolled in UA’s health plan uses a tobacco product or has used tobacco products within the past six months and has not demonstrated eligibility for a waiver from the surcharge.
3. Employee Tuition Waiver - The employee tuition waiver is being reviewed and changes have been proposed for the upcoming year. Input is currently being solicited about the proposed changes; the Staff Affairs Committee is drafting a resolution stating staff does not support changes to the employee tuition waiver benefit. Problems with the proposed changes include negative tax ramifications, the punitive approach to paying for failed classes, and details about the connection with the benefit to “satisfactory academic progress”.

For additional business discussed during the meeting see: Healthy Challenge, Emergency Management Policy, United Way Campaign, and Winter Warm-up articles.

Your feedback is always wanted. If you have concerns, comments or questions that you would like us to address at the next Staff Council meeting please contact one of your representatives so your voice can be heard.  If you would like to remain anonymous let us know and we will respect your wishes.

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.