December 2021 Meeting

Staff council would like to open the meeting today with a brief safety minute. Be mindful of the cold weather, plug in your vehicles, and be prepared for the temperature to drop. As it gets darker and closer the holiday season be sure to reach out to your friends and neighbors and check in with your support network. 
 
Updates from Chancellor White
Chancellor White would like to provide an update on the COVID-19 vaccine requirement. This is a system level requirement due to the executive order for federal contracts. This applies to the Troth Yeddha campus based on time keeping location (TKL), unless you have an approved waiver or exemption. We received a renegotiation letter from NASA and DOD that stated to continue work on these projects we have to renegotiate the terms, those terms included a vaccination requirement. 
 
About a week ago a Georgia court issued an injunction stating federal agencies cannot enforce vaccine requirements. We now have legally binding agreements with these federal agencies. The President's email clarified that the university has a policy that vaccination or exemption is required by January 18, 2022, but pending additional information from the courts. The university will not enforce that on January 18th, so there would be no action taken with employees who didn't satisfy the requirement of vaccination or exemption. We will wait to hear more from the courts, it could take weeks or months before it is determined if the executive order was unlawful or if the injunction will be lifted and enforcement goes back into play. The university system office would then address that with HR. We received about 60% of attentations for employees that submitted vaccination status. More than 2% but less than 5% received exemptions. UAF is offering a free public clinic for vaccinations, today and tomorrow in the Patter Center from 12-8pm. All types, while supplies last, including pediatric, boosters, initial or secondary doses, and standard flu shots.
 
Chancellor White announced the governor's budget will drop tomorrow. The university’s request included salary increases, a capital funding increase, and deferred maintenance request. There’s an additional eight million dollars the president requested over our base budget this year. The president has been working with the governor on distributing some covid relief funds that could be applied to some of the governor's priorities at the university, such as drones, mining research, and petroleum research. Any funds over the base budget would need to be approved by the legislature and then reapproved by the governor.  
 
Julie Queen states that more details will be coming from the system office on the 2% compensation plan. 
Chancellor White mentioned the strategic planning forum had a lot of attendees. The strategic planning leaders are now working on a vision statement and will continue communicating the plan and implementation. Chancellor White would like to thank each and everyone of you for participation and your investment in staff council. 
 
Staff Council President Ronnie Houchin
Ronnie  would like to thank the new staff council members for joining. We are excited to have you on board and look forward to working with you. As well as a big thanks to the staff council members who are transitioning out of service from staff council. We really appreciate the work that you have done and the time you’ve given to staff council. 
Ronnie included a link to the remote work project final report, the report was put together by three COVID remote work teams, the main team, transition monitoring team, and the technical expertise team. The report contains some recommendations for additional policy changes that should be considered in order to fully institutionalize remote work within our university. 
 
Ronnie would like to mention his deep gratitude for all the staff throughout the university. Thank you to all the staff that work so hard in many ways to make sure the buildings and campus are safe. That our students are supported and educated. that we’re following proper financial and accounting procedures, there’s so many of us that do so much work. A huge thanks to all of our colleges for working hard and navigating through all of the continued uncertainty. 
 
Staff Council Vice President Juella Sparks 
Juella would like to thank the Chancellor for his words of support for governance. We appreciate that he values our efforts, and encourages our supervisors to support us as well. Thank you to the representatives that are stepping down from staff council for your time served and efforts on behalf of all staff. See Juella’s written report for her highlights and focus on alliance activities. Juella would like to encourage everyone to rest and recover and enjoy the holiday break. 
 
Updates from Human Resources
Nycollete with Human Resources states the COVID-19 vaccination is still a requirement and we want to be aware of the January 18th, 2022 deadline. We paused on being able to enforce the vaccination due to the injunction filed. We are however under a contract that requires vaccination. If the injunction is lifted, changed, or still in place we will take steps at that time to update the university. Currently there are approximately 2700 employees affected by the COVID-19 vaccination requirement.  Here is an update on the current covered employee verification status. Employees' status will be reflected in banner under PPACERT. December 10th was the exemption deadline but HR will still be accepting and processing those forms. 
 
Nycolett followed up on the staffing level in the Butrovich building, HR does have representatives in the office on Tuesday’s and Friday’s. HR has ordered a drop lock box for any paperwork being dropped off, it will be installed as soon as it arrives. You can still make in-person appointments if you want to meet with an HR representative. 
The COVID sick leave is no longer available, the UAOnline leave banks will be updated on July 1st. Long COVID has been recognized as a disability under ADA: https://www.ada.gov/long_covid_joint_guidance.pdf?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=
Nycolett will be transitioning into her new role with HR. The recruitment for the senior business partner is currently being reviewed and the search committee hopes to have it posted before the holiday break.
 
Membership and Rules and Elections committee:
This will be Derek Bastille’s last meeting as chair of the Membership and Rules and Elections committee. They will be looking for a new chair for 2022, Derek will still be available to assist and help with the committee. The staff council elections went really well and we will start with our new units in January. 
 
Rural Affairs Committee: 
Last met on December 3rd, they now have a monthly spotlight to nominate rural staff. 
They are planning a town hall and planning some discussion topics. 
 
Staff Affairs Committee:
Last met on November 19th, they are working on a comparison on full time staff, to term and to temps. How this employee shifting affects career paths. Job position description changes and effects on departments and attrition. They will be reviewing the deer oaks benefits. 
 
University Advocacy Committee: 
Last met December 1st, Kari Mellmer will be the chair of Staff Recognition and Development Day (SRDD). This is a big event and she will be looking for volunteers. We have been allocated $49,000.00 for staff development. Linkedin learning licenses have been purchased, we will do a tuition allocation for staff in the spring up to $250.00 for up to 50 employees, depending on funding. It will be on a first come first serve basis. More news will be coming out on the staff cookbook. 
 
New business: 
Staff recognition and development day is underway please share this event with your colleagues that may want to volunteer or support during that day. We are looking into collaborating with the other UA campuses to have some shared events. This event usually takes place the first week of May. 
 
New logo and graphics funding request has been approved. We will be creating a staff council logo to do some more advertising and development. 
 
Staff development fund has recently allocated funds for covering registration fees for staff up to $250.00 per staff member for the spring 2022 semester. That will be announced soon for staff to apply. This opportunity will be available for up to 50 staff members on a first come first serve basis. 
 
Staff council has been asked to provide feedback on the refined list of goals and measures by January 10th, 2021. The goals and measures will be presented to the Board or Regents at the February meeting for review. 
 
An ombud's position has recently been discussed at the alliance level. This position would exist to support and mediate or guide employees or students through processes. 
 
Staff emeritus recognition process is being reviewed to give it more clarity on who is eligible.
All emerita are listed at: https://www.uaf.edu/commence/archives.php  including some staff emerita.  Unfortunately they are not defined as staff or faculty. 
 
Expedited Administrative Management Review Response is a committee of faculty senators and staff council members reviewing the actions that have or have not been taken in response to the administrative management review. The Chancellor did provide an email update in December. We are asking for feedback on these action items that you can share on the input form.