May 2020 President's Report

Mathew appointed one new rep to Staff Council, Joanna Wallace (unit 7).

Thank you to all the staff members who participated in this year's Staff Recognition and Development Day ad hoc committee!

The System Governance Council has been meeting regularly. They have been discussing the UGF and looking at how it is structured. 

NCHEMS completed a review of Statewide in March.  Some UA faculty have written a response to NCHEMS regarding the report. 

We requested to be a part of the Statewide IMT group. Mathew has been added as the staff reprsentative and has been participating in those meetings. Mathew has also joined the UAF IMT group. 

Staff Alliance has been discussing the budget cuts. Outside of the executive furloughs, nothing else has been decided yet. 

We want to recognize that staff are also affected by the expedited program review process. This was not discussed at the BOR meeting, but is important to share that staff will be affected as well. We requested to CHRO Patin and HR that staff who will be laid off be given resources and opportunities to apply for others positions that might be open at UA. 

We are continuing to pursue HR questions, including furlough questions, working from home challenges, and supervisory training.

Regarding furloughs, anyone can apply for unemployment. If you do not qualify you will be denied, but if you do qualify, you will get some benefits. VC Queen shared that about 50 staff were given  COVID-related furlough notices, which would take affect in mid-May if the furloughs go through. That number is possibly changing as they work on re-opening plans. 

CHRO Patin shared that there is not a deadline for the EFML application. As long as the law is still in place, staff members can apply. 

Joint Health Care Committee update: 100% of of COVID-19 related medical expenses will be covered through October under the UA health care plan. 

The Governance Coordinating Committee discussed a shared governance resolution, but the resolution did not pass. The committee also discussed including governance in the IMT groups, which led to Mathew reaching out and joining the two IMT groups. 

The new Title IX rules and implementation timeline are now updated on the UAF Title IX website. 

The final proposals for shared services will be coming out soon. The shared services model will be phased in the fall.

Enrollment is down, however, UAF does have unique opportunities related to research and online courses.

The accreditation site visit will be in late September/early October. Dr. Mark Johnson, the president of the University of Reno, will be chairing the site visit. They do not know yet if it will be a virtual or in-person visit. 

Mathew met with VC Queen to discuss the budget strategy. The original plan UAF submitted to Statewide was asked to be reconsidered because it relied too much on reserves. 

The BOR Audit and Academic & Student Affairs committees met on May 13. The meeting recordings are located on the BOR website.