Staff Advisory Council Meeting
Location: Paresky 112
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Time: 11:00 – 12:00 p.m.
In Attendance: Kim Altiere, Rachel Louis, Donna Richardson, Tony Sinico, Martha Tetrault, ex officio, Kevin Thomas, ex officio
Absent: Tom Aliberti, Bonnie Bresett, Miguel Gutierrez, Jessie Nairn, Doug Rydell, Helena Warburg
Minutes
- Appreciation Day, May 5, 2015 – While Colleen Bethoney has left HR to take a position for the VP of Finance and Administration, she is still assisting with Appreciation Day. Staff Advisory Council members that would like to volunteer to help wrap gifts and greet guests as they come in can contact Colleen directly.
- Debrief of Staff Advisory Council / Staff Committee Interviews for the VP of Equity and Institutional Diversity – Those members that had attended interviews discussed the candidates and the role. Candidates had very different history and came from different levels of the organization. Each had impressive experience. Members were grateful for the opportunity to participate in the process. Martha discussed the scope and diversity of skills needed for success in the position, from 1:1 meetings with different members of the community to playing a role in the public life of the college, as well as needing both visionary leadership and the ability to implement complex change efforts.
- Policy Development – While attendance didn’t allow for substantial discussion of these issues, Martha laid out topics for further discussion, including:
- Updates to sexual harassment/sexual misconduct policy. Policy revisions for faculty/student and student/student interactions are well underway. Efforts including streamlining the process while working within the framework of other policies and current laws, as well as broadening the definition of harassment and misconduct to include such things as stalking, bullying, and more. More work will need to be done in shaping policy for staff/staff faculty/staff interactions.
- Developing fitness for duty policy. There is a need for a process for reporting and following up on situations where employees present as appearing to be unfit for duty.
- Grievance Policy. There is currently no grievance policy in place, though historically we have had one. The Council could explore the feasibility of helping to develop a new one, including what kinds of situations could be grieved, what the process would look like, etc.
- Outsourcing FMLA/STD. The Staff Advisory Council could provide important input into a proposal to outsource FMLA/STD. Martha would provide information to council members necessary to orient them to the most important issues.
Reported by Kevin Thomas
