January 24, 2018

Present
Laurie Booth, Veronica Bosley, Brittany Burdick, Scott Duncan, Susan Gaskell, Scott Henderson, Nadine Nance, Brian Teal, Martha Tetrault, Kevin Thomas
Minutes Approved
The minutes for the December meeting were approved.
Continued Discussion of Sick Time Bank
The group continued discussion of the proposal for a sick leave bank for support staff that could be used in emergency situations where sick and vacation time had been spent. A few members of the committee speculated that with the amount of sick time that support staff earn, the bank balance would likely always be sufficient for any needs, especially since support staff would be able to donate sick time as they approached their cap on sick time balances. From this point of view, the donations appear to be “other people’s money”, since donating them would be unlikely to have any adverse effects for the donors, and of course they would be eligible to draw from the sick bank if they ever needed to. One could then conclude that the administration of the balances is unnecessary red tape; it would be far easier for the college to simply grant additional sick time to support staff in crisis situations.
Most members however felt that having the bank was important for cultural reasons, since it gives support staff a way to express their support for each other in community.
Kevin shared that one college evaluates potential utilizers of the sick time balance by checking their file to see whether they have any disciplinary action connected with poor attendance. If they do, they are not eligible for the program. This represents a clear operational standard that makes it easier to administer the policy.
Martha suggested that the Staff Advisory Council meet with the Staff Committee which originated the initial recommendation to continue discussing it. The Council agreed. That meeting will be scheduled in lieu of our regular February meeting.
Tuition Benefit
Martha shared the outline of the new Tuition Benefit that has been approved by Senior Staff. One element of the program is determining whether courses are job-related for tax purposes, since non-job related tuition assistance would be taxable if the amount was over $5250 in a year. The supervisor and the Learning and Development Manager would both have to sign off for a course to be considered job-related. Council members expressed an interest in there being an appeal process or an avenue for mediating disputes between staff members and their supervisors about whether a course should be job related, and recommended that precedents and examples about courses being considered job-related be shared. For example, some staff members may not consider a psychology class to be job-related, but if the course enhances their insight into their colleagues or their own emotional intelligence in the workplace, we have typically considered it to be job related. Similarly any class that improves writing skills develops the communications competency and therefore could be considered job-related. Staff and supervisors should be educated about these standards.
Staff Forum
Interim President Tiku Majumder will be scheduling a staff forum. Staff Advisory Council members with suggestions about topics should email them to Martha.
Next Scheduled Meeting: The Staff Advisory Council will meet with the Staff Committee on February 22 at 1pm in Paresky’s quiet room on the second floor.
Email any recommended agenda items to Kevin Thomas, Learning and Development Manager