HOT TOPICS ! House Bill 187 - Friend or Foe?Ohio House bill 87 is an endeavor to reform Ohio Classified Civil Service law. The 130 page bill allows state universities to remove / replace civil service statues with board approved rules. As part of the bill, the job of setting implementation policies and procedures has been delegated to the Inter-University Council of Ohio(IUC). Guidelines setup by the Council give University Boards the right to setup rules in specifically but not limited to the following areas:
Classification Plans;
Recruitment, selection and appointment processes;
Performance, Discipline, and termination processes;
Layoff and reduction in workforce processes;
Paid leave and holiday leave;
Appeal processes for classification, reduction, abolishment, and disciplinary actions; and
Metrics and measures as appropriate for implementation and modernization of the above listed matters of personnel governance.
The ramifications at UA to HB187 will be seen only as future events unfold. SEAC as UA’s institutional staff committee has identified HB 187 as one of our primary issues for 2008. Several conversations about what is occuring in this area have been transpired between SEAC and the administration, but as of yet, only the ratification of a motion by the board indicating that they would be participants in HB187 has occurred.
An important note is that the IUC has determined that all change should be controlled and incremental with open and transparent communication with institutional staff councils. Slow steady change that hopefully will be for the betterment of the university and its employees!
Kudos to Dr. Proenza and the UA administration for health care costs adjustments. A little over two years ago the administration announced that health care costs were escalating and that the employee share would have to increase. An agreement of an 85-15 split was established. This year after all the dust had settled, it was determined that employee contributions would be over the 15% limit agreed upon earlier. Without prompting, the administration "did the right thing" and took steps to adjust the situation. While not every employee was happy with the method of the adjustment, SEAC believes that the very fact that they brought forth a solution at all is commendable and shows that this administration is determined to "do the right thing" for the staff employees of The University of Akron.
A big SEAC thanks to President Proenza and the UA Administration.
Chairs Note:
During one of the Health care meetings I distinctly remember asking Dr. Chand Midha a question to which he replied, "You are just going to have to trust me". My response today would be, Yes! You have earned it!
Bob Stachowiak
SEAC Chair
University Group Insurance and Benefits Committee The University of Akron Group Insurance and Benefits Committee is a newly formed committee under the direction of Dr. F. John Case, Vice President for Finance and Administration/Chief Financial Officer . This committee is comprised of representatives from a broad cross section of the campus. Your Staff Employees Advisory Committee (SEAC) representatives are Tedd Guedel and Laura Spray.
The current scope of the committee is to:
· review current program(s)
· assess options available for health and wellness
· gather preferences and concerns from the representative constituencies
· prepare and review the Request For Proposals (RFP)
· make recommendations to President Proenza and the Board of Trustees for the upcoming Health Benefit enrollment, January 1, 2008 thru December 31, 2009.
Your voice needs to be heard! Please take a couple of moments to send us your thoughts about our health care benefits to either Jeri Farwell at jeri@uakron.edu or Laura Spray at spray@uakron.edu.
Note: Now that Health Care Benefits have been contracted, this committee has turned its attention to wellness concerns. Please forward any wellness ideas or comments to SEAC so that we may forward your information.
Counseling Services Available
for Friends and Family of
University of Akron Employees If you have a friend or family member who has expressed an interest in seeking counseling services, the University's Clinic for Individual and Family Counseling in Carroll Hall 128 can help. It offers low-cost counseling for individual, career, family and couples-related issues. Typical concerns include, but are not limited to, dealing with depression, anxiety, anger, relationship concerns, divorce and blended family issues. Services are open to the public. The clinic is located in the Department of Counseling, which is part of the College of Education.
The clinic is a nonprofit counseling center staffed by master's and doctoral-level trainees who are supervised by licensed faculty members. A sliding-fee system is available, but no one will be denied services because of an inability to pay. For more information, or to make an appointment, please call ext. 6822.
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