University Times

The Staff Association Council (SAC) last week announced details of its holiday project and affirmed standing committee chairs and vice chairs.

SAC will work with the Salvation Army’s adopt-a-family program to provide holiday gifts to a single mother and her three young children, according to Marissa Arlet, chair of the program and planning committee.

“The mother, who is only 29, cannot work due to severe multiple sclerosis,” Arlet said at the Nov. 18 meeting.

Gifts and monetary donations will be accepted at the SAC office, 313 Bellefield Hall, until Dec. 16. For more information call 4-4236.

SAC also is supporting a new and lightly used book and toy drive, an ongoing project to aid the Alliance for Infants and Toddlers, a local early intervention service coordination agency for families of children, ages birth to 3, who have developmental concerns. Book and toy donations should be delivered to Jennifer Welton, 419 CL (4-2458; jwelton@pitt.edu).

Arlet also reported that SAC will sponsor a series of brown bag lunch speakers in the spring term at dates to be announced. Speakers will include a representative from Life Solutions (formerly the faculty and staff assistance program), who will discuss handling stress in the workplace; a nutritionist/dietician, and a representative of the Port Authority of Allegheny County, who is expected to discuss the public transit service changes set to start in March.

Also at the Nov. 18 meeting, SAC members affirmed the following committee leaders:

• Sherry Shrum, chair, and Steve Zupcic, vice chair, benefits;

• Pamela Weid, chair, and Peggy McNeil, vice chair, elections;

• Meg Mayer-Costa, chair, and Carol Hodgkiss, vice chair, governance;

• Angela Coldren, chair, and Rich Colwell, vice chair, grievance;

• Libby Hilf, chair, and J.P. Matychak, vice chair, marketing and communications;

• Marissa Arlet, chair, and Karen Zellars, vice chair, program and planning;

• Jennifer Welton, chair, and Michael Semcheski, vice chair, research and information;

• Monika Losagio, chair, and Barbara Adelman, vice chair, salary and job classification, and

• Rick Fabean, chair, and Ken Doty, vice chair, safety and security.

In other SAC business:

• SAC President Gwen Watkins criticized Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s proposal to levy a 1 percent tax on student tuition.

“This is not a fair tax because students already are paying their fair share. Most of them live off campus where they pay rent and a lot of them have jobs where they pay taxes. We stand behind our students in rejecting this tax. We should find a way to help Pittsburgh, but that’s not the way to do it,” Watkins said.

• Annabelle Clippinger, vice president of marketing and communications, noted that a donation form for SAC’s Endowed Book Fund for Children of Staff is online at the council’s upgraded web site (www.pitt.edu/~sac).

This year’s book fund winners are expected to be recognized at the Dec. 3 long-term staff recognition ceremony.

Additionally, Clippinger reported that SAC is hoping to convert from a paper version to an electronic newsletter.

• Shrum reported that the benefits committee approved a proposal to establish a University-wide sick leave bank of staff-donated sick time to benefit those staff members who have used up their accrued time off, but still have conditions that prevent them from working. She added that many of Pitt’s peer institutions have such programs in place. The proposal now goes to SAC’s steering committee for consideration.

• Mayer-Costa reported that the governance committee is reviewing SAC bylaws with a goal of eliminating redundancies.

—Peter Hart