University Times

Staff Association Council announces members

At its April 21 meeting, the Staff Association Council (SAC) announced nominees for new membership, heard recommendations by SAC's salary and job classification committee regarding the University's salary policies, and held a closed, officers-only meeting with Ron Frisch, Human Resources associate vice chancellor, on the proposed staff classification plan.

There are 37 staff members nominated for the 1999-2000 council. (See Staff Association Council members.)

According to SAC bylaws, all newly nominated members need to be approved by Human Resources, normally a formality. New members will be confirmed at the May 12 meeting and be eligible to vote for officers at the June 9 meeting. Members are elected for two-year terms; officers are elected annually.

Only full members who have served during the past year may be nominated for an office, according to the council's bylaws. Nominations for officers may be submitted in writing to 925 William Pitt Union, via campus mail or e-mail (sac+@pitt.edu), until the May 12 meeting. Voice nominations will be accepted during the new business part of the May meeting.

A SAC new-member orientation luncheon will be held July 21, WPU Dining Room A, noon-2 p.m.

Highlights of the salary and job classification committee's report include recommendations to:

* Have a separate policy for staff;

* Have raises become effective July 1 and included in the July paychecks, if the state budget has been passed;

* Institute a policy that a "meets full standards" employee evaluation automatically would mean a merit increase.

* Institute an appeals process, for staff dissatisfied with raises, that is outside the employee's responsibility center.

SAC President Rich Colwell stressed that the salary policy recommendations represented the report of the committee and were not endorsed by SAC as a whole, pending further discussion. Members voted to have the committee's recommendations published in the next SAC newsletter, which will come out in mid-May, according to Linda Marts, SAC vice president for communications.

Commenting on the officers-only closed session, Colwell said SAC officers were still being asked to keep the draft of the staff classification plan confidential. "We're told the plan has not been approved, and [Human Resources] asked us to keep the information closed for now," he said. The plan will be implemented July 1, according to Human Resources officials.

Officers from regional campuses who attended the SAC meeting, Greensburg SAC president Michelle Tracey, vice president Tanya Conde, treasurer Suzanne Dominick, former officer Karen Gavula and Bradford SAC president Julie Dykstra, also were invited to the closed session.

Colwell told the University Times that SAC officers are still meeting with representatives of the administration on the proposed staff classification plan. He said officers do not endorse or support the plan.

Colwell said Frisch tentatively is scheduled to address staff classification issues at an open forum on May 26, noon-2 p.m., WPU Ballroom.

As part of the president's report at the April 13 meeting, Colwell explained that SAC representatives abstained during the recent Senate Council vote on the issue of the University extending health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of faculty and staff. "As a matter of policy, SAC represents all staff as a whole and not any special interest groups," Colwell said.

Not withstanding the staff group's current position, it was SAC that helped to start the campaign to offer limited benefits to same-sex domestic partners and opposite-sex, unmarried domestic partners in fall 1992 by sending a proposal to Senate Council endorsing the policy.

The benefits proposed (and ultimately enacted) included tuition reduction, bereavement leave and library privileges. Health benefits were not included in the proposal, SAC officers said at the time, because granting such benefits was governed by state insurance laws.

–Peter Hart