CU:

Notes from July 24, 2003 Assistants Meeting

Shari Philpott, Communication and Outreach Coordinator of Human Resources, presented information on creative ways to reward and motivate staff such as treatment, recognition, and allowing educational opportunities.

The Department of Human Resources developed a document called "Supervisor's Guide to Motivating Employees." It is available on the web at: http://www.colorado.edu/humres/managers/HRGuideEmployees.html?a=6 The guide includes information on what is effective motivation based on studies, effective practices, and links to various web sites that offer additional information. The Supervisor's Guide includes a form for gathering information on what motivates a particular person and assists the department in incorporating institutional values, such as education, into its reward system.

Administrative leave is one method for rewarding staff. Shari noted that the leave must be approved by the appointing authority (usually the department chair) and that it must be consistent for all staff members in a particular unit. A reward program must have established rules for giving awards, and all staff must be aware of the rules. Human Resources has reference books, tapes, and videos available on the 3rd floor of ARC (East campus) for people interested in learning more. A resource list also may be found in the "Supervisor's Guide," on page 15. Feel free to contact Shari at Shari.Philpott@Colorado.EDU if you have questions on information contained in the "Supervisor's Guide."

Tom Sebok, Director of the Ombud's Office, spoke on how the office works and what their staff can and cannot do to help students, faculty, and staff with problems. The Ombuds Office offers an informal, impartial, confidential, and independent means of resolving conflict. They are not a formal part of any grievance process, nor can they require people to participate in their program. During mediation, the Ombuds person meets first with each party separately, and then with both together. In order to maintain confidentiality, the office does not follow up with people on their problems. It is up to the people to stay in contact. Last year the Ombuds Office worked with over 900 people, with an estimated 75% success rate. Their staff help people recognize how to get cooperation from others, as opposed to creating resistance. They offer options, ideas, and strategies for dealing with conflict.

Their office in Willard 302 has fliers or brochures available on:

The web site for the Ombuds Office is: http://www.colorado.edu/Ombuds/.

One difference between the Ombuds Office and the office of Counseling and Psychological Services is that the Ombuds Office mostly deals with individuals or pairs of individuals in conflict and an attempt to come to resolution. The Counseling Center is on a more therapeutic and emotional level. Although they also will work with people one-on-one, their consultation team works with units as a whole, rather than with individuals.

People in disagreement cannot be forced to contact the Ombuds office, but it can be suggested to them. In the case of corrective actions, the Ombuds Office often empowers the person with ideas of what can be done differently. The person is allowed to vent to Ombuds staff, and then given thoughts on the other side of the disagreement. The Office may contact the person on the other side of the conflict, but only with permission of the person who contacted the office initially. The second party is not required to participate. Problems involving sexual harassment are not reported to University authorities unless permission is given. However, in cases involving life-threatening problems such as suicide or physical harm, other offices are contacted for intervention.

A question was raised regarding what to do when a faculty member asks a staff member to perform an inappropriate or illegal activity. Sebok responded that people need to have skills to anticipate such problems. It should be acknowledged verbally that the other person might not like the answer, and that they may not be aware of the fact, but, "What you are asking me to do is against policy." or "What you are asking is against the law," etc. Reinforcement from another party is often a good solution. Unfortunately, there are consequences for classified staff members who disregard the rules, but it is less likely for faculty to be reprimanded. If necessary, staff member may contact members of the Dean's office. Staff members may then be referred to the Associate Dean for the appropriate division.

Martha Shernick of Mathematics presented packets of information that she gives to her new faculty, including a checklist of department staff people to contact and why, how to get set up on payroll, and short explanations of how the office is set up, how to access things such as copiers, keys, etc. She is willing to send the documents to others who would like to set up such a document for their departments and who don't want to start from scratch. Martha's e-mail address is Martha.Shernick@Colorado.EDU. This type of document saves staff members much time in answering questions, and saves faculty members much confusion in attempting to find answers to their standard questions. Many thanks to Martha for sharing this document.

Catherine Larkins of Applied Mathematics asked about giving new lecturers a similar set of information to what Martha has prepared. Lecturers do not go through a formal orientation session with either Faculty Affairs or with the College, but they do need to be given information on preparation of syllabi, grading policies, sexual harassment training, etc. If anyone has information of this sort they would like to share with the group, feel free to send it out directly to the e-mail list assistants@lists.Colorado.EDU. You may also send it to me, and I'll send it out for you if you prefer. Similar checklists may be available for grad students too.

Arlan Norman, Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences, has taken the position of Dean of the College of Science and Technology (a brand new position!) at Western Washington University. The search has begun for a replacement, and applications will be taken until August 11.

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic, being held on Sunday, September 7, will benefit the College by raising funds for student scholarships, student research, and creative projects. Complete information is on the web site: www.buffalobicycleclassic.com. Fliers and posters are available for you to post and hand out in your offices. Please send me an e-mail if you'd like some.

Cynthia Husek gave updates on the budget. All cuts that previously were announced by the Dean have been taken. They are labeled "FY04 budget cut" or something similar on your latest budget statements. If you have questions, please contact Cindy (or Elaine Hernandez in Cindy's absence these next three weeks).

Sixty thousand dollars of cuts were taken in departments' operating budgets, based on an algorithm that looks at hard data such as student credit hours, faculty FTE, etc. Some departments will experience decreases (some large enough that the cuts will be taken over two years) and some will receive increases. A small difference ($200 or less) might be seen between the original estimate and the actual change. Operating budgets will be recalculated every year from now on, using the same or a slightly revised algorithm.

The $1000 faculty accounts, coded as "XQK," should be funded by the end of August or sometime in September. Faculty may begin spending out of them before the budget actually is moved.

At year end, budget left in faculty and staff payroll accounts is recaptured by the College. If there is a deficit in either account, it is rolled over to the operating budget. Some deficits appear to be due to departments not requesting their Leaves and Replacement (L&R) monies. In order to help correct this problem, a web-based program is being written so that correspondence regarding L&R is captured and accessible to those needing access to the information. In addition, members of the HR Center have been asked to help monitor departments' budgets during the academic year.

Because of the budget cuts and the loss of faculty lines, vacant faculty lines within the departments' budgets no longer show any dollars associated with them. However, the faculty name and FTE continues to show.

Notes by Susan Phillips