The Boulder Campus Staff Council (BCSC) addressed two issues with its latest resolution, BCSC 1303. We requested that senior campus administration seek a non-base building payment this year (i.e. FY13) for classified staff. Also, in the wake of the HB12-1321 Colorado State Personnel Modernization legislation (see the fact sheet) which took effect on Sept. 1 of this year and that permits individual Colorado departments such as CU to award base-building merit raises to classified staff, we requested that senior campus administration include such raises in the budget for FY14 (i.e. the year beginning July 2013.)
BCSC 1303, the third resolution we have passed this fiscal year, is a good example of a “quick turnaround” resolution that was created and passed in only three weeks due to time constraints created by the 9/1/2012 statewide implementation of the legislation and also the November Board of Regents budget meeting. BCSC Co-chair Randi Viola took the lead on this resolution by researching House Bill 12-1321, asking the Dept. of Personnel Admin (DPA) for its feedback on the bill’s impact, obtaining feedback from other state higher education staff councils via the Statewide Liaison Council, and requesting the CU system-wide HR plan for implementation of the legislation.
Once she completed her research and related activities, Randi drafted the initial resolution. The initial draft then went to BCSC’s Payroll, Benefits, Retirement, and Legislation (PBRL) Committee Co-chairs for help with editing and clarification of what we wanted to express in the resolution. From this group of three, the resolution went to BSC’s Executive Committee (i.e. officers and committee chairs) for a second round of discussion. The Executive Committee’s comments were incorporated into the resolution, and the final step was to send it to the full Council for additional comment. Comments were once again reviewed and incorporated into the resolution, which accounted for making the final vote nearly unanimous.
The goal of resolution BCSC 1303 was to introduce Boulder Staff Council’s voice into the conversation that was happening among the State of Colorado's Department Personnel and Administration, CU-Boulder administration, and CU’s Board of Regents regarding HB 12-1321. Our resolution was given to Boulder senior administration, the Chair of the CU Board of Regents, and our counterparts in the CU system-wide Staff Council (i.e. UCSC) and the Statewide Liaison Council. Our representatives have also discussed the resolution with CU’s Vice President of Human Resources Jill Pollock, CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Administration Louise Vale, and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Relations Candice Bowen.
The resolution was emailed to all staff on Boulder Campus. In addition, our colleagues at other campuses are using the resolution as a conversation starter to determine what their course of action should be on the topic of both non-base building and base-building payments for classified staff.
Boulder Campus Staff Council representatives to various campus committees follow-up on resolutions during our regularly scheduled meetings with senior administration. For example, we followed-up on our Tuition Benefit Resolution for 18 months before last April’s implementation by the university. The implementation was not all that we wanted, but we are continuing to work with Vice President Jill Pollock on improving the benefit.
Our resolutions average between 3 and 6 months to research, write, and pass the voting process, with our committees meeting on a monthly basis. Despite our full-time job responsibilities, Staff Council members carve out a few hours per week to BCSC projects.
If you have an issue you would like BCSC to consider, email scouncil@colorado.edu or speak with one of our representatives. If you have the time, you can also work directly with BCSC on a particular issue or project; all of our committees are open to both OEP and Classified staff. You do not have to be a BCSC representative to serve on one of our committees.