REVISED Minutes of Faculty Welfare Committee & EPA Personnel Policies Committee

January 14, 2010

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was jointly chaired by Katrina DuBose (Chair of the Faculty Welfare Committee) and Marianna Walker (Chair of the Faculty).

 

Faculty Welfare Committee members present:

Katrina DuBose (Chair), Charles Boklage, Michael Hartley, Archana Hegde, Linda Ingalls, Donna Lillian, Chris Locklear, Melissa Nasea, Annette Peery, John Reisch, Susan Simpson

 

EPA Personnel Policies Committee present:

Jim Mullen (Chair), Ruth Ann Cook, Linda Ingalls, Chris Locklear, Lisa W. Sutton

 

Vice Chancellors present:

Phyllis Horns, Deirdre Mageean, Marilyn Sheerer

 

Others present:

Kristen Bonatz (Assistant University Attorney), Taffye Benson Clayton (Assoc. Provost), Lori Lee (Faculty Senate), Joseph Thomas (Faculty Advisory Group), Becky Vaughn (HR Benefits), Marianna Walker (Chair of the Faculty)

 

Faculty Chair Walker welcomed the group and introductions were made.

 

1.      Minutes of the Faculty Welfare Committee

 

The committee considered the minutes of the December 11, 2009 meeting. Melissa Nasea noted that both 2.E. and 4.B. dealt with ITCS but the actions were different. She proposed that the actions in 2.E. be made identical to those in 4.B. This was accepted by the Committee. The minutes of the December 11, 2009 meeting were then approved as amended.

 

2.       Faculty Serious Illness, Maternity and Parental Leave

 

EPA Personnel Policies Committee chair Jim Mullen gave a brief description of the Committee. It was formed in 2003 and reports to the Chancellor. The UNC General Administration and the Chancellor/Executive Committee charge it to develop benefit and leave policies for EPA faculty and non-faculty.

 

Linda Ingalls gave a brief history of the Faculty Serious Illness Leave (FSIL) policy. Around 2004 General Administration developed a FSIL policy and required that all UNC institutions without one to use that policy or develop one. These policies were required to provide at least 60 days of paid leave for those without sick leave. (The 60 days were required to qualify for short term disability leave.) The Faculty Welfare Committee (FWC), among others, worked on ECU’s policy and it went into effect in 2005.

 

In 2009 the Chancellor charged the EPA Personnel Policies Committee with revising the FSIL. A subcommittee worked on it and put it in Policies, Regulations, and Rules (PRR) format. The full committee and many others have reviewed it and many changes have been included. Since the FWC has dealt with many benefit and leave issues, the EPA Personnel Policies Committee requested its advice on the policy.

 

Almost all of the meeting discussion centered on a recent change to the first sentence of section 3.2.1.2.

 

The draft the FWC received included the sentence:

For maternity leave, the mother is eligible for leave with pay for the actual period of temporary disability as prescribed by the medical provider for uncomplicated pregnancy and/or birth.

 

Linda Ingalls read the changed sentence (with the change in red italics):

For maternity leave, the mother is eligible for leave with pay for the actual period of temporary disability up to a maximum of sixty (60) calendar days as prescribed by the medical provider for uncomplicated pregnancy and/or birth.

 

In II.(B) of the current “Policy on Serious Illness and Disability Leave for Faculty” the faculty member may request a paid leave “for up to 15 calendar weeks”.

 

ECU Benefits said doctors typically certify that a woman requires 6-8 weeks of leave for an uncomplicated pregnancy. Sixty calendar days is about 8 ˝ weeks.

 

Most ECU faculty using the policy took 15 calendar weeks of maternity leave. Some fathers took 15 weeks as well.

 

ECU SPA and faculty at campuses who accrue sick leave must take unpaid leave for any part of maternity or illness leave than is longer than their accrued sick leave.

 

ECU has the figures to show that the 2005 ECU policy is fiscally unsustainable. Most UNC campuses grant 60 calendar days of paid leave for maternity leave and none grant 15 paid weeks.

 

Much of the concern was about giving up a benefit. The 15 weeks of paid maternity leave is a recruiting benefit. A move from 15 weeks to 60 calendar days would be a retrenchment which is made even worse by the lack of childcare on the ECU campus.

 

It was reported that one faculty woman was afraid to take maternity leave because of concern about retaliation from her unit administrator. The group considered this was poor practice by the administrator.

 

By January 28, Linda Ingalls and Lisa Sutton will try to look at the past leaves and calculate whether the policy would be fiscally sustainable at 10 or 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. This policy has to be mailed to the Board of Trustees on February 4.

 

At 5:15 everyone except the FWC, Marianna Walker, and Lori Lee left the room.

 

3.      Faculty Scholarly Reassignment

 

Chris Locklear gave a short description of the Faculty Scholarly Reassignment policy. The Academic Council charged a study group to develop a policy to correspond with UNC Policy Manual 300.2.6. Donna Lillian and John Reisch of the FWC were members.

 

A question was raised about whether the salary repayment in 4.4 could be prorated if the faculty member receiving the reassignment left full-time employment at ECU after a little less than a year.

 

FWC members with comments should send them to FWC Chair DuBose.

 

4.      Conclusion

 

Faculty Chair Walker commended the Faculty Welfare Committee for its work on the Faculty Manual revision.

 

FWC Chair DuBose will send the Committee a report on the status of all Faculty Manual sections that it has been requested to review. She hoped to finish this work in February.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30.

 

Respectfully submitted by Melissa Nasea.