Staff Council looks for early jump on policy reviews

In its first meeting of the new academic year, the University of Colorado Staff Council solidified membership for two committees that will focus on university policies and council engagement. Those committee members then discussed goals for the year.

The policy committee will track and research university policies that have an impact on staff members and are up for review.

Staff Council’s intent is to offer input about any policy changes at an earlier point in the process. Council members said there have been times in the past when policy reviews were so far along in the process when the council was asked for input that there was no time to effectively advocate for or against the changes.

Deserae Frisk, staff council chair, told members that she had met with Faculty Council Chair Laura Borgelt and the two discussed working together on some of the upcoming policy reviews. The policies that staff council plans to review include those related to parental leave, sexual harassment, conflict of interest and tuition benefits.

“We don’t want to be rubber stamping the policies,” Frisk said. “As long as we do our due diligence, I’ll ask the regents to hold up any policy decision if we haven’t been given enough opportunity to review it.”

The engagement committee discussed drafting a monthly newsletter to deliver updates to constituents and drive readers to the council’s Web page. The first issue is planned for early October.

Council members also voted to install Ida Dilwood as treasurer of the council. Other council officers are Tricia Strating, vice chair, and Nancy Sicalides-Tucker, secretary.