The Faculty Senate voted Monday to postpone a decision on the controversial Human Resources redesign plan, citing concerns of insufficient details and a lack of communication.
Faculty Senator Sara Goldrick-Rab was among many professors who expressed frustration with what she sees as an incomplete draft of the plan. The Office of Human Resources has said it will make changes to the plan, but has yet to specify what those changes will be.
“We don’t know what this plan is right now,” Goldrick-Rab said. “It’s like a master’s thesis that’s still in progress.”
The Faculty Senate voted 104-55 to postpone voting on the plan until its December meeting with the hope that its details will be clearer by then.
The redesign plan would create new criteria for processes such as hiring of employees and compensation. It would also allow "classified staff," which includes university clerks and office employees, to formally express their concerns to administration through a governing body similar to faculty senate.
Faculty Senator Chad Goldberg, who was the first to move for postponement, cited concerns that he said had not been sufficiently addressed, as well as worries that the plan might unintentionally harm hourly-paid classified employees.
“Our educational activities depend vitally on the contributions, well-being and morale of all of the university’s employees,” Goldberg said. “None of us built this university on our own.”
Faculty Senator Pamela Oliver, who is also a member of the Letters and Science Staff Climate Committee, said through her position on the climate committee she has spoken with staff members and found that those who would be affected most by the proposal have received insufficient information about it.
“There’s been, from the point of view of many staff, quite a low level of communication about just what’s going on,” Oliver said.
Other faculty senators who objected to postponing the plan expressed concern that the plan wouldn’t significantly change with a month-long extension and that putting off a decision could further harm staff members.
The Faculty Senate will vote on the plan Dec. 3. The plan will then pass to the Board of Regents for a vote Dec. 7 before continuing on to the State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations for final review.
CORRECTION: This article initially incorrectly stated the plan would make changes to the university's shared governance. The plan would only affect shared governance for current classified employees by renaming them university staff and creating a new governance body for them.
