Classified Council President Report
Staff Health Care Committee
The Staff Health Care Committee met last week. We discussed the concerns raised by staff guests at Classified Council. Erika Van Flein, UA Director of Benefits, is working to have the UA Benefit handbook loaded onto the Premera website. The UA Benefit Handbook is the governing document for our health plan, and should be the resource consulted as questions arise.
The SHCC also had a guest, Tim Adamczak from Alyeska Pipeline HR, come and talk to us about a patient advocacy & cost-transparency provide they utilize, “Patient Care”. He had many good things to say about the organization and the services it provided, the SHCC through Staff Alliance, will be recommending that the university consider finding a provide for similar services for the UA health plan.
System Governance Council
System Governance council met on Monday. Not much new information to report. Shared impressions on the internal listening sessions where they have occurred. There was discussion of faculty concerns with the process and the potential weakness of the data being gathered. Faculty Alliance is working toward final guidance regarding E-labs (Online Natural Science Lab sections). They are also considering working groups for possible alignment of GER’s across the three MAU’s.
Staff Alliance
Staff Alliance said farewell to Pat Ivey, and thanked her for her years of service, and tireless devotion to the University Governance process. We heard about a new proposal of the UA Employee Education benefits, but still nothing official or final has been presented to us for review. Tobacco free hire continues to be a hot topic of discussion. We still have not seen the official proposal, but continue to invite feedback and comments. We have our Spring retreat March 20th and 21st, here in Anchorage.
UAA Assembly
We heard positive feedback from the student leaders regarding their advocacy trip to Juneau. We had a good discussion regarding advocacy for the university. Faculty raised continuing concerns, trying to understand why they are perceived as ineffective advocates. Discussion emphasized the importance of advocacy to yourState senators and representatives, but difficulty of university employees advocating for the university to other legislators.