This general body meeting will be Tuesday, February 28th at 12/noon in the Nyumburu Cultural Center’s Multipurpose Room.

All are welcome to attend so please spread the word to your colleagues.

Our special guest for the first part of this meeting will be new Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden.

Non-Exempt Skilled Crafts and Non-Exempt Service & Maintenance.

If you are aware of non-exempt staff members who fall into the

Skilled Crafts category work (Dining Services or Facilities Management).

Service & Maintenance category work (Housekeeping or Transportation Services)

As you know, Senate representation is important for all staff members on campus, and we do not want these areas to lack representation.

Please let us know if you can assist with recruitment of a couple of candidates, or if you know anyone from these categories who would like to run for election.

Contact:

Chelsea Benincasa

Senior Coordinator

University Senate

301.405.8470 – phone

chelseab

For more information about the elections process, please visit: http://www.senate.umd.edu/elections/index.cfm

This is a reminder that if you are on campus in the evening (or early morning hours) and feel unsafe walking alone across campus, that the Unversity Police provide a free police escort service. This information was sent out with a Campus Crime Alert email just before the break, however, it may have been overlooked. The attached document provides details about the 24-Hour Police Escort Service as well as additional safety precautions to take when traveling by foot on our campus in the overnight or early morning hours. Please share this information with your staff who do not have access to email.

URL: http://www.umdps.umd.edu/PATROL/Resources_escorts.cfm

More Info: Police Escort Info.pdf

Eligible staff members are encouraged to apply.

21 and over

University of Maryland Extension hosts the free income tax preparation day in partnership with Center for Healthy Families, Community Action Agency Montgomery County, the IRS, and Maryland CASH on February 17 and March 2. To find more information about the VITA program and make an appointment, please visit http://www.money.umd.edu/vita.cfm

Any other questions, please contact Dr. Jinhee Kim at jinkim>

Jinhee Kim, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Department of Family Science

School of Public Health Building University of Maryland

Accept the Fit Campus Challenge

Where can I work out on Campus w/ out paying any fees?
There is no fee for faculty/staff to use SPH (School of Public Health building) facilities.
SPH 0101 Cardio Center (6 am – 10 pm)
SPH 0103 Weight Room (5:30 pm – 10 pm).
These rooms are great! They have air conditioning plus all of the latest machines plus cardio theatre. The rooms are always staffed with personal trainers.

I want awesome group fitness classes. Where do I go?
CRS Faculty / Staff, Student and Alumni  Members can attend Group Fitness Classes like Yoga Fit, Cycling, and BodyPump!  There are various classes in Cole, Ritchie, and the ERC (Eppley Recreation Center). http://www.crs.umd.edu/cms/Fitness/GroupFitness/GroupFitnessSchedules.aspx

I love to walk! Where can I go?
There are FREE lunchtime walking programs in Cole and the Armory. Walk for wellness!  http://www.crs.umd.edu/cms/Fitness/WalkforWellnessChallenge.aspx

Terrapin Triathlon
Save the date, May 6, 2012, for the next Terrapin Triathlon. With a pool swim, rolling hill bike ride and mainly flat run course, this event is great for beginners, triathletes in training and even seasoned competitors. http://www.crs.umd.edu/cms/Aquatics/TerrapinTriathlon.aspx

Interested in Wellness?

College Quit Smoking Study Volunteer for a confidential 8-week research study and receive up to $295 for participation. Treatment includes group therapy, the nicotine patch and follow-up appointments. Must be 18-21 years old and a current smoker. Call 301-405-3351 or e-mail collegesmokingstudy@yahoo.com to be screened.

Information on Eating Disorders, Love your Body, Meet a “Biggest Loser”, Nutrition Counseling, and more..http://www.wellness.umd.edu/calendar

Need help with your nutrition?

Diet Analysis (Health Center, Center for Health and Well-Being) Do you want to improve your eating habits? The Center for Health and  Wellbeing has a program where you and a dietitian can sit down in a  one-on-one setting and review your food records for the past two days.  After analyzing your results, the dietitian will give you suggestions on how to improve your diet.  Open to: Students, faculty, staff

Body Composition Testing (Health Center, Center for Health and Well-Being) During your body composition consultation, a health educator will measure the  percentages of fat, bone, and muscle in your body. The health educator  will provide you with a detailed explanation of what the numbers mean,  as well as provide recommendations and resources to help you reach your  goals. Open to: Students, faculty, and staff

Nutrition Analysis, Dining at Maryland (Dining Services)  Ever wonder how many calories, proteins, carbohydrates, and transfats you  are consuming when you eat at the dining halls? Now you can find out!  Use this nutrition analysis to improve your food choices. Open to: Students, faculty, staff

Nutrition Counseling (Health Center, Center for Health and Well-Being) Drop-in for a one-on-one session that assesses one’s nutritional status and helps  implement change to improve health though healthier eating. Open to: Students, faculty, and staff

Committee makes recommendations to better workplaces

By Maria Romas

Staff writer

Download PDF

Click here to read the full report.

After six months of investigations, a committee published its findings of alleged widespread workplace abuse across the campus and submitted several recommendations to university officials to better the situations.

The report, emailed to members of the university community on Wednesday from university Provost Ann Wylie, is a 62-page call to action describing the findings of the Human Resources Working Group, which was tasked in April with investigating claims made last semester about workers allegedly being abused, assaulted and harassed in several university departments. Wylie could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Despite such claims made over the last several months in numerous public forums hosted by the Black Faculty and Staff Association, committee members concluded no evidence has been found of widespread toxic workplaces — although they did point to two systematic concerns they said clearly contribute to workers’ dissatisfaction.

In Facilities Management, officials noted the department’s existing Fair Treatment Guidelines — used to discipline employees — are “unnecessary and dysfunctional.” Additionally, the committee noted the training of supervisors and managers is inconsistent and needs more structure.

Members of the BFSA, however, said the report is too narrow and does not adequately address the problems dozens of university staff members have voiced.

The report was drafted by University Human Resources Director Dale Anderson, University System of Maryland Assistant Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance JoAnn Goedert and Phillip Ross, an associate vice president at Towson University. While compiling their findings, Anderson reportedly investigated the claims that workers feared retribution for complaining about supervisors’ abuse. According to the report, he did not find any facts supporting these claims but did acknowledge the perception of retribution is alive and well in many departments.

“One of the things that seemed to be happening was when employees would express concern about a particular situation or supervisor, there would be an inquiry made, sometimes actions taken by the institution, but nothing was ever communicated back to employees,” Goedert said. “The supervisors can’t go back and say what happened because of personal confidentiality. They need better communication that will say that the matter was looked into and resolved, which will be very much part of supervisor training.”

The report outlined nine different steps the administration should take to improve the working environments in Facilities Management and Residential Facilities.

To better train management officials in respecting employees and ensuring a healthy workplace, the report recommended mandating “Pillars (Building Great Supervisors)” training for all upper-level employees. It also recommended providing more English as a Second Language courses for employees, hiring a facilitator for non-English speaking workers and offering training courses in computer skills for all employees.

The report suggested creating a better grievance-reporting system for employees, forcing officials to have greater accountability for those issues and emphasizing new position openings to all possible applicants in the departments. Additionally, it recommended modifying or eliminating the existing Facilities Management Treatment Guidelines — which committee members said are too inflexible — and implementing a new Labor-Management Problem Solving Committee to more effectively solve wide-scale problems.

Robert Specter, vice president of administrative affairs, has been tasked with implementing these suggestions now that the administration has formally accepted them. Human Resources and Facilities Management will work through the recommendations and develop an implementation plan and timetable, according to university spokesman Millree Williams.

“Many of the issues that have been raised … were being addressed long before the allegations were made public,” Williams wrote in an email. “In the short term, the HR Working Group has identified a path to help us address the immediate staff concerns. In the long run, however, this process has also given us the opportunity to address the issues raised by a few and proactively map out a strategy that will ultimately benefit us all.”

University officials said the administration will internally fund the steps to ensure they’re successful. To fund the management training program, ESOL classes and computer training, the report calls for permanent funding from Specter. Additionally, it designates one-time funding from the campus Finance Committee over the next two years to support the training. It does not include how much these will cost. Each department participating in the training must pay $100 for every participant.

Williams wrote that implementation of the recommendations has already begun, noting that Human Resources has started working on the computer skills program. In addition, the fall sessions of ESOL will launch next week and last until Dec. 22. The rest of the recommendations will require more time and preparation, he said.

“We listened and for the most part heard unanimous feedback as to what significant issues were,” he wrote. “We reviewed and responded on the basis of the issues that were raised by staff within those organizations, as well as some of the forums by BFSA.”

Although some of its recommendations are already being put into place, some BFSA members said it is not specific enough to help individual staff members.

“It’s irrelevant whether [the abuse is] widespread or not,” said BFSA Vice President Brandon Dula. “If you have one employee coming forward with one issue and they have been afraid to come forward, you know it’s an issue.”

Others said the report will do little to yield long-lasting results on the campus.

“I have no confidence that the administration is going to follow through with what they say,” said Mike Fekula, former program management specialist in the languages, literatures and cultures school. “Wylie does a good job describing the problem and not so good of a job describing the solution.”

romas at umdbk dot com

September 21, 2011

Dear Campus Community:

Between February 9, 2011 and March 15, 2011, the University received three anonymous letters questioning a variety of personnel related matters in Facilities Management. The letters made specific allegations about particular managers, supervisors and events in separate departments. They raised common themes of alleged unfair treatment, disrespect, and inequity in the application of employment rules and processes. There were also concerns about how employee complaints in the Division were managed and how grievances in the Department of Residential Facilities were administered. Additional feedback was received from a variety of sources, including the Black Faculty and Staff Association’s forums and “Workers Rights Report,” and a letter describing nonexempt employee concerns prepared by the Staff Affairs Committee of the University Senate.

A Human Resources Working Group was commissioned by Provost Ann Wylie to conduct a confidential and thorough review of these matters. The HR Working Group completed its report and made nine recommendations on September 12, 2011. Dr. Wylie accepted the report and shared it with President Wallace D. Loh and the Vice Presidents. President Loh met with the Vice Presidents and sought their judgment on the recommendations. You may find the full report at http://www.uhr.umd.edu .

The President and Vice Presidents unanimously agree that it is essential to have a safe and respectful work and learning environment for all faculty, staff, and students. They also agree that implementation of the recommendations in the report will be important steps in addressing this priority. There follows a summary of each of the nine recommendations and the action to be taken by the University.

Recommendation 1. It is recommended that systemic training be provided to supervisors and managers in communication and interaction with staff.
ACTION: Accept the recommendation of systemic training of supervisors and managers. Begin with piloting the “Pillars” program, a comprehensive supervisory training program, as mandatory for all nonexempt and exempt staff supervisors and managers in Facilities Management and Residential Facilities. Evaluate success of “Pillars,” and revise if necessary, before phasing in training across the campus.

Recommendation 2. It is recommended that work-related English as a Second Language (ESL) Program be expanded.
ACTION: Accept the recommendation to expand the work-related ESL program. University Human Resources (UHR) should dedicate resources to expand the program for campus staff and identify barriers that need to be eliminated in order to expand utilization.

Recommendation 3. It is recommended that a facilitator be hired for non-English speakers in Facilities Management.
ACTION: Accept the recommendation to identify a facilitator in FM and expand it to include identifying a facilitator for non-English speakers in Residential Facilities (RF) as well. Because staff speak a diversity of languages, these facilitators are not to be seen as translators. They will facilitate access to necessary support for non-English speakers.

Recommendation 4. It is recommended that access to promotional opportunities for Facilities Management staff be enhanced. ACTION: Accept the recommendation with the caveat that this will not be a required PRD performance objective. The Vice President for Administrative Affairs should consider whether or not to make it a requirement.

Recommendation 5. It is recommended that the Facilities Management Fair Treatment Guidelines be modified or eliminated. ACTION: Accepted. The University will negotiate this, as required, through collective bargaining.

Recommendation 6. It is recommended that there be a training course to build computer skills for employees who do not use computers in their daily work.
ACTION: Accepted. Refer to UHR to study, in concert with FM and RF, how such a course should be implemented. Computer literacy is an important basic skill and does affect the way in which staff are able to access the breadth of information and opportunity available at the University.

Recommendation 7. It is recommended that different persons represent the Department of Residential Facilities in some grievance hearings to eliminate any appearance of conflict of interest. ACTION: Accepted.

Recommendation 8. It is recommended that a Labor-Management Problem Solving Committee, established under collective bargaining, be used more effectively to resolve broad labor issues. ACTION: Accepted.

Recommendation 9. It is recommended that the Facilities Management Division’s internal personnel office be restructured. ACTION: Accept the recommendation to restructure FM HR. Refer to Rob Specter, new Vice President for Administrative Affairs, to review the current structure and determine what changes are necessary to achieve success and create positive culture change.

The President and Vice Presidents also unanimously agree that maintaining a working and learning environment where students, staff and faculty are free from intimidation, fear, coercion and reprisal is critical to the vitality of the institution. Sexual harassment and sexual assault threaten these legitimate expectations of the Campus community.

Sexual harassment can and must be reported to either the Campus Compliance Officer (x52839) or the President’s Legal Office (x54945). Sexual assault can also be reported to the University Police (x53555).

Complaints will be fully investigated. Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken in the past, and will continue to be taken in the future, in cases where the allegations have been reported and substantiated. Retaliation against those who bring issues forward will not be tolerated.

In accepting the recommendations of the HR Working Group, we are confident that the University is taking significant steps towards assuring a more positive workplace.

Most sincerely,

Ann G. Wylie
Senior Vice President and Provost

Robert M. Specter
Vice President for Administrative Affairs and Chief Financial Officer

********************

This note was authorized for distribution to
University of Maryland Staff by: Office of the Provost