May 2021 Meeting

UAF Staff Council passed two memos at the May meeting. The first memo is to Interim President Pitney about the University of Alaska Human Resources. The second memo is a Letter of Disappointment to the UA BOR, Interim President Pitney, and Chancellor White. The letter of disappointment is a follow-up on the Call to Action memo sent to UA and UAF leadership in June 2020 that was co-signed by 120 UAF staff. 

Ronnie Houchin was elected as UAF Staff Council President and Juella Sparks was elected as UAF Staff Council Vice President for FY22. Congratulations to our new Staff Council officers! 

Interim Vice Chancellor Stern attended the May Staff Council meeting to address the Rural Affairs Committee memo.VC Stern shared that the cell phone and internet access issue has largely been resolved due to most rural staff now being back to work in-person. The vaccine rollout happened a lot sooner at our rural sites due to our relationship with Indian Health Services, so our tribal health consortium was able to get early distribution of the vaccine to rural communities. The State of Alaska is expecting to get about $1 Billion in American rescue plan funds that were directed to our state. About $315 Million are slated for investments in infrastructure, which includes broadband. Governor Dunleavey also just formed a task force on rural broadband issues and there's going to be opportunity for educators and education type entities to be part of that task force.  UA is looking at opportunities to nominate an individual or two from the UA System to be part of that, especially in regards to our rural campuses. There also has been some media attention on Starlink and their plans to deliver broadband to households and businesses. Their projected cost is $99 a month, plus $549 in equipment and shipping as a kind of seed money to get that infrasturucture in your houshold or business. However, their best case scenario for Alaska launching is 2022. Another point made in the memo was about sending out PDFs of federal forms out to students. VC Stern shared that she has talked at length with advisors, especially at Rural Student Services, and one of the issues with that that is the complexity of the FAFSA forms. Many of the forms are now electronic, and that's the process our advisors use when they work with students. In regards to the issue brought up in the memo about bookstore labels - the bookstore no longer uses the system of FedEx that was referenced. They changed from FedEx to UPS. They no longer send out return labels, instead they have extended grace periods for return rentals so that students can actually use any mail source. VC Stern shared that in response to course material availability, she wasn't sure how to institutionalize that. Some departments that have mostly distance students use Google Drive for some of their classes. For the last concern brought up in the memo, VC Stern shared that she would be happy to put something together to broaden faculty awareness across UAF about the unique challenges that rural students face. VC Stern can also look into working with the Provost to see if it would be appropriate to incorporate this in some of her communications. 

VC Stern gave an update on the Alaska Native Sucess Initiative. VC Stern is chair of the UAF committee. They have been working on two things this semester. One is reviewing some of the baseline data of indicators of Alaska Native success, specifically what are our rates of Alaska Native/American Indian faculty, staff, and students. The other component is trying to identify what are the five year markers that we can be moving towards. The Alaska Native Studies Council has been pushing towards greater equity and parity with our rates of Alaska Native/American Indian faculty and staff with the demographic of Alaska . In general, Alaska Natives make up about 20% of the larger Alaskan population. Looking at our student body it's about 20% Alaska Native/American Indian. The question is, why, then, do we only have about 5% of our faculty at UAF being Alaska Native/American Indian? Looking at the staff numbers, about 10% of our staff are Alaska Native/American Indian. The committee is going to present to the BOR and give an update of where they are at. VC Stern  shared that she expects that in the fall they will actually have more of a strategic plan in place with some measures to help them move forward in that direction. VC Stern then gave an update that her unit is undergoing a strategic planning process. One of the things that they are trying to figure out is what the shared vision between CTC and CRCD is. What are our commonalities even though we are very different colleges? The other piece of the strategic plan is looking at organizational structure within CRCD, especially, and whether that is working, or if there are changes that need to be made. They are also looking at academic programs. 

The Staff Alliance Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Goveernance has drafted a charter and drafted a message for the June BOR meeting. 

Thank you to everyone who helped with the 2021 Staff Recognition and Development Day! Special thanks to the following:

Derek Bastille and Andrew Aquino, co-chairs

Committee members: Mathew Mund, Kari Mellmer, Karen Doherty, Michael Willis, and Meryem Udden

Volunteers: Raina Collins, Jeannie Phillips, Tori Tragis, Carla Browning, Ronnie Houchin, Dan White, Anupma Prakash, Julie Queen, Charlene Stern, Brian Barnes, and Nickole Conley