Be represented.

Letter from our Chairs

Eryn Van Poole — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 16:37:09 +0000

Letter from our Chairs Eryn Van Poole Tue, 10/08/2024 - 10:37

Hello Campus Staff,

Happy Fall, and although it sounds odd to say almost a month into the semester, happy start to the academic year!

Although the Fall season and the academic year have just started, Staff Council has been hard at work since our new cycle began in July. Since July, we��ve established our officers for the year and are working on establishing our committee chairs, goals, and budgets. We��ve also had multiple meetings with campus leaders, including our first Shared Governance meeting with Chancellor Schwartz and the other shared governance groups on campus: CU Student Government, Graduate and Professional Student Government, and the Boulder Faculty Assembly.

There��s quite a lot of change happening across campus. We acknowledge that change can be difficult, especially when multiple changes occur simultaneously. We want you to know that Staff Council and Staff Council leadership are working hard and that our mission and vision remain steady. Additionally, campus leadership continues encouraging and supporting our work as a shared governance body.

Staff Council has been working hard to determine our focus (foci) for the year. During our retreat in August, we identified some high-level themes that staff have voiced concerns about; from there, we��ve worked to narrow those high-level themes down to some more specific areas and have determined some actions that our Staff Council can take to start addressing some of these concerns. The three major themes and potential areas of action are as follows:

Increased transparency around compensation.
- Understanding the processes for pay, promotion, and hiring across the campus in an attempt to help staff better understand the landscape and help the campus move toward more consistency of processes.
Understanding staff needs and wants related to benefits and perks.
- Reviewing current benefits and perks offered, determining which benefits and perks staff want and use, identifying barriers to staff wanting to utilize the various benefits and perks already available.
Continued focus on employee wellness, especially regarding work fatigue and burnout.
- Creating better understanding of work modality requirements, expectations, and needs in service of creating a more equitable approach to work modality.

Finally, the Chairs have been participating in various campus committees to ensure staff voices are heard and considered when plans and decisions are being made. The chairs are currently serving on committees focused on sustainability, DEI, and civic engagement. If you��d like more information about the work being done in these committees, please contact us.

As always, we appreciate the work you do and the voices you bring to ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ. If you��d like to share questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,
Crystal,?Jessica, and Mike

Happy Fall, and although it sounds odd to say almost a month into the semester, happy start to the academic year!

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Staff Council year-end accomplishments

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2024 21:08:16 +0000

Staff Council year-end accomplishments Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/14/2024 - 15:08

Select a preferred language to read this letter

Espa?ol - Spanish
?????? - Nepali
????? - Hindi
�й�� - Chinese

Staff Council year-end accomplishments broken out by committee - learn what we have been doing all year!

Committee for Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

?Improving/Finalizing Mission and Vision Statements
Researching two projects for next year
1. A Screening of This is Not Who We Are
2. A Free Little Library for Campus
Voting on new acronyms/branding of committee for next year
1. BEAM Committee (Belonging, Equity, Accessibility, Mattering)
2. EMBRACE Committee (Equity, Mattering, Belonging, Representation, Accessibility, Community, Empowerment)

Awards and Staff Recognition Committee

Honored a total of 789 ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ staff members for their years of service: 366 for five years; 185 for ten years; 85 for fifteen years who received a $25.00 gift card; 51 for twenty years who received a $50.00 gift card; 54 for twenty-five years who received a $75.00 gift card; 28 for thirty years who received a $100.00 gift card; and 7 for thirty-five years who received a $150.00 gift card.
Will host the end-of-the-year recognition ceremony for current Staff Council representatives and welcome new members at the Boulderado in June. Current representatives will receive a can glass and a lighted message board for their desks The Staff Council Tri-Chairs will receive a well-deserved plaque.
Honored two of the four Chancellor��s Employees of the Year at the women��s basketball game on February 29th. All four honorees received a gift bag with Staff Council and Athletics swag plus a throw purchased from the CU Bookstore.
Displayed a powerpoint of staff members receiving a Years of Service award at the Staff Council Staff Appreciation Breakfast on December 14th.
Shared the Years of Service recipients and Chancellor's Employee of the Year winners on the ASR website for further recognition.

Blood Drive & Community Service Committee

Hosted 4 blood drives on campus (September, November, February, April)?.
1. Collected 1,719 donations in 2023, the largest amount out of all Vitalant Blood Drives.
2. Partnered with Athletics for donor giveaways, including tickets to football, basketball, and lacrosse games, and Coach PRIME sweatshirts.
3. Partnered with Meals on Wheels Boulder to create Valentine��s Day Cards?.
Working on proposal to host a 5K on campus.

Communications Committee

Partnered with 20+ campus organizations to send out three newsletters during the academic year to over 6,000 Staff & Research faculty. ?
1. Translated at least four articles every newsletter to Spanish, Chinese, Nepali, and Hindi?.
2. Introduced new ��Buff on a Budget�� section to help highlight different perks?.
3. Received 613 individual responses from four newsletter surveys relating to Wellness Barriers, Why Stay/What to Change at CU, Prescription Challenges, and Staff Council Priorities/Future Goals?.

Managed Website Migration project as Web Express moving to a new platform this fall.

Elections Committee

Partnered with Parliamentarian to successfully add Research Associates and Professional Research Assistants to Staff Council (previously did not have representation under Shared Governance on Campus �C 2,500 people). ?
Successfully held elections for the 2024 - 2025 Council. A total of 925 staff members participated in the elections?�Cresults listed in above article.
1. Prepared information sessions on Staff Council. Hosted one in-person session and one virtual session. ?
2. Created one elected Professional Research Assistant position and one elected Research Associate Representative position to join Staff Council. ?
3. Officially have one of our five Front Line Staff appointed representatives filled!?
4. Translated ballot into four languages: Spanish, Chinese, Nepali, and Hindi?.
Partnered with Front Line Staff Committee to have in-person election polling stations at their round table discussion in March. ?

Front Line Staff Special Committee

Successfully hosted three Front Line Staff roundtable discussions across campus with more than 200 employees in attendance. Four employees interpreted the discussion in Spanish, Chinese, Thai, and Nepali and were paid for their interpretation work.
Provided a space where Front Line Staff members were welcomed and encouraged to share any praises or concerns they have and gathered important information about how Staff Council can best support them. The committee is currently working to synthesize the feedback and hope to bring it to campus leadership.
Started discussions to become a permanent committee.
Worked directly with Front Line Staff members to utilize their skills for interpretation needs and provided more platforms for staff to communicate in ways that overcome language barriers.

Outreach & Events Committee

Partnered with Volunteer Resource Center to coordinate water for their summer Mobile Food Pantries.
Hosted Ice Cream Social with ten departments and from campus. ?
1. Donated extra ice cream to Buff Pantry. ?
Hosted annual Staff Appreciation Breakfast on December 14, 2023, and served over 1,000 CU employees.?
1. Partnered with Awards, Service and Recognition (ASR) Committee to recognize years of service for employees at breakfast.?
2. Collected food and coat donations for local charities?.
Planned year-end movie night with an inflatable screen for staff and their families.
1. May 22nd @ 7 - 10 pm.

Payroll, Benefits, Retirement and Legislative Committee

Raised awareness with HR about issues related to the uneven process for performance management across campus, highlighted the inequities that arise when performance ratings are connected to pay raises when the system is not standardized. HR shared concerns and committed to continuing to work on improvements to this process for staff. ?
Continued research on staff sabbaticals as a retention tool for staff who have been in their role for 7 years. ?
Continued discussions regarding a four day work week, progress being made towards this model at other universities, and feasibility for ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ?.
Partnered with ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ MyLeave Replacement Initiative to discuss payroll in arrears as they moved into Phase II, business decisions, of this initiative. ?
Discussed affordable housing regarding recent land purchases by Regents.?
Began preliminary work on a proposal to support remote work for staff who can work in that modality during fall and spring breaks

Staff Council year-end accomplishments broken out by committee - learn what we have been doing all year!

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Staff Council recognitions

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2024 20:46:35 +0000

Staff Council recognitions Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/14/2024 - 14:46

Boulder Campus Staff Council recognizes all staff members who reached a career milestone in the 2023 - 2024 academic year. You are an integral part of the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ campus, and we sincerely thank you for your service and dedication. Read more about the staff career milestones.

We'd also like to recognize the four awardees of the Chancellor's 2023 Employee of the Year award: Charles Eagan, Deb Renshaw, Rojana Savoye, and Hannah Wilks. This year's winners represent incredible dedication to the students, faculty, and staff of the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ campus. Read more about the winners.

Boulder Campus Staff Council recognizes all staff members who reached a career milestone in the 2023 - 2024 academic year.

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Letter from our Chairs

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2024 20:06:58 +0000

Letter from our Chairs Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/14/2024 - 14:06

Select a preferred language to read this letter

Espa?ol - Spanish
?????? - Nepali
????? - Hindi
�й�� - Chinese

Happy summer to all!

We have a jam packed newsletter to share with you all this month and look forward to you reading about all that is happening across Staff Council and the campus.

In every newsletter, we ask a survey question. Many of you take the time to respond and submit feedback and we truly thank you for that. The feedback we receive from many of the surveys has a direct impact on the work we do and provides crucial input we then use when talking with leadership, setting our meeting agendas and planning our year. A wonderful example of this is reflected in the pharmacy plan changes to CVS that were put in place last July. Staff Council asked for your input on this change and if it was impacting you and if so, how. As Staff Council met with campus leaders about the change, we were able to reference the direct feedback you all provided. We are proud to share that because of this feedback and input we were able to impact change and additional options for prescription services are now available at Costco and King Soopers. We asked what you would like to see Staff Council work on �C and more appreciation events and staff gatherings were at the top of the list. We are excited to share that on Wednesday, May 22nd Staff Council will be hosting the first CU Family Movie Night. The event will be held on Sewall Field and will be free and open to all. You can read more details in the newsletter but hope you and your family can join us for some popcorn as we take in Disney��s Encanto.

Lastly, Staff Council elections have taken place and we are excited to welcome all our new and returning representatives to service. Additionally, we share our congratulations to our newly elected officers �C we have full confidence in their leadership and are excited to see where Staff Council goes next year. As we welcome new members to Staff Council, it inevitably means we must say farewell to others, we would like to thank the following council members who are departing Staff Council at the end of their term in June. Your contributions have been appreciated:

Congratulations to the class of 2024! And to all those who are celebrating graduates this year. Please continue to provide your input and feedback to Staff Council. We are grateful for the opportunity to represent you, and we wish you all a wonderful summer.

Best Regards,

Esther

Karrie

Mike

We have a jam packed newsletter to share with you all this month and look forward to you reading about all that is happening across Staff Council and the campus.

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Vote for your Staff Council Representatives - Voting ends March 22nd

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:21:29 +0000

Vote for your Staff Council Representatives - Voting ends March 22nd Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/11/2024 - 15:21

All Classified & University Staff and newly added to Staff Council Professional Research Assistants and Research Associates at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ have received a unique voting link
in your Colorado.edu email address on Tuesday, March 5th*

Voting ends Friday, March 22nd

*If you cannot find the email link in your inbox on March 5th,
email staffcouncil@colorado.edu and we will resend it.

Who are we?

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ��s Staff Council is a team of elected and appointed members from across the campus.
WE ARE YOUR VOICE.
We represent the interests of our campus�� staff by advocating on a variety of issues,
including but not limited to Benefits, Compensation, Equity and Diversity.
We also host a number of events and professional development opportunities specifically for staff.

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Letter from your Staff Council Chairs - February 2024

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 22:23:33 +0000

Letter from your Staff Council Chairs - February 2024 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/30/2024 - 15:23

Select a preferred language to read this letter

Espa?ol - Spanish
?????? - Nepali
????? - Hindi
�й�� - Chinese

Hello Campus Community,

Happy New Year! Staff Council is happy to welcome all to the start of the 2024 Spring semester.

It was wonderful to see so many of you in person at the Staff Appreciation Breakfast in December. What a lovely way to wrap up the Fall Semester! As in previous years, the event was well attended, and campus leadership did an outstanding job volunteering in their serving roles. This event is continually one of Staff Council��s most successful offerings, and it is a highlight of our year. We look forward to hosting other gatherings in the coming year and to continue celebrating ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ staff. The breakfast is a great way to participate, and we encourage you to explore the many ways to engage with Staff Council throughout the year by checking our event calendar and perhaps serving on Staff Council. We will be holding elections in March, so we invite you to run for a position.

As we start this new semester, we want to share that we are committed to continuing our work in the following areas:

Employee benefits
Providing input into the Chancellor search process via our Staff Council Representative who is serving the search committee
Promoting transparency in communications
Gathering more information about ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ staff needs
Continuing to work with campus leadership to make ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ more inclusive, welcoming and a competitive workplace

Additionally, we are looking forward to welcoming Professional Research Assistants (PRAs and Sr. PRAs) and Research Associates (RAs and Sr. RAs) to Staff Council. We are excited about this new partnership, which has been in process for over a year. We are eager to help support this population and have them in Staff Council representative positions.

As we welcome you to the new year, we also want to stress the importance of self-care. The international and political climates in the world and at home are a heavy burden for many, so please prioritize your wellbeing. We encourage all staff to explore the resources provided at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ. Employees can access the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program for counseling and workshops offered by FSAP therapists and their work partners.

As always, we want to hear from you about what is important to you, what you would like Staff Council to look into, and how we can better support staff at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ. Please do not hesitate to contact your representatives with questions, concerns, comments, and ideas.

We are grateful for the opportunity to represent you, and we wish you all a great start to the semester.

Best Regards,
Esther Horowitz, Staff Counselor, FSAP
Karrie Pitzer, Sr. Executive Aide, Strategic Relations & Communications
Mike Williamson, Assistant Director, Digital Accessibility Office

Happy New Year! Staff Council is happy to welcome all to the start of the 2024 Spring semester.

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Nominations Now Open for Staff Council

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 22:17:43 +0000

Nominations Now Open for Staff Council Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/30/2024 - 15:17

Select a preferred language to read this letter

Espa?ol - Spanish
?????? - Nepali
????? - Hindi
�й�� - Chinese

We are accepting nominations for 2024 - 2025 Staff Council through February 20th and are excited to invite you to join us for an information session to learn about what we do, what to expect as a representative, and what the election process looks like. We will also be sharing more information about a new opportunity for front-line staff representation on Staff Council.

Benefits of serving on Staff Council include:

Professional development
Networking with staff and administration from all over the University
Opportunities to make a real impact on the lives of over 4,000 staff
Gaining a better understanding of University functions, benefits, and organization

Join us for a brief presentation followed by a Q&A where we will answer your questions about ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ Staff Council! You are also invited to join our February 14th Full Council meeting to see us in action. Staff Council meetings and committee meetings are open to the public and are currently held virtually. You can find more information, including how to attend, on the Staff Council Calendar.

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including those with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation, or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Eryn Van Poole via email, eryn.vanpoole@colorado.edu.

We are accepting nominations for 2024 - 2025 Staff Council through February 20th

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Interested in Serving on Staff Council for 2024? Join us for a Staff Council Information Session to learn more!

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 21:05:11 +0000

Interested in Serving on Staff Council for 2024? Join us for a Staff Council Information Session to learn more! Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/19/2024 - 14:05

We will have one more session during the nomination period so you can find out more information about Staff Council and see if you��d like to join us next year. You can find more details about our information sessions on the Staff Council Event Page.

Virtual Option:

Wednesday, February 7, 2024; 12:30 p.m. �C 1:15 p.m. on Zoom
- Zoom Link: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/92274352439

Are you ready to make a real difference on campus? Come learn about what it means to be a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ Staff Council Representative!

We will have one more session to find out more information about Staff Council.

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Boulder Campus Chancellor Search Committee

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 22:05:55 +0000

Boulder Campus Chancellor Search Committee Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/16/2023 - 16:05

On behalf of the President's office, Staff Council has been tasked with submitting a list of interested staff members who wish to be considered for a role on the search committee for the next Chancellor of ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ. As such, Staff Council is conducting an open call for all interested staff to apply for consideration to serve on the committee. Names and application materials will be submitted to the President's office on October 23rd, and the President��s office will make the final selection of staff representatives. Staff Council's goal is to present a diverse pool of applicants which represents the diversity of work, experiences and identities across our over 7,000 staff. Please follow this link to submit an application: Chancellor Search Committee Staff Applications

Applications must be submitted by 5:00 pm MT on October 18th. Please reach out to Staff Council with any questions at staffcouncil@colorado.edu.

Additionally, please find the resolution passed in Executive Committee requesting increased staff representation on the search committee. This resolution has been submitted to our colleagues at UCSC and they have informed us that they have sent it along to the President��s Office with their endorsement.

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��What��s Up Boulder?�� - City of Boulder invites all to an afternoon of free food, fun and discussions Sept. 10

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 17:28:43 +0000

��What��s Up Boulder?�� - City of Boulder invites all to an afternoon of free food, fun and discussions Sept. 10 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/16/2023 - 11:28

Details

When: September 10th
Time: 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Where: Foothills Community Park, 800 Cherry Ave, Boulder, CO 80304

The City of Boulder is excited to invite all community members and their families to ��What��s Up Boulder?��, taking place Sunday, September 10th. This event brings together all city departments to engage in dialogue with you about a variety of plans and projects. We��ll have free dessert, entertainment, family-friendly activities, and opportunities to chat with Council members.

Even if you are not a Boulder resident, CU employees are encouraged to attend as the decisions made by the City of Boulder may impact the work you do at CU!

Bring your outdoor blanket and chairs to enjoy a free, fun afternoon with us. For more information, visit the What��s Up Boulder? website.

Join the City of Boulder Sunday, September 10th for an afternoon of fun and conversations

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