July 1, 2011

President Hogan Meeting with APAC: Discussion Post

You can read the update from the meeting with President Hogan in the September issue of APAC News, here. Or you can scroll down to see the questions and concerns submitted by campus APs.

Update - 8/26.  The meeting with President Hogan has been rescheduled to September 26th.

Update - 8/11. The meeting with President Hogan has been postponed due to conflicts related to the announcement of UIUC's new Chancellor.  We are in the process of rescheduling and the meeting will likely occur in October.  We will still plan to include the comments, below, in our meeting.

APAC WILL be meeting with President Hogan on August 11th along with AP representatives from Urbana and Springfield.  This post is an opportunity for AP readers to provide feedback on what we should discuss.

THE FOLLOWING items are on the agenda:

•             Budget Outlook and Raises
•             AP/Civil Service Conversion and Hiring Exemption Authority
•             State Employment and Benefits Issues: Pensions/Health Care/ Etc.
•             Recruitment and Retention of APs
•             ARR and the Human Capital Strategy for APs
•             5 and 10 Year Goals for UI

DO YOU have any input or feedback on any of these items?  Which is the most important to you?  Which is the least important to you?  Is there anything missing from this agenda that you would like us to discuss?  Please let us know.

Leave your feedback by posting a "comment" below.  If you chose, your response can be anonymous.

35 comments:

  1. President's plan in regards to a single university system or the retention of three individual campuses?

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  2. Will all Academic Professional positions be converted to civil service status and when? Why can't AP have job security especially if they have worked five to ten consecutive years with excellence service to the university?

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  3. I think switching some of the Academic Professionals over to Civil Service is going to hurt the University in the long run. Civil Service employees only do what their job description is, and do the bare minimum. Also, their is no job security since a Civil Service employee can get bumped out of their position at any time, leaving highly qualified and desirable employees to look else where..

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  4. Everyone should get merit based raises and the pension plan should stay the same. There needs to better insurance rates for those of us who are in Wisconsin and none of the health plans cover the doctors in that area without having to pay the Quality health care plan and pay a fortune each month for insurance. How about seeing about paying claims within 90 days and not 290 days.

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  5. Autonomy, identity, and branding of UIC

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  6. I'd like the issue of "visiting" status to be discussed. I've been "visiting" for 4 years now due to hiring freezes and because a full search would need to be done. I feel this is unfair because I am not eligible for salary increases (when we do get them) and the search process seems like a waste of resources since I am already in the position.

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  7. There is no way that a civil service person could be bumped into my position and be able to perform the service level that I do. We have taken our furloughs, no raises, and the civil service people have received their raises irrespective of the quality of work they do. Why should universities be pressured by political objectives? Dean Fish wanted to showcase UIC as a premier academic institution -- Chicago is the only major city that does not have a premier public institution of higher learning. We need vision and reach to bring the best education possible to the hard-working families of Chicago.

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  8. If AP staff converts to civil service, would he/she lose seniority? I believe that employees who are already vested should be grandfathered under the present SURS plan and further changes should not affect us. Majority, if not all, of us work hard and stayed loyal to the University and Medical center. I have 2 years of outstanding evaluation and my dept. is going back and forth about giving me a merit increase.

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  9. AP/Civil Service Conversion and Hiring Exemption Authority - The impact the conversion will have on college budgets especially with the recent 3% increase that basically came from the units.

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  10. Thanks for coordinating this. Budget outlook and raises and AP/Civil service conversions are my top topics to hear about.

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  11. In addition to the overall topic of AP conversion, please include the issue of research staff and the need to exempt them from the conversion. Many are internationals; many require very specific skills; bumping of research staff will be a nightmare due to the type of research they were initially hired to do etc.

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  12. Skip Garcia's "hiring bonus" of $100K+ per year if he stays for 3? 5? years. How does he justify a whole layer of new high-level administrators (VPs) who each are empowered to bring in their own "team" of highly paid people? Is it just so that he can posture that his decisions are unanimously backed by these people, who are essentially nothing but paid shills for him?

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  13. What scares me is some of the practices that are mentioned in these comments that fly in the face of university policy, such as visiting not being eligible for raises. This should be for another time, but it wouldn't hurt to have something (town hall) where actual policy (rules and regulations) are reviewed. Another is the misinterpreation by many units across campus of the FLSA exempt employee policy for occasional time off under 4 hrs not being charged to vacation or sick leave ad there's more..........

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  14. Civil Service Switch. If they switch my position to civil service, I'm out of here. Plain and simple. I think a lot of us will be. I could get paid a lot more in private industry. I'm here because of the flexibility and my ideals, not the great pay. My dept would not be able to find someone as skilled & dedicated as I am in the civil service pool. It's sad but true, and it's UIC's loss. I can understand the motive for the audit, but some of the switching is ludicrous. Whoever is making the decisions about the switching needs to really think through what they are doing. UIC needs SKILLED workers. Unfortunately the civil service system has proven that it cannot staff skilled workers who have the ability to problem solve.

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  15. Why can't all of a person's seniority count when APs are converted to Civil Service, and not only that of the last job? The University sure knows how long we've worked here; why can't they count all that time?

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  16. I like the 5 and 10 years plans for UIC. With all the conversions, how much is the Univrsity planning to save, will the savings come into effect this year, what other measures of cost cutting are planned for next year..any breaks for UIC employees in the near term, or is it boot strapping for at least 5 years?

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  17. Why do we have an HR office/offices that only services depts and managers, not individual employees? Even then, shouldn't this be the office that runs reports on continually renewed visiting appointments?

    Doesn't the University realize that the lack of service and concern for AP's (and the few remaining exempt civil service) is going to force us to unionize because that is the only way any voice will be heard?

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  18. Could employees of the University have free memberships to the gyms at UIC? It is not uncommon for employers to do this.

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  19. Conversion from an AP to civic service will provide me with the power to pull my union card at a moments notice. As an AP I happily perform additional duties that are outside of my job description while civil service employees refuse to take on additional duties-citing union mandates-and have received raises. If my job is converted to civil service my productivity will suffer greatly, I will leave promptly on time and I will ensure to take extra long breaks and lunches because well....my job is secure.

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  20. I am sick and disgusted at the double talk around careers, raises, hiring and budget cuts. You want our understanding around the hiring freeze and our understandind with not being able to give raises, but refuse to understand that laughter should still be free to do in the environment. What I find very frustrating is when the "walk" does not match the "talk" from senior management.

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  21. I agree that the blending of the three campuses into one "university system" should be discussed, and how that weakens the brand identity of UIC.

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  22. What is the feasibility of APs receiving additional salary due to assuming additional duties and responsibilities of positions not refilled when employees leave the university or when positions are discontinued? 10-15% of the terminated employee's salary could be used as an incentive to continue doing high quality work and is still an 85-90% savings to the campus not including the additional benefits that no longer need to be be paid.

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  23. There should be no difficulty in finding a rationale to maintain our campus identities. Each of our campuses has specific strengths. UIC's strengths are many. If we are to elevate our status in the community of higher education we should find ways to maximize UIC's visibility then follow through with action.

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  24. AP / Civil Service conversion. Who wants to work in a system where seniority counts more than merit? It's a slap in the face of those who work hard because they identify with UIC's mission and goals. Why is UIC going through this and not Urbana? UIC will be in a difficult situation when a lot of employees who are currently APs leave. It's individuals who hold staff positions at UIC, not robots who can be replaced by bumping with the expectation that robot B can do the job just as well as robot A did.

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  25. The visiting academic and just how long can they be kept "visiting"? And going from vested AP to Visiting AP cuts the opportunity for advancement/job security. This becomes an issue where before there was a year to find a new position vs. "you're gone".

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  26. Converting so many AP positions to Civil Service may end up paralyzing UIC. In this economic climate, why would I risk my seniority to take a position at the bottom of a different classification? My performance won't matter one bit. Having AP positions allows the university to respond to changing needs in a flexible manner; indeed, AP's bring a wide variety of skills and knowledge and are great problem solvers. Constricting AP's into 'silo' career paths is exactly the WRONG way to get the most out of them. It's a Lose/Lose situation.

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  27. I think a good point to bring up is the cost to the University if converted APs leave the as a result of the conversions.

    According to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it costs an organization approximately 150% of the leaving employee's annual salary to replace them. The American Management Association (AMA) puts the replacement cost potentially up to 200% of the leaving employee's salary.

    In face of this information, and with the unprecedented fiscal difficulties facing the university, how does he plan to manage this situation and costs to the university?

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  28. I am pretty discouraged by the conversion of AP staff to Civil Service positions. On one had, I understand that the University has to follow the rules of the Civil Service system and that the process currently underway is not "voluntary". On the other had, I don't feel like the University is a willing participant. I feel like we are being forced to use a system that everyone agrees is broken (especially for for managers and supervisors).

    Why are we being forced to be "compliant" with a system that doesn't meet our needs? Why can't the system be changed so that people would actually want to use it?

    Imagine that. What if the University actually WANTED to use the Civil Service system??? The fact that it sounds absurd to say that is really, really sad. Why shouldn't we want to use the system that regulates all of our HR practices?? Is that such a crazy goal???

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  29. I agree. First, the underlying assumption of Civil Service is that managers and supervisors cannot be trusted to screen and hire employees in a fair manner, so that responsibility is entrusted to a third party who supposedly 'knows' the nuances of departmental needs in hundreds of fields better than those who have actually worked in it. Second, the manager/supervisor knows their decision constitutes a lifetime commitment regardless of the employees' job performance. That may not be the theory, but that's the practice. HR must take responsibility to work with managers to make retention as 'fair' as the hiring. Are you listening HR???

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  30. The benefit of giving U of I employees' children half price college tuition in state universities within Illinois should NOT be taken away. For parents who have kids, even though we're not sure they will go to these universities in the future, it should be an option for us. We worked hard and don't get paid well enough but some are staying for this kind of benefit. Why are they proposing to take it away from us after having worked for at least 7 years to be able to avail it?
    In regards to becoming civil service, it will be very difficult to move around the campus if we seek for better advancement. The bumping and salary differences that units have to pay off will be a huge issue in addition to many other problems.

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  31. I find it interesting that in light of the AP to Civil Service conversion, we were finally given a raise this year...just in time for APs to hand it over to the CS union in dues.

    Does anyone know the percentage that one would pay in union dues per year? How much of the 3% base raise would we actually be pocketing?

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  32. Put in a retention stipend that is paid out in addition to monthly salary. Keep the stipend separate from annual performance-based raise. The stipend would be nominal in the range of $500 annually and would gradually reach $2,000 based on years served at U of I.

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  33. One of the major points, that I'm sure president Hogan konws, is that UofI employees will not get Social Security when they retire. This is a crucial point that needs to be conveyed to our state lawmakers. We are 100% dependent on SURS. Shortchanging employees that have paid into the system 8% every paycheck, should not have their benefits altered downward because the state did not manage its money properly.

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  34. Many open range Civil Service employees were converted to Bargaining unit positions. Some, without even the employee's own knowledge that they are being placed in a bargaining unit.

    Does the University have a master recruiting strategy put in place so we do not subject ourselves to a narrow and sometime unqualified pool of candidates lingering on the Civil Service registers?

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  35. Could the U of I or UIC have its OWN health insurance plan that is separate from the State of IL? We all know the state health insurance plan is terrible because they don't pay their bills, and it is a big factor in whether people want to work at the university. My spouse is changing jobs in Jan. and we may have to put the whole family on my insurance, which is scary because our current doctors/dentists have all said they will drop us -- if we are desperate they will treat us but require cash upfront. So WE, the employees, are floating loans for the state. I love my job but I can't afford private health insurance and I also can't afford to pay all my family's medical bills upfront and then wait 6 months to a year for the state to reimburse me.

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