MEET THE CHANCELLOR’S COMMITTEES

“All the work we do on campus is meant to improve the conditions and empower the employees, faculty, and students on our campus,” Stephanie J. Whitaker, Co-Chair of the CCSB, explained.

CCSB Works Towards Empowering Employees

By Lucia Gonzalez

THE CHANCELLOR’S Committee on the Status of Blacks (CCSB) serves as an advisory body to Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares and the UIC Office of Access and Equity on finding resolutions to situations that create campus climate disparity. These issues can be social, academic, or professional. For example, the CCSB will concern itself with campus governance, employment practices, policy processes, public relations, student affairs, and anything else that affects the well-being of Blacks on the UIC campus.

THE CCSB consists of 14 officially appointed members, who are nominated by the CCSB campus community at large, and approved by the Chancellor, as well as an extended group of members who attend the meetings regularly and work within the sub-committees. General business meetings are held monthly and the sub-committees that represent students, faculty, or staff also host a regular meeting schedule.

ADDITIONALLY, THE CCSB has a Strategic Planning Committee that works with each of the constituency groups on planning activities, workshops, and providing information to the campus at large. The meetings, workshops, and events are meant to stimulate discussion, provide information, and allow involvement opportunities.

A VERY successful recent workshop CCSB hosted here on campus was a panel discussion and Q&A session on the Civil Service Job Analyses and Conversions that are currently happening on campus. This workshop was open to all and the audience represented a very diverse population of University staff.  The panel included UIC Human Resources, the Executive Director of the State Universities Civil Service System, the Chair of the Academic Professional Advisory Committee, and the President of the UIC Staff Advisory Council.

THE CCSB is making plans to host an on-campus workshop or Brown Bag information sessions in Spring 2013 on career development and job planning for staff-- both Civil Service and Academic Professionals.

“ALL THE work we do on campus is meant to improve the conditions and empower the employees, faculty, and students on our campus,” Stephanie J. Whitaker, Co-Chair of the CCSB, explained. “One of the many issues that CCSB discusses concerns career development and compensation equity.” Whitaker has been an Academic Professional at the University since 1993.

TO FURTHER its goal to get its message to the campus, CCSB this year is inviting the College Deans to the monthly meetings. Whitaker stated, “We have made it a priority to put a face on our Colleges. What we have discovered is that the meetings that include Deans increase our attendance. More staff and faculty from the colleges attend our meetings when the Dean is present. This also happens when we have meetings with the Chancellor. Our annual meeting with the Chancellor will take place, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, for those that want to attend.”

TO CONTACT the CCSB, send email to CCSB@uic.edu or go to their website at http://www.uic.edu/depts/ccsb/, which is in the process of being upgraded. The new website will go live in January 2013 thanks to the efforts of Portia White and Jason Richards.