November 9, 2015
University Undergoes Strategic Plan Process
DR.
KILLEEN called the strategic plan a roadmap for the University's
future. He expects the plan to touch every aspect of the institution's
operations. The plan will be "rooted in evidence and guided by experience," he said. The planning process is
a team effort involving all of the U of I's stakeholders, including Academic
Professionals and other employees.
DR.
KILLEEN was directed by the University of Illinois trustees in March
2015 to begin the strategic planning process, which is expected to take 12-18
months.
THERE
WILL be a Town Hall meeting about the process on Monday, Nov. 30,
from 3-5 p.m. in Student Center East, Room A.
SEVERAL
INDIVIDUALS from UIC are on the President’s Strategic Planning Steering
Committee, including Chancellor Michael
Amiridis; Student Trustee Jauwan
Hall; Dr. Barbara Henley, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Mark Murphy, Chair, University Employee
Advisory Committee; Dr. Sara Rusch, Regional
Dean, College of Medicine, Peoria, Chicago campus; and Deon Thomas, Assistant Coach, UIC men’s basketball. Michael Bohlmann, Assistant Dean of
Technology and Chair of the University Professional Personnel Advisory
Committee (UPPAC) from the Urbana-Champaign campus, represents Academic
Professionals.
THE
PLANNING committee welcomes employee input and suggestions, noting
that “your participation in the planning process is vital to the development of
a plan that represents the range of perspectives on our campuses and in our
communities.”
FOR MORE information
or to provide input, go to https://www.uillinois.edu/cms/One.aspx?portalId=1324&pageId=135477.
Your Productivity Toolbox: Maximizing Your Efficiency in Your Workplace
THE APAC Professional Development subcommittee on Sept. 30 hosted a workshop entitled, “Your Productivity Toolbox: Maximizing Your Efficiency in Your Workplace.”
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| Julie Kong. |
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| Kimberly Mayfield. |
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| Christine Rapp. |
SURS Will Pay Annuitants Despite Lack of State Budget
By
Christy Levy, UIC News
ILLINOIS
COMPTROLLER Leslie Munger announced
Oct. 14 that the State would likely delay its pension payments in November and
December, but University annuitants will still receive their payments from
the State Universities Retirement System.
THE
DELAY would mean that SURS will receive its money from the State later than
promised, but SURS will continue to pay University retirees, said Brenda Russell, President
of UIC-SUAA, the UIC chapter of the State Universities Annuitants
Association.
“THE
STATE will delay the money because there’s no budget, but they have to move
the money eventually,” said Russell, Professor Emerita of physiology and
biophysics. “SURS benefit payments are not tied to that transfer — SURS has
their own money in their accounts. People are really worried that they are not
going to get their pension, but they will.”
SURS HAS a
safety net of funds to make sure university retirees are paid on time, Russell
said.
“THE ONE who is
getting shorted is the SURS agency,” she said. “It’s the same situation for the
University — the State is not paying the University but the University is still
paying its employees.”
THE
STATE may delay payments to pension agencies such as SURS, but it is
required by law to pay its pension obligations without making cuts. The
Illinois Supreme Court in May unanimously declared unconstitutional a
2013 State pension law that would have diminished employee benefits.
“THE
STATE is spending at a faster rate than they’re taking in — you don’t need
to be an economist or mathematician to know they can’t do that,” Russell
said. “This is a crisis and everyone should be contacting their House
representatives and State senators and Governor
Bruce Rauner and saying, ‘Do something.’ People are worried and they should
be. They need to lean on the politicians.”
Nominate for Honorary Degree; AP Chair of Process
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| (Photo courtesy UIC Photo Services) Journalist Maria Hinojosa (center) received an Honorary degree from UIC earlier this year. |
AN HONORARY degree may be awarded for contributions
to the scholarly or professional world, to public service, or to UIC’s
achievements and the ideals of its missions of teaching, research, service, and
economic development.
NOMINEES CAN be persons of national or international
renown in or outside official academic disciplines. Some relationship with UIC
is desirable but not required.
THE APPROVED guidelines for awarding honorary
degrees at UIC, including eligibility criteria, nomination procedures, process
and timelines can be accessed at:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/senate/HonoraryDegreeGuidelines.pdf.
To see a list of previous honorary degree recipients, go to http://commencement.uic.edu/honorary_degrees.shtml.
THE UNIVERSITY Senate External Relations and Public
Service Committee examines honorary degree nominations before sending qualified
nominations to the full Senate. At its last meeting, the committee named APAC
member and AP Senator William S. Bike as
Chair of the Committee.
“I AM honored that faculty and students on the committee put
their trust in me and named me Chair,” Bike said. “This is a great distinction
for Academic Professionals.
BIKE ADDED, “While honorary degree nominations often
come from faculty, there is no reason an Academic Professional cannot nominate
a worthy individual for this highest of University honors. In fact, we’re
hoping for more nominations from APs and faculty.”
FOR MORE information, contact Elizabeth Dooley, Clerk of the Senate,
at edooley@uic.edu or (312) 995-2926, or
Bike at (312) 996-8495 or billbike@uic.edu.
Rhode Island Solves Pension Crisis and Without Raising Taxes
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(Photo courtesy AFSCME)
Rhode Island dealt with its pension crisis, although
workers and retirees ended up with reduced
benefits.
|
THOSE WHO think that Illinois’s public sector
pension crisis is too big to solve need only look to another state, Rhode
Island, to see that the problem is not intractable—although the solutions have
been tough for Rhode Island public workers and retirees to take.
RHODE ISLAND Governor Gina M. Raimando, a Democrat,
recently finished a four-year pension overhaul that she started when she
was State Treasurer, without raising taxes or issuing pension obligation bonds.
IN 2010, according to the Pew Center on the
States, Rhode Island’s public pension plans were only 49% funded and considered
the worst in the nation. (Two years later, in 2012, Illinois’ public pensions,
in contrast to Rhode Island’s would be only 39% funded.)
ELECTED STATE Treasurer in 2010, Raimando persuaded
the legislature to pass reforms that cut some benefits, delayed retirements,
suspended cost-of-living increases, and required public workers to trade in
part of their traditional defined-benefit pension plans for more risky like
401(k)-like plans.
UNION LEADERS initially fought the changes, but
ultimately dropped their opposition after they negotiated more favorable terms
with Raimando, who was elected Governor in 2014. The pension reforms also
survived lawsuits by workers and retirees.
STILL, MUCH of the medicine was tough to take.
Public retirees’ annual increases are gone, and there now is some risk of loss
of benefits due to market downturns. To soften the blow, a court settlement
gave one-time payments to current retirees who were losing cost of living
adjustments.
THOSE ANNUAL cost of living adjustments, which used
to be 3% per year, are suspended until the Rhode Island system is at least 80%
funded. When COLAs resume, they will apply only to the first $25,000 of a
retiree’s pension. Pension credits earned through 2012 remain the same, but
those earned in subsequent years are smaller. The retirement age for which
Rhode Island retirees earned a full pension used to be 62; now retirement age
is pegged to the Social Security retirement age.
RHODE ISLAND pension reform contained many provisions
that workers and retirees objected to, but financial experts agree that the
system is now on a firm financial footing and no longer is in danger of
bankruptcy.
Join APAC
APAC HAS 15 members and the capacity to fill three more seats, and Academic Professionals are invited to apply to fill them. For more information, contact Ahlam Al-Kodmany at (312) 996-7458 or ryyan@uic.edu. For a nomination form, contact William S. Bike, editor of APAC News, at billbike@uic.edu.
APAC Meetings Scheduled
ALL
APs are invited to the
monthly APAC meeting at 12:30 p.m. on scheduled dates Meetings are held either
in Room 4175 of the College of Medicine Research Building, 909 S. Wolcott, or
Room 2750 of University Hall on the East Campus. Next meeting is Wednesday, Nov.
11, in Room 2750 of UH. Starting in January, APAC meetings will be held the
second Tuesday of every other month in UH 2750, and the second Wednesday of
every other month starting in February in CMRB 4175.For information, call (312)
996-0306.
APAC Profile
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Tracy Sikorski.
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By Monica M. Walk
SHE CALLS her employment at UIC her own personal
“Cinderella Story.”
“I SPENT the better part of my adult life
floating, not sure what to do or what I wanted to be,” recently elected APAC
board member Tracy Sikorski said, noting she based her early work decisions on
circumstance, not on mentoring or interest in a specific organization. “At first, UIC was just a job—then I
realized the mission of the university is amazing. We serve an inner city
population with integrity. “
SHE HAD no prior specific experience—other than
assuring her future employers she was “good at math and learned fast”—but
Sikorski discovered she was good at the entry-level job she landed in the
Office of Social Science Research in 2009. So good, in fact, that she was
promoted to Associate Director a few months later. Before 2015 ends, Sikorski
will hold the title of Office Director.
“IT HELPED me find myself,” Sikorski said of the
University. “It is personal to me to help people find out what they want to
do.”
SIKORSKI SEES connections in APAC’s abilities to help
other University employees find their callings, and develop and grow in their
careers. She expects to focus her volunteer energy on APAC’s professional
development work. “It’s hard to find a mentor in a large work environment like
UIC,” she said. “I want to help other professionals grow.”
SIKORSKI’S INTEREST in and commitment to APAC runs
deep. “The Academic Professionals on campus constitute a
declining class, because of changes the campus is going through,” she said. “I
have a vested interest in being sure the campus understands the Academic
Professional role. I want to be part of the conversation and
influence what happens to this group of people.”
CITING THE nature of academic work, Sikorski noted
that employees may not come in contact with many other individuals during their
workday. Busy schedules leave little time for sharing both successes and problems.
“APAC GIVES voice to the Academic
Professional: They can come to me and
talk, and I can bring something up at a meeting,” Sikorski said, citing that
Academic Professionals at UIC number about 2,000 and are one of the few
non-union groups on campus. “They need a
voice and APAC does that for them.”
SIKORSKI’S OWN UIC position does provide interaction
across departments. The Office of Social Science Research provides
all-inclusive grant support—from finding funding to handling the spending— for
faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, including both social
sciences and humanities. Sikorski
describes the unit as “like a giant bank,” with 40 different accounts and $16
million in current grant money (up steeply from $4 million in 2010) from 25
different funding agencies across ten academic departments.
“I HOPE to take those interactions to the next
level with people I already interface with and put those interactions to good
use,” she said.
SIKORSKI’S COMMITMENT to education includes pursuing a PhD –not
to do something different with her career, but because she feels intensely about
the topic. She is researching the relationship of college content and its
relevance for success in the workforce for new graduates.
“I REALLY want to support Academic
Professionals,” she said. “I hope they
come to events and reach out to APAC members, with good or with bad. We are a resource to use and they should use
us.
“BEING AT UIC is an amazing experience, in and of
itself,” Sikorski said. “Being involved
in APAC is a bonus.”
Move Your Career Forward
A WEBSITE designed for UIC staff and students is
filled with recommended actions to manage your career. Access this website at http://hr.uic.edu/careermonth/
throughout November. Explore information on the site and learn more about what
you can do now to grow in your career.
QUESTIONS OR comments? Send an email to mycareeruic@uillinois.edu
AP RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
THE UNIVERSITY of Illinois at Chicago has
a long-standing commitment to the support and maintenance of a drug-free
environment for its employees and students. Below is a link to the existing UIC
Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) policy, which you will find below. The focus and
message of this policy are not new; however, the format has been updated to
make it easier to read and to provide resource information.
THE POLICY and resource guide was
prepared in accordance with the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 and the
Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendments of 1989. It describes the
health risks and legal sanctions associated with alcohol and other drugs. It outlines
the University's standard of conduct and disciplinary actions taken against
students or employees who violate the standard. It also provides University and
community resources to help with a drug or alcohol related problem.
THE AOD policy represents UIC’s
continued commitment to creating a healthy learning and work environment: http://go.uic.edu/aod
(PDF file)
EMPLOYEES SHOULD contact UIC Human
Resources-Administration at (312) 355-5230.
BENEFIT BEAT
THE STATE Universities Retirement System will
offer a fall Retirement Education Seminar for members enrolled in the
traditional and portable plans on Wednesday, Nov. 18, in Naperville, IL, from 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration is required, and there is a fee of $20 per member
and $10 for a non-member guest. Lunch will be provided. To register call (800)
275-7877. For more information, go to http://surs.org/news-article/090815/retirement-education-seminars-naperville.
Vol. 8, No. 5, November 2015
APAC News is published by the Academic Professional Advisory Committee of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
ISSN 1946-1860
Editor: William S. Bike
Staff: Gail Mansfield, Susan S. Stevens, Mary Voelker, Monica M. Walk
Chair: Colleen Piersen
Vice Chair: Ahlam Al-Kodmany
Secretary: Mary Berta
Treasurer: Kathy Stauffer
Web Chair: Jeff Alcantar
Web Chair: Jeff Alcantar
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