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President Robert Shelton Articles on the event: For more
information contact
SAC |
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Questions submitted online: Dr Shelton thanked SAC and President Eva Gonzales for inviting him to be part of this forum. He thanked all SAC members for what they do for the university community. He welcomes all questions and opinions and looks forward to getting to know staff better in the years to come. He is a native Arizonan who is glad to come home. While he doesn’t know everything about the university he calls upon the best of the best at the university to help him find the answers. Q: Students and faculty have a representative on ABOR and staff would like to have similar time with ABOR and wonder what your feeling is on getting something similar for staff? A: In my experience there has been a staff person with face time with the governing board. It seems to me highly appropriate to have something similar for staff but might be difficult to define since there is so much variation that staff encompasses. I would like to sit and talk with you on how this might come about. You are the most numerous group who make sure things run well on campus and make a career commitment much as faculty does so it makes good sense to me. As you say, the three university staff councils have been meeting on this already it would be good to see some joint proposal. In my experience the chair from staff had a reserved time slot before the finance and policy committee much as faculty for a sense of parallelism and they would sit in on the meetings and were available for questions from the board. If the councils could agree on some proposal for how that would work I would be willing to take this to the presidents and then on to the board. * * * * * Thank you for your decision to not move forward on the Rainbow Bridge. It just wasn’t feasible though it was a grand idea and maybe at another time but at this point it just didn’t make sense. * * * * * I have had concerns that the last couple of pay raises have been offset by additional cost in insurance and retirement withholdings. I have been put in a higher tax bracket but wind up with less money after the raise. Do you foresee a time when we will actually have a raise we can keep without increasing everything else? Also, research staff and others on soft money are left out on raises until and if funds can be found. Difficult to fix since only 25% of budgets are paid through state funds. In NC the increase in parking and insurance was out distanced by funds for raises. At this time the American public is not behind education and their idea is that if you want an education why should the American public pay for it. It is difficult to run educational facilities with this outlook. We as voters need to make our feeling known of the benefit to all society from higher education. Help us to convey to our elected officials that what we do here is critical to the future of the state. We have to turn around this cultural belief wanting to cut taxes rather than pay for the benefit of us all. We all want our children to have better than we have and education is the way to make that happen. We have met with various legislators and thanked them for the pay package but some of them argue that we shouldn’t expect that in the future. We have to make a change in their support for public education. * * * * * Parking seems to be an increasing problem on campus. Are there plans for more garages, more zone 1 lots and will the price for parking just keep going up. Seems wrong to be working just to pay for parking on campus. I think the answer to all those questions is yes and since I knew the issue of parking would come up I actually got some help on this. My understanding is that there are more parking permits issued and more parking spots available now than ever in the history of UA...doesn’t mean we are where we should be. There are plans, a 2003 master plan to create more parking structures, more parking garages where you can get more spaces on a limited plot of land if you go up. The cost per space is about $1500 which where I come from is dirt cheap. In chapel hill we were going to put an underground facility that was to cost $20,000 per space so we killed that project as it was impossible to do. The good news is it is affordable to build more garages and it is in the master plan to do so. We will be creating more surface lots in the interim before we then go up with the garages. I asked the question about pricing is costs about $900 per space to operate parking and about ½ of that cost is covered by the cost of permits and the other half is paid for by visitors. There is a good plan here for continued increase in the number of parking places though I don’t know if it will ever meet demand. Maybe you can tell me about some specific situations. Could there be a way to differentiate student vs employee parking if employees leave during the day they wont find parking later. There is also problems with the size of spaces with vehicles getting bigger...maybe compact car spaces. I will ask the folks who understand the issues of parking. How about park and ride on campus...Chapel Hill did a huge amount of this as the city limited spaces...only about a 1/3 could get permits though the park and ride permits were free. There was little alternative so it worked great but we had zip cars for short unplanned trips for emergencies or appts. In Phoenix ASU gets free bus passes be the UA Phx employees don’t have this same benefits. Employees using their cars for work trips from off campus sites have real trouble getting materials, etc on campus for work. Incentives for alternative fuels, biking, bus passes, car pools, etc would be appreciated. First thing I did in CH was to throw $500,000 at buses and made it absolutely free but they are a smaller community. In Durham they were larger but it cost and prices grew which made less riders.Carpool designation is for 3 or more...is there a reason for this? I will look into that. * * * * * What is being done to improve supervisors on campus...there seem to be a lot of them who are unqualified to hold that position and others who tend to supervise employees according to how much they suck up. I would like to see some sort of way for employees to review supervisors. Appreciate your wording of the question and they are an important group on campus. I would be stunned if there wasn’t some kind of training for these important positions. I will check with HR. It is often assumed you know how to supervise with no training and a minimal flexibility on utilizing your resources compared to your responsibility. I would look in to the training broadly to all supervisors since they can set the tone in these units and make your life really good or really problematic. I know we have an extensive ombudsman office for registering problems and concerns and I hope that is working well and I realize that your thought of making this training mandatory is preventing us from getting to this stage. * * * * * The roads on campus have gotten really bad...pot holes, rough pavement, etc. Is anything being done to improve the situation? I do know that we have responsibility for most of the roads within our campus boundary and also know that there is a lot torn up due to construction. Damage to cars due to potholes was the concern. I know there was recent paving but I will bring this up to Joel Valdez’ attention and am sure money permitting. They are systematic about the process but I will mention this and I have also heard this about bicycle routes and the safety involved. * * * * * There seems to be problems with bosses allowing employees to volunteer for committees and councils or educate themselves on campus. Is there anyway to improve support? We have to work hand in glove with supervisors but given policies that we have encouraging staff participation in governance I think that supervisors should be encouraged to make that happen. Any good policy can be abused and we aren't talking about the abuse but we need you as part of the governance, we need your ideas and we need you to represent what is going on so that if mistakes are being made we get the corrected as soon as possible and the only way we can do that is if you have time from your supervisor that is not charged to vacation or compensatory leave so I support that completely and work well with the supervisor to make that happen. You have to tell me or Allison Vaillancourt in HR when that is repeatedly not happening. Do you see it widespread or is it nucleated in areas...we are having trouble with it on the council where supervisors are not supporting attendance as fellow workers may complain about council members are out of the office. You are the best emissaries in getting fellow staff members to understand what the council is doing for them so be sure to communicate that with your fellow staff members and departments. * * * * * Will the UA ever consider a summer closure similar to the one that takes place during the winter? Well see I have just found out we have a closure in the winter that is why you have to get out ...cant hang out in your office. Not the research office, right? Its not good to say never but I would find it highly unlikely as there isn’t an obvious period and universities have been encouraged to utilize their physical plant in the summer and so they are active for summer school, sports and academic camps and the research that goes on. I doubt that we would have a mandated summer closure. You might get employees up in arms by forcing them to take their vacation at a time that might not be convenient with the families, etc. How about doing a 4 day week I certainly think universities should be leading the way in flexibility in working hours and that said there is a need to have someone there and it depends on supervisors again but I think within our ability to deliver our product flexible hours are important. I would hope we would be able to make that kind of scheduling available university wide...while not getting in the way of the supervisor doing their job. * * * * * UA could increase its efficiency to save money and
the environment, but currently there is little incentive for, and
little empowerment of, individuals or departments wishing to
conserve resources managed by the University as a whole. Incentives are very powerful in this world and I
think our society in America maybe more than any other has responded
by taking altruism and putting it into practice. Philanthropy in
this country is unheard of in any other part of the world. Just
because we are supposed to be good but we respond to incentives and
we should have programs in place that reward that. One of the things
about out labs...once I got my grants I didn’t have to pay for my
utilities it is all supposedly included in my grants through
indirect costs though the grant doesn’t come near to covering these
true indirect costs. They are supposedly covered by state operating
and maintenance of plant funds when in fact we are all in fact
bootstrapping our way and anything we can do on a large or small
scale to be more efficient is very worthwhile. * * * * * How do you expect to utilize Staff Advisory Council to help make your Presidential Decisions and Policy's effecting University of Arizona Staff Employees. We received a memo stating you had contacted faculty, staff, etc but SAC had not been contacted. I talked with folks in Spebac and deans council but clearly missed SAC and I apologize having missed you on this time constraint issue of budgets which were due in July. We will try and keep in touch now that I know the correct contact and we will try to get President Shelton here at least 3 times a year. * * * * * Do you plan on making correspondence courses available to employees through Qualified Tuition Reduction? I'm writing this down...employees working during the day or at our outlying areas. I will look into that. NAU has cornered the market as part of their regents approved mission so we wouldn’t have as extensive an offering. If you are a staff member at the UA it seems to me if you are taking a class at the UA that we ought to offer the same kind of tuition benefit no matter how the class offered. Now I may run into all kinds of bureaucratic hurdles but doesn’t that sound logical. We are in the business of education and we so should be encouraging our employees in continuing education and if we can do that and make it a benefit of employment it seems like a good way to keep good people. * * * * * Do you plan to address the growing abyss between Faculty and Classified Staff? How about the divide between Administration and Classified Staff? Are you aware of the continual politics played throughout the university and how it plays a role in holding the growth and success of the campus back? No one person can make all this happen by his or herself... if I don’t have all of you working with me I'm gonna fail. Individual faculty members that has a large research program or a large teaching responsibility, the students...the smartest thing I ever conveyed to my children as they were going to school was they have to get to know the staff in your unit because they are the ones that will make things happen. Make sure you understand where they are coming from and when you need help make sure you express those needs clearly and a timeline for when things can be carried out. I know that the u has to have very good political relationships with the communities in Tucson and I have already been working on those to community meetings for if we are going to grow as the state of population is to fulfill our mission. I don’t think we have a 40,000 cap (300 freshmen/ 100 transfers per year) in admissions but we are going to grow and continue the quality of the education and programs we provide. We have to grow UA South and support their programs and cooperative extensions in the state. Politics is not a bad word it is just what happens with any gathering like this forum trying to improve the UA and the people committed and dedicated to the UA. My job is to get out and understand the different communities around the UA, city, state. I am ready to embrace the politics and so to be even better than we already are. * * * * * How do you plan to address the issue of morale regarding Classified Staff on campus? I think the best think I can do is the same as any leader and that is to be seen as a very public advocate on behalf of our employees whether that is in Phoenix or Tucson or here at this forum. I'm not going to pretend that I can suddenly turn everything around and when I walk up the Phoenix the legislature is going to say yeah sure take 20% pay raises to everyone, but I can promise you is the single most important factor on this campus is people. Making sure we reward those that work hard, that we provide the best possible work environment. I feel very strongly that if we take good care of people all the rest of the issue will follow and that is the message I have been taking to the legislators, governor, mayors, anyone that will listen to me and give me an audience. How do we take care of good people is the key.* * * * * Added question posed by a staff member... Almost our entire dept is off campus and as president I wonder how you might encourage staff in those situations to take part in the great campus activities to our work as campus staff like attending lectures, and other things on campus beyond the parking challenge. Maybe set up a dept campus pass so a group of you can come on campus and improves communication when you can attend these kinds of meetings. Improve communications and it does come back to parking. Service permits available for purchase with certain spaces designated for these permits. The problem is that a lot of these off campus dept are smaller entities and don’t have the money to buy that permit. How do other universities handle this? U of MI had wonderful shuttle systems for these outlying areas when there is no parking on campus. Each university has a different issue and ways of dealing with them. Has any thoughts been given to those traveling to Phoenix and light rail might be nice but we might get some to carpool from point to point but most folks need their vehicle to get around...in cities with poor intercity transportation we are stuck needing the car to get to where you are going. Zip cars are good so long as folks don’t monopolize the vehicle all day and I will check into the feasibility of such service here at UA. I am getting some real ideas to bring up to the folks that know about these. Also service permits are being used by so many departments now that facility management has problem servicing building due to lack of available spaces. Flexibility of hours can also help with some of these mid day appointments by leaving earlier for the appt rather than try to plan to attend.Some questions may not have been covered as time was limited but we hope to have Dr Shelton repeat this format yearly |
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