Reforming family leave – Faculty Senate discusses changes to family leave proposal

After University of Idaho President Chuck Staben vetoed parts of a proposal to change the university”s family leave policy last year, several members of Faculty Senate said revising and resubmitting the policy would be a priority during this academic year.

The Faculty Affairs Committee made changes to the proposed policy based on Staben”s response. At the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, Faculty Secretary Don Crowley, a member of the Faculty Affairs Committee, gave the rest of the senators an overview of the edits.

“Some of the proposed changes come from the faculty secretary”s office “¦ in an attempt to reconcile what we considered to be remaining ambiguities or downright confusions that resulted from what we did last year,” Crowley said.

Some of Staben”s vetoes were straightforward, like the veto on increasing the parenting leave period from 12 to 16 weeks. Others left odd gaps in the policy, Crowley said.

Staben vetoed part of the policy that states that employees can use a combination of accumulated sick leave and unpaid leave, but Crowley said that has been part of UI policy since before 1998.

Faculty Senate Vice Chair Liz Brandt proposed they delete that part of the proposed changes since it is already a part of university policy.

UI currently complies with the Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA), but Crowley said other changes to the policy were meant to clarify that the university intends to go beyond FMLA guidelines.

“We wanted to make it clear that we were in fact following the obligations of the Federal Medical Leave Act, which we are, but also address our concerns that in some places we”re trying to do more,” Crowley said.

Crowley said part of the required policy states that UI employees who are eligible for benefits qualify for leave from the first day of employment, which exceeds FMLA requirements.

Multiple members of Faculty Senate wanted to vote to accept the changes to the policy at the meeting. Sen. Kattlyn Wolf of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences wanted to vote to put the issue on the university”s agenda sooner rather than later.

Wolf said when the vetoes to the proposed leave policy came out at the end of the last academic year, she was concerned because it was announced at a point when not many people were paying attention, and she doesn”t want history to repeat itself this year.

“It really started to make me think, “Does this place value family, children and the things that I personally value?”” Wolf said. “And the answer to that is no. It kind of came out real secretive timing.”

Other members of Faculty Senate, including Crowley and Faculty Senate Chair Randall Teal, said it would be better to postpone the vote to give people the chance to get more information on the topic. Faculty Senate decided to hold the vote until next week.

Erin Bamer can be reached at  [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer

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