At its July 13 meeting, Texas State’s Staff Council proposed changing the language used in the University Policies and Procedure Statements (UPPS) under 04.04.30 which discusses bereavement and funeral leave for staff.
The council proposed that caretaking of stepparents be added to the UPPS as a reason for staff sick leave since stepparents are not specified in the UPPS’ current language regarding family members. The Staff Council also proposed funeral leave for staff be covered for five days, regardless of the funeral’s location.
“If somebody is dealing with their parents passing, three to five days is rarely enough time to meet with lawyers and get paperwork tended to. Just having to deal with both the emotional and the financial aspects of it is challenging, and then to only have three days to do that, if they’re in Texas. I think it’s a bit odd,” a Staff Council member says.
The council announced its meetings will continue to be held via Zoom. However, each semester there will be one in-person meeting. For the upcoming fall semester, the in-person meeting will be held in September. The council voted to postpone the decision for which month the in-person meeting will be conducted during the spring semester.
Staff Council also announced that a staff ombudsman pilot program will begin in fall 2021. At a previous meeting, the council proposed and voted for this program.
“The purpose of this is to provide impartial services and expertise, expertise for staff concerns and grievances. We, Staff Council, will be able to provide referrals as necessary if we’ve received something that comes through our staff concerns, and, you know, we feel like that’s something that the staff ombudsperson should be involved in,” a Staff Council member says.
The contact person for the staff ombudsman pilot program will be Vincent Luizzi, a professor for Texas State’s philosophy department.
The council previously compiled a list of ways to recognize staff and faculty in non-monetary ways. One of which is by offering staff and faculty free memberships to the Student Recreation Center during summer 2021.
Several football games will be held to show appreciation to the staff and faculty. The dates for the games are scheduled for Oct. 9 and Nov. 13 but are subject to change. A movie night will also be held in Bobcat Stadium for faculty, staff and their families. Staff luncheons are planned for July 14 in San Marcos and July 16 in Round Rock.
The council discussed there will be a new member orientation meeting for seven new council members. This orientation will be held over Zoom with an optional in-person meeting afterward. Staff Council also announced that five of its seven officer positions are up for election.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated “The council proposed that caretaking of stepparents be added to the UPPS as a reason for faculty sick leave…” and “The Staff Council also proposed funeral leave for faculty be covered for five days…”. These sentences should have included “staff” not “faculty”. We have since updated the recap and sincerely apologize for the errors.