The full body met in regular session Dec. 8 in Chao Auditorium. Chair Angela Lewis-Klein presided. The following are highlights from the meeting.

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By voice vote, the Senate approved the minutes of the November meeting.

By voice vote, the Senate approved a revised application and new guidelines for the Staff Help and Relief Effort (SHARE) program. See highlights for details.

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Provost Shirley Willihnganz was traveling and unable to attend.

Angela Lewis-Klein announced that Sandy Russell was appointed staff grievance officer by UofL President James Ramsey. A notice to Senators will be forthcoming about filling the vacancy on the committee left by Russell’s appointment.

She also said a proposal that the Staff Senate meet by video conference rather than as a body had been considered and would not be pursued because it is cost prohibitive, among other reasons. But if there was further interest, a formal proposal should be developed and vetted through Senate committees, she added.

Responding to a question about when the staff salary survey would be released, as it appears to be stalled, she said she did not think it was finished and would update the senators when she had more information.

The Chair’s Report can be found here.

Gary Southard, secretary/treasurer, said the SHARE account totals just under $12,000. Southard noted that if approved requests and contributions remain constant, the SHARE account will run out of money in 19 months. He also said there is $4,800 in the Staff Senate’s regular account.

Carol Norton, chair of the SHARE committee, said committee members updated the application to remove language that called SHARE a policy instead of a program, as well as the guidelines to clarify that payments will not be made for issues due to personal money management. Additionally, committee members decided not to increase the $1,000 limit. The new application and guidelines were unanimously approved by the senate.

Additional Staff Senate information can be found at: http://louisville.edu/staffsenate/

The next Staff Senate meeting will be Feb. 9 in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium. There is no January meeting.

 

–Prepared for the Staff Senate by Janet Cappiello, UofL Today editor, communications specialist, UofL Office of Communications and Marketing.

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Janet Cappiello covers student success for the Office of Communications and Marketing. She has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism, including working for The Associated Press and magazines such as Vegetarian Times and Sustainability: The Journal of Record. She has been at UofL since 2014.