Faculty Senate approves consolidation, explanation on reclassification policy
University of Idaho Faculty Senate approved language additions to the reclassification policy, as well as formation of a committee to assist in the process of compiling documents Tuesday.
The reclassification policy is listed in two places, the Faculty Staff Handbook and the Administrative Procedures Manual.
Don Crowley, faculty secretary, said the intent of reviewing the policy was to reconcile differences between the two.
Crowley said the easiest way to understand the two handbooks’ purposes is to think of the Faculty Staff Handbook as policy and the Administrative Procedures Manual as process.
Brian Mahoney, Faculty Senate member from Campus Recreation, proposed language requiring a description of what a “significant change” is and how the job value factors will be evaluated — the criteria for judging a reclassification request.
This language was moved into the Faculty Staff Handbook.
“By moving that phrase … we’re saying that that should be policy,” Crowley said.
Mahoney said requiring a description of how requests will be judged allows classified and exempt staff and their supervisors to understand the process.
“We don’t have any way to know how that will be looked at,” Mahoney said about the current policy.
Greg Walters, Human Resources executive director, said job value factors are listed on the HR website, but HR would be able and willing to elaborate on this aspect of reclassification evaluation.
As far as defining “significant” changes, Walters said even if UI President Chuck Staben approves the policy, HR would not be able to make this change.
“It’s an unrealistic request for this kind of classification system, but we’re wide open about explaining how the job evaluation occurs,” Walters said.
Faculty Senate also approved a committee to work with Human Resources to compile and align documents.
“That’s a great idea,” Walters said. “There are so many policies and procedures with which we have the opportunity to update and streamline.”
In other news
A policy allowing University of Idaho employees to donate leave to their spouse, if their spouse is also a UI employee, for parenting purposes was approved by Faculty Senate Tuesday.
The policy presented by Ruth Funabiki, Faculty Affairs committee chair, would allow spouses to donate annual leave to each other with department approval.
The policy would go into effect after approval by UI President Chuck Staben.
UI shared leave is restricted to medical reasons, Funabiki said, so this policy would fall under parenting leave.
The policy was made to resemble shared leave by only allowing annual leave to be donated.
“This felt to us like a good first step,” Funabiki said. “It’s a very small step, but it’s the direction we want to have considered.”
Wendy Couture, Faculty Senate member from Boise, said in the future, language should be added to allow for any UI employee to donate leave to another for parenting purposes if the recipient has exhausted all other leave options.
Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Katelyn_mh