Athena committee pushes for paid parental leave at UI

Back for the spring semester, Faculty Senate discussed a proposal for paid parental leave for faculty and staff members and addressed the recent surge of COVID-19 cases. 

Parental leave 

UI ranks low throughout the state in providing paid parental leave for faculty and staff members. Members of Athena, an association of staff to promote an equitable environment for women, presented on the current leave policy, followed by their own proposed update.  

The current policy provides faculty 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave, but only to those with six months of prior employment. Employees can use sick days or annual leave with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.  

“What our group is proposing and trying to push forward is that we would like to have 12 weeks of paid parenting leave to benefit eligible employees,” committee member Jessica Martinez said.  

The proposed plan from the committee includes 12 weeks paid parental leave upon hire following the birth, adoption or foster of a child.  

The current policy also doesn’t consider the redistribution of an employee’s work upon their leave.  

The policy proposed by Athena plans for fair distribution responsibilities among the college and their departments. The redistribution also includes compensation for faculty and temporary hires to alleviate the work.  

The committee stated that the benefits of paid leave at UI would include increased employee retention and recruitment, further creating an equitable work environment and improved morale. 

COVID-19 

 UI Provost and Vice President Torrey Lawrence acknowledged the difficulties that faculty and UI community members have faced throughout the pandemic.  

“We’re all exhausted from thinking about it and dealing with it,” Lawrence said. “Here we are, again, with a significant surge going on and I recognize this makes people scared, frustrated, exhausted.”  

As of Tuesday, 6 students are quarantining in Targhee Hall UI. Lawrence said that the university is doing the best they can, communicating with Gritman Medical Center, Public Health – Idaho North Central District and providing students with Vault testing kits. 

“We had a long meeting with Public Health and Gritman just prior to the school year beginning and we stay in touch with them,” Lawrence said. “They reaffirm that our plan has really worked so far and as far as they know these are the best things we can do.” 

Lawrence said the trend of the new COVID-19 variant shows how quickly it passes through infected regions. He remains hopeful that numbers will start to decline in the following two weeks.  

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that 6 students were quarantined in Targhee Hall, not 26.

Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]