Latest News

PEAK Initiative Update

Informational sessions for the Finance, Human Resources, Marketing and Communications, and Information Technologies areas have been held over the last month. We encourage you to attend listening sessions if you are invited and to reach out to your unit leadership if you have questions. You can learn more by reviewing the University’s PEAK Initiative website which continues to be updated and includes an expanded Frequently Asked Questions section.

REMINDER: Emergency Paid Leave for COVID-19

The University continues to provide emergency paid leave through 2022 for employees and student workers affected by COVID-19 within 2022. This emergency paid leave is available for employees and student workers who:

Are unable to work or work remotely due to COVID-related illness
Need to quarantine or isolate because of exposure to COVID-19
Must care for someone who is ill with COVID-19
Must care for a child whose school or childcare is closed or unavailable or help with the relocation of a college-age child due to COVID-19 (or if a student worker must take time off to relocate)
Need time off to get a COVID-19 vaccine
Have an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine and need time off to recover or who need to care for a family member who has a reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine

Note: Emergency Paid Leave for 2023 has not yet been determined.

Benefits Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment ends this week (Wednesday, November 30). This is your final chance to review and make changes to your benefits package including medical insurance, dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, short- and long-term disability, and additional life insurance. This is also the time to add and remove dependents. Employees can review their current enrollment in their MyU portal.

Vickie R. Courtney Award for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance

The Vickie R. Courtney Award for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance recognizes faculty, students, and academic professional and administrative (P&A), and civil service staff systemwide who have made a significant impact on University Senate governance, have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to University Senate governance, and have served as an inspiration to others. Award recipients will receive a one-time $1,000 stipend and an engraved plaque, and will be formally recognized at the Thursday, April 27, 2023, University Senate meeting.

The deadline for submitting nominations to recognize individuals for their outstanding service to University Senate governance is Friday, March 3, 2023.

Please consider nominating a colleague who exemplifies the criteria. A complete description of the award and nomination requirements can be found on the Vickie R. Courtney Award for Outstanding Service to University Senate Governance webpage.

October Seminar Series: How to Write an Effective Award Nomination

If you missed our October Seminar Series event - “How To Write An Effective Award Nomination” - the recording and slides of the seminar are available online.

REPA/ROC Refresher

The Report of External Professional Activities (REPA) is used to report external activities and business and financial interests in accordance with University policies that govern external activities and conflict of interests. The annual REPA email will be sent to University employees on Friday, January 27, 2023. If you would like a REPA refresher, refer to these notes from PD&E’s Policy Pop-up from January of 2021 titled Outside Consulting and Other Commitments (REPA/ROC) Policy Pop-Up.

P&A Driving MPact 2025

The P&A Senate is committed to demonstrating how P&A employees support the goals reflected in MPact 2025 Systemwide Strategic Plan.

University of Minnesota Extension

Ellie McCann, family resiliency Extension educator, Sharon Powell, family resiliency Extension educator, Emily Becher, applied research and evaluation specialist, and Kate Welshons, family resiliency and health & nutrition Extension educator, made up four of the five team members recognized last month by Dean of Extension Bev Durgan, with the Dean’s Distinguished Team Award for their work supporting the Parents Forever program. The program marked its 25th anniversary this year of helping divorcing parents resolve their custody and visitation conflicts through educational programming. This team's work has kept the Parents Forever program adaptive and innovative in its programming and approach leading to its adaptation for use in other states and for meeting other parenting needs such as those of incarcerated fathers. Ellie, Sharon, Emily, and Kate are all supporting MPact 2025’s commitment to discovery, innovation, and impact by engaging and impacting Minnesota at world-class levels.

Technology Commercialization

In FY22, the entire staff of the Technology Commercialization (Tech Comm) office at the University of Minnesota supported a record 22 startups and issuance of 241 patents, contributing to the research objectives of MPact 2025. P&A staff were uniquely positioned to help researchers move ideas into concrete products and services to benefit society. Rebecca Gerber, associate director, Technology Strategy Group, said, “The large number of issued patents and startups launched would not have been possible without the P&A staff that bring a strong and unique blend of technical, business, and legal expertise and skills to the research community at the University of Minnesota.”

Please consider sharing your work with us to be considered for upcoming newsletters. If you read an article involving a P&A Employee, let us know by submitting it to this form.

Senate Work

P&A Consultative Committee (PACC)

Chair Adolfo Carrillo Cabello and Chair-elect Whitney Taha Frakes
P&A Senate leadership continues to advance advocacy efforts to include educational opportunities that align with the P&A Senate’s leadership stated principles of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity. Over the past month, our work has focused on capturing our diverse voices to contribute our collective feedback to current conversations in governance.

PACC continues to collaborate with other governance groups to support the advancement of issues and concerns that extend beyond our employee group. This past month, our work included advocating for system-wide concerns, as well as seeking and securing conversations with senior leadership. These actions include:

Submitting to Teamsters 320 and the Office of Human Resources (OHR) a letter to support fair, good faith negotiations and to affirm basic principles about the importance of fair, living wages for all employees (October 19 Letter);
Facilitating and supporting the Benefits and Compensation Subcommittee in compiling and reporting P&A Senate feedback to OHR on the proposed Wellbeing Program redesign;
Engaging with Workforce Data Management, OHR, to obtain a report on ethnographic information of new P&A hires during FY22;
Co-authoring, with the Senate Consultative Committee (SCC), a letter to Board of Regents (BOR) members to review potential violations of the BOR Policy: Code of Conduct based on Regent Steve Sviggum’s remarks during the October 13, 2022, BOR meeting;
Securing participation at the December 2022 PACC meeting of Regent James Farnsworth;
Inviting Mercedes Ramírez Fernández, vice president, Office of Equity and Diversity, and Angel Uddin, director, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, OHR, to participate in the February 2023 P&A Senate meeting

P&A Outreach Subcommittee

Toni Abts and Stacy Doepner-Hove, co-chairs

The Outreach Subcommittee is excited to announce that a number of the open senator and alternate seats in the P&A Senate have been filled! Congratulations and welcome to all the new senators and alternates. We are still looking for representatives from Athletics, Budget & Finance, the College of Education and Human Development, the President's Office, Public Affairs, Student Affairs, University of Minnesota Crookston, and University of Minnesota Extension. If you are a P&A employee who has worked at the University for at least six months with a 50 percent or more appointment and are in a unit that has open seats for representation please consider nominating yourself so that you can share your voice with the University!

If you are interested or have any questions, contact Stacy Doepner-Hove ([email protected]) or Toni Abts ([email protected]).

Professional Development and Enrichment Subcommittee

Monica Kocon, chair

December 2022 Seminar Series Event
Fostering and Creating Community in Your Workplace
The pandemic has introduced new and, perhaps, challenging ways to work and connect with colleagues (and students). What are some best practices to build meaningful relationships with colleagues when a team could be in person, virtual, or a hybrid mix? How do you foster engagement and create a sense of community in your workplace, especially with onboarding new (newer) staff? Should your team revisit unwritten rules/norms? Where does work end and home begin if you are in a smaller community? Our panelists will share their knowledge and expertise to help you foster engagement and create a sense of community in your workplace. Event will be held on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, from 12-1PM CT. Reserve your spot.

January 2023 Policy Pop-Up Event
Understanding the UMN Discrimination Policy
In February 2022, the University established a new administrative policy on Discrimination. Join us to learn about the Discrimination policy and available resources. Our panelists will delve into the FAQs related to reasonable accommodations for disabilities, pregnancy, childbirth and lactation, and religious beliefs among other topics. This event will feature a short presentation followed by a moderated Q&A and discussion session with our panelists. Event will be held on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 from 12-1PM CT. Reserve your spot.

February 2023 Seminar Series Event
Compensation 101: Compensation Planning in the Annual Budget Process
Join Vice President and budget director Julie Tonneson from the University Budget & Finance office for a discussion around an informative conversation to learn how the University plans for compensation increases, how compensation fits into the overall budget, and the timeline for making budget decisions. Event will be held on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, from 12-1PM CT. Reserve your spot.

Upcoming PACC Conversations

At its September meeting, the Board of Regents (BOR) engaged in discussion around consideration of public engagement. In this meeting, Regent Michael Kenyanya raised questions about how it could increase its accessibility (i.e., being accessible to greater Minnesota), and how to manage accessibility (i.e, what channels would provide equal access, and whether information conveyed in different channels might have different impacts). Regent Kenyanya asked how the BOR engages with staff at the University. In his comments, Regent Kenyanya noted that BOR members had not recently - interacted with the P&A Senate. The P&A Consultative Committee had the privilege of hosting Regent Kenyanya at its April 25, 2021, meeting, during which the topic of engagement was discussed, and P&A leadership shared concerns about the constraints with existing ways of communications with the BOR.

Watching the BOR September meeting on public engagement helped me increase my understanding of the role that the BOR, as a body, plays in securing that constituents' voices and interests are represented in its decision-making process. While there are multiple channels available to the public to share information with the BOR, P&A leadership is interested in learning more about how P&A employees have used these channels, and how we perceive our engagement and communication with the BOR today. At our November P&A Senate meeting, P&A Senate members gathered information about three core questions using a Jamboard to record these ideas. From this exercise, there are some important takeaways worth highlighting.

First, it was apparent that P&A Senate members feel disconnected from BOR decisions. Even more important are the reasons P&A Senate members offered as to why a closer connection is valuable. These are some ideas provided:

We are citizens of Minnesota, in addition to being University employees and direct constituents.
We have institutional knowledge and longevity as individuals and as an employee group, which can provide strategy on day-to-day operations and how we help keep the University system up and running.
Email communications are not always effective. We recognize the shortcomings of one-way communications and are working to create a dialogue.

P&A employees make up a diverse group that doesn’t always agree on everything, but we can work together effectively. Through this exercise we were not only able to capture diverse voices, but also to tap into the variety of talent among our members, which includes experts in many fields, such as communication. Not surprisingly, our group had suggestions for improving communications with the BOR:

Create an appointed BOR liaison to the P&A Senate
Consider expanding channels of communication that would afford frequent, just-in-time messaging
Incorporate a search functionality on the BOR website that facilitates dissemination of information

As the BOR continues its discussion on the topic of public engagement, we remain optimistic that more frequent, intentional communications and collaboration with our employee group is of interest to board members. Regent James Farnsworth will attend the P&A Consultative Committee meeting on Thursday, December 8, and the suggested topic for conversation is public engagement and communications with the P&A Senate. We are eager for his visit as we believe more frequent and collaborative communication between our P&A employees and board members would not only improve communication regarding the concerns, challenges, and contributions of the more than 7,000 P&A employees at the University, it would enhance our ability to serve the University and its mission.

Additional Updates

Highlights from Give to the Max Day

On Give to the Max Day, the University raised $8.8M with 6,900 gifts! Here are a few highlights from the day:

Received 500 more gifts than last year - the best participation to date and our second best year in dollars raised
Received the largest online gift through our giving tool to date at $99,000
Social ad campaign performed much better than in prior years reaching over 71,000 people with over 2,000 clicks, an increase of 500% from years prior
Hosted 130 crowdfunding campaigns, the most for Give to the Max Day

Thank you to all who supported this year’s Give to the Max Day!

Stay Connected to the P&A Senate!

Previous Senate meeting minutes can be viewed at any time. The next P&A Senate Meeting meeting will be on Friday, February 3, 2023. P&A Senate meetings are open to the public, and you can find meeting information and Zoom links on the P&A Senate website calendar.