Stuart Ivy, the new president of Staff Council, plans to address member apathy and the use of Social Security numbers during the 2008-2009 academic year.
Ivy, an information technology manager in the College of Veterinary Medicine, took office at the end of the June 4 council meeting and will serve for one year. He has served as vice president for the past two years. He has three years of total experience with the council.
“I am honored to have been elected and will do my best to address concerns of the staff at the university,” he said. “I am looking forward to dealing with issues such as salary compression, child care, raises and a host of other issues.”
Ivy succeeds Shannon Scott, an assistant editor in the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, who served as president for two years.
In addition to Ivy, new council officers include Jerry Daniel, an IT professional associate in the department of mathematics, who will serve as vice president; and Vickie Coker, an organization development consultant in Human Resources, who will serve as coordinator. New members to the council’s executive committee include Lori Tiller, facilities manager in the Office of Performing Arts; Donna LeBlond, an administrative associate in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication; and Morgan Nolan, an instructional technology development specialist in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
To get more involvement from its committees, the council will increase the length of its meetings. This year meetings will run from 2:30-4 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month. The full council will meet for one hour with an additional 30 minutes allotted afterward for committee meetings.
“It seems like this past couple of years, we’ve gotten a lot of apathy. It’s very hard getting people involved,” Ivy said. “I know everybody’s schedule is busy, but if we can keep the meetings focused and limited in time then we’ll have better attendance and people will be able to set aside time for both the Staff Council meeting and their committee.”
Identity management and using Social Security numbers will likely be a key issue to the council again this year, according to Ivy, who said that staff members would like to see Social Security numbers used less when completing forms.
Salary compression will continue to be an item for the council, though Ivy said that money has been put into the current budget to address the issue. Funds are available for supervisors to distribute to employees who already have received their maximum raise amount but still see the effects of salary compression. Ivy said he also plans to continue working on the salary issue for UGA’s lower wage earners.
Ivy said the council will continue to look into a four-day, 10-hour work week, a hot topic of the UGAStaff listserv for the past few months.
“A recommended guideline on how to handle 4-10 or telecommuting would be an improvement,” he said.
As for Staff Council overall, Ivy said that he wanted to have the council “continue to be a dynamic group instead of fading away because of non-participation and attendance issues. When all of us have our say together, maybe we can make the situation better for all of us.”
