Below are highlights of Staff Council’s December 2011 and January 2012 meetings. The complete minutes of these and other recent Staff Council meetings are available on our website at http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/administration/scouncil/minutes/mcsc_minutes/2012minutes.

December: Staff Council reps summarized the district meetings conducted jointly by SC reps and vice presidents; these issues arose in multiple district meetings:

  • Increased workload due to reduced staffing has made it necessary to rely on student workers and the challenges for those supervising
  • Expectations of exempt high-level managers of non-exempt staff to respond during off-duty hours
  • Campus-wide communication

Tim Spears gave a progress report addressing working conditions in high-temperature work areas (dining hall kitchens, for example) on hot days.

Joe Antonioli from LIS demonstrated online classifieds.

January: Reports from committees unveiled issues relating to dorm damage (Community Council), benefits, and the possibility of staff to direct their retirement accounts (HR-6)

A recent furnace failure led to a discussion about adding a statement to the thermal comfort policy that would apply to employees working in offices when the heat is not sufficient on winter days.

We discussed the upcoming launch of online classifieds: go.middlebury.edu/classifieds

We discussed last year’s communications regarding the merit bonuses, and how it can be communicated and implemented more clearly this year.

— Interested staff members are always welcome to join Staff Council during our meetings – the second Wednesday of every month from 9-10:30 a.m., almost always in the Crest Room in McCullough. The next one will be February 8th.

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