InTouch: UNC Employee Forum News
Volume 4, Number 7 October 2003
From the Chair, Tommy Griffin…
Helping in Elizabeth City; Chancellor Turns Down Pay Raise
Hello Friends. Fall is here and we have survived another Hurricane together. I don’t know which was worse: worrying about what the storm was going to do or watching it happening. Both were nerve-racking, but as usual we came through it together with very little damage and drew closer together because we do care about each other. I don’t know whether you have heard or not, but we had employees travel to our sister university at Elizabeth City to help make repairs and clean up. They suffered a lot of damage and needed all the help they could get. As usual, our fellow employees stepped up and volunteered to go help. I know that they did a great job because that is who we are. We take a lot of pride in our work, and it shows no matter whether it is on this campus or another one. I want to give a special thanks to them and to all the employees and everyone else on campus for helping and for what they did before and after the Hurricane.
As time marches on, we continue to carry out our daily lives and plan for the future. I wonder where we will be five years from now or even ten years from now. I know that we will still be here and the University will still be here because we care and our mission is to make sure that the University will survive through hard economic times and whatever may happen. I know that we have more good days than we have bad days, but sometimes it’s hard to see the good because the bad seems to last longer on our minds. There will be new faces to carry on our mission, but we will still have the same goal. That is to serve the needs of our state and our nation and our communities. Now is the time to put all our differences aside and work together to improve things on Campus. It will take all of us working together to make the changes that are needed to improve our benefits and pay and working conditions on campus. We all can make a difference if we try hard enough and do it together. This is what Chancellor’s Task Force is all about. Every member of the Task force is working very hard to come up with the right ideas and changes that need to be made to improve conditions on campus. We have had great ideas and suggestions from all over campus, and we are looking at every one of them. This is why we had to extend the time frame of the Task Force, to make sure we leave no stone unturned or any ideas left out. The Task Force is sending out a survey, so please fill it out and send it back. We still need everyone’s support to accomplish our mission.
In case you haven’t heard, the Chancellor turned down his chance at a pay bonus this year. This says a lot for our Chancellor: he didn’t think it was right to accept such a bonus with the rest of us getting so little. We have a good Chancellor, and we just need to make sure that we all provide the right information to him so he can make the best decisions for everyone on Campus. Put yourself in each others’ shoes and see how it feels. Thanks for everything. Your friend, Tommy.
Board of Trustees Chair Stick Williams to Address Forum in December
Board of Trustees Chair and Duke Energy executive Stick Williams will address the Forum at its December 3, 2003 meeting, to be held at 9:30 a.m. in the Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room.
Forum Contests: How Have the Budget Cuts Affected Your Department? What Would You Do With a Raise This Year?
Contest number 1
Budget cuts have hit every department in the last few years. First there was talk about trimming away the fat. Then we started getting into muscle. Now we’re working on bones and vital organs. How have budget cuts affected your department? The Employee Forum would like to hear your stories. To give you a little encouragement we are making a contest out of it. Two randomly chosen entries will receive coupons towards lunch at a locally owned restaurant.
Contest Number 2
OK so we didn’t get a raise this year! But what if you did? What if you got a 5% raise? What would you do with it? (I know what I’d do. I’d be putting it toward the house I’m building.) Here’s your chance to have a little fantasy fun spending money you don’t have. How would you use it? Pay bills? Buy camping equipment? Save it? Tell the Forum all about it and maybe you will be the lucky randomly chosen winner of a coupon towards lunch at a locally owned restaurant.
The drawings will be made the week of October 28 and winners will be notified by November 17. Don’t forget to include your phone number in your entry. You may enter both contests, but only one entry per person for the individual contests.
Please let us know also if you do not want you name published. All stories are subject to reprinting in future issues.
Send your stories to the Forum Office
UNC Chapel Hill Employee Forum
Campus Box 3488, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3488
Or email it to
forum_office@unc.edu
Keep reading In-Touch. Maybe your story will be in the next newsletter.
Forum Meeting with Provost Shelton, Vice Chancellor Suttenfield
Forum Delegates have now held two face to face hour-long meetings with Provost Shelton and Vice Chancellor Suttenfield to discuss Employee concerns, one in July and one in October. These meetings have been a chance for Delegates to present questions to these campus leaders in a manner that encourages follow-up and debate.