President's Initiative on Compensation Issues

Compensation Issues and Hunger Strike | New Parameters of Compensation

Basic Needs/Equitable Compensation Task Force

Final Report | Preliminary Report | Campus Commentary on Preliminary Report

Meetings/Minutes | President's Memo April 2006

As an educational institution, the University of Vermont encourages all members of the campus community to consider thoughtfully and analyze for themselves critical issues of the day. One such issue is reasonable compensation in view of basic individual needs, competitive and equitable compensation, and institutional resources.

Ours is an open campus community in which all viewpoints are respected and acknowledged. When issues are raised about the University’s policies or practices, they are considered seriously through the normal processes available to us as a community. These normal processes include our governance channels and, for represented employees, collective bargaining.

Certain issues by their nature benefit from broad input. For this reason, President Fogel has convened a Task Force whose fundamental charge is to develop recommendations for the administration on principles and policies affecting the economic welfare and opportunities of lower-paid UVM employees.

The Task Force is specifically charged to:

• make recommendations to the administration concerning principles and policies that should guide the University’s employment practices for lower-paid members of UVM’s workforce in regard to wages, benefits, and other terms of employment, including access to education and training;
• ground its consideration of principles and guidelines in a thorough examination of accurate data, both UVM-specific and comparative, regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment;
• solicit the views of interested faculty, staff, and students who wish to contribute their perspectives on these matters, and responsibly to reflect the nature and extent of these views;
• respect the role of collective bargaining as the legally mandated means by which employers and unionized employees, through their representatives, jointly determine the specific terms and conditions of employment for represented employees.

Task Force Members:

• Associate Professor Jane Knodell, Department of Economics, Chair
• Mr. Seth Bowden, Undergraduate Student
• Ms. Valerie Esposito, Graduate Student
• Assistant Professor Matthew Carlson, Political Science
• Mr. Patrick Brown, Director, Student Life
• Professor Michael Gurdon, School of Business Administration
• Vice President Thomas Gustafson, Student and Campus Life
• Associate Dean Wanda Heading-Grant, College of Education and Social Services
• Associate Vice President Barbara Johnson, Human Resources
• Ms. Mary Lafayette, Office/Program Support Senior, Finance and Administration
• Mr. Sam Maron, Undergraduate Student
• Mr. Timothy Bilodeau, Police Officer, Police Services
• Mr. Jeff Schulman, Senior Associate Athletic Directors, Athletic Department
• Ms. Sarah Shackett, Undergraduate Student
• Associate Professor Sondra Solomon, Department of Psychology
• Ms. Carmyn Stanko, Utilities Tradesperson Special, Physical Plant
• Professor Ross Thomson, Department of Economics
• Ms. Karin Bell, Bailey/Howe Library
• Ms. Jennifer Larsen, Department of Geology

In order to support the Task Force in its work, the following individuals have been assigned to attend Task Force meetings and to provide such information and support as the Task Force may require to complete its charge:

• William Ballard, Associate Vice President, Finance and Administration
• Caryn Gronvold, Labor Relations Manager
• Ginnie Gude, Compensation and Classification Manager
• Ted Winfield, Associate Vice President, Financial Analysis and Budgeting
• Catherine Symans, Office/Program Support Sr., Office of the President

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Last modified April 30 2007 12:51 PM