InTouch:
UNC Employee Forum News
Volume 4, Number 7 October 2003
From the Chair: Helping in Elizabeth City; Chancellor
Turns Down Pay Raise
Board of Trustees Chair Stick Williams to Address Forum in December
Forum
Contests: How Have the Budget Cuts Affected Your Department? What Would You
Do With a Raise This Year?
Forum Meeting with Provost Shelton, Vice Chancellor Suttenfield
Delegate Roster
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 other’s 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 Delagates 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 Delagates to
present questions to these campus leaders in a manner that encourages follow-up
and debate.
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