A resolution concerning the creation of an adverse gas price emergency plan

Resolution 05-10

RESOLUTION OF THE EMPLOYEE FORUM
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

September 7, 2005

WHEREAS the Mission of the Employee Forum is to address constructively the concerns of employees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and those concerns include the representation of staff concerns to University officials, State Legislators, and the citizenry of North Carolina; and

WHEREAS the continuing rise in gasoline prices over the last year has had an ever-increasing adverse effect on all state Employees; and

WHEREAS many Employees can no longer afford to live close enough to their employment at this University to utilize public transit and must commute significant distances to work; and

WHEREAS the most recent surge in gas prices now places an immediate and extreme financial burden on many Employees who have little or no alternative but to continue to commute to work;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Employee Forum urgently calls on the Chancellor to convene a task force to quickly formulate an Adverse Gas Price Emergency Plan that encourages all University departments to implement ways to mitigate the rapidly increasing costs of commuting to work.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force should explore supporting strategies that might include:

• Promoting more vanpooling, carpooling and the use of public transit.
• Encouraging the adoption of maximum flexibility in work scheduling across all departments including, where practicable, the adoption of four 10-hour workdays.
• Providing housekeeping and cleaning services within the University during normal business hours, where practicable, in order to allow housekeeping staff to car pool with daytime Employees or to use public transit.
• Maximizing all possible telecommuting options for staff positions.

• Increasing subsidies for vanpools to encourage more Employees to use these options.  As these costs increase in the future, we encourage the University to increase subsidies to meet these costs. 

Signed on behalf of the Employee Forum

Chair, Tommy Griffin