May 6, 2005 - West Ridge Parking Needs Study
The UAF Subcommittee on Circulation and Parking has prepared a report on West Ridge Parking Needs and submitted it to the UAF Master Plan Committee (MPC) for discussion and consideration at their Thurs. May 12, 2005 meeting (9 am - 11 am Chancellor's Conference Room). All are welcome to attend. Public comment is invited (generally limited to 3 minutes) at all Master Plan Committee meetings. While the report itself is a bit dense, it does reveal a substantive lack of needed parking currently and into the future. Once the Master Plan Committee puts its mark on it (probably more than one mark) and forwards it to the Chancellor, this report may provide some ammunition to demonstrate our needs to those who plan for and construct facilities on campus, a staff recommendation made at the recent Parking Services presentation in the Globe Room.

April 19, 2005 - Open enrollment for staff is active from April 18 - May 13, 2005. This is the time where you can change benefit levels and features, a once a year event. See the link above for more info.

April 19, 2005 - UA Choice Health Care has new rates effective July 1, 2005. These are increased substantially from the current fiscal year due to general increase in usage, addition of UA union represented staff, an undercollection with the current rates, and an attempt to not under-collect in FY'06. These rates are based upon figures from the first quarter of FY'05 and a final look will be taken to see if changes (downward) can be made before they go into effect July 1, 2005. Here is a comparison of FY '05 and FY '06 rates.

April 13, 2006 - Nominations for UAF Staff Council President-Elect are now open. More info about Staff Council is on their website.

Jan. 11, 2005 - 2005 Staff Council calendars are available for all staff. Copies can be obtained from any of your reps or alternates above.

Dec. 23, 2004 - 2004 Annual Report for Unit 5 staff (you might need to allow Active Content in your browser, if you have trouble opening this).

Dec. 6, 2004 - Parking Fees and Policies. The UAF Master Plan Committee followed up on the budget recommendation of the Subcommittee on Circulation and Parking with two recommendations to the Chancellor for increased parking fees to meet budgetary needs and parking meters for fees and to allow more short term parking in the core area. Recommendation 1 and Recommendation 2 in Acrobat. I'm told that the Chancellor's Cabinet will be discussing these today. A Powerpoint presentation to explain some of the background issues is available here. For reference only is also an earlier budget for parking services. I hope to have the updated budget projections by tomorrow. As you may be aware, Parking Services has been made an "auxiliary service", which means they must earn their own costs with no external or UAF general budget support. Any permit fee changes would not be effective until next fall.

The Compensation Task Force was established to address issues of compensation for UA non-represented staff. A draft report has been prepared is is available for review here in Adobe Acrobat format . The expectation is that some recommendations will be timely for budgeting for the next (FY 06) fiscal year and thus be presented to the Regents during their fall 04 budget deliberations. Further info, contact any of the Task Force members.
Nov. 2004 Update: this was presented to the Regents in November and I understand they endorsed in concept the recommendation for an annual cost of living increase (COLA) of up to a maximum of 2% per year. This is in contrast to the past, where each increase, if even offered, was totally at the discretion of the statewide administration.