May 23, 2019
Professional Staff Affairs Committee updates
As part of Faculty Senate, the Professional Staff Affairs Committee was formed in an effort to communicate the specific needs, challenges and voices of K-State unclassified professional staff, who comprise more than one-third K-State's employees.
In order to make sure that we are accurately communicating the concerns of professional staff as we move forward, we sent a link to a brief, anonymous survey to all professional staff in October. The survey indicated that the majority of professional staff at K-State reported they have a positive experience/attitude with/toward their employment at K-State. There are, however, a few areas of concern.
Based on the results of that survey, the committee will focus on the following efforts:
- Continue to advocate for the creation of a draft Targeted Salary Enhancement Plan for professional staff.
- Focus on low-cost, high-impact benefits, including the tuition assistance program.
- Examine how we represent professional staff and how we can work to better advocate on their behalf.
- Continue to receive updates from Human Capital Services on competency and career progression initiatives.
To make progress on these issues, the Professional Staff Affairs Committee will host open meetings during the fall semester to gather ideas, input and to ask for assistance in achieving these goals. Information will be published early in the fall semester with dates and times. Please be on the lookout for these if you would like to be more involved.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Jay Stephens, vice president for human capital, for his work on the Parental Leave Policy and his continuing advocacy with Kansas Board of Regents regarding our health benefits.
Finally, we invite all unclassified professional staff to reach out to a committee member and/or attend a meeting as needed. Meeting agendas and minutes are located on the Professional Staff Affairs Committee website.
Elected members, their email, their affiliation and term of service for the Professional Staff Affairs committee:
- Mishelle Hay McCammant, mhay@k-state.edu, College of Agriculture, 2018-2021.
- Thomas Jackson, tjackson@k-state.edu, College of Architecture, Planning & Design, 2015-2021.
- Laura Hohenbary, laura8@k-state.edu, College of Arts and Sciences, 2019-2022.
- Suzy Auten, sauten@k-state.edu, College of Business Administration, 2019-2021.
- Kelly Briggs, kbriggs10@k-state.edu, College of Education, 2013-2020, co-chair.
- TBA, College of Engineering, 2019-2022.
- Nancy Daniels, nkdaniels@k-state.edu, K-State Extension, 2019-2021.
- Maria Beebe, pappy@k-state.edu, general university, 2019-2020, co-chair with Pat Hudgins as alternate.
- Mary Anne Andrews, mandrews@k-state.edu, College of Human Ecology, 2013-2020.
- Renee Gates, regates@k-state.edu, K-State Libraries, 2019-2022.
- Alyssa Wendel, mustard22@k-state.edu, K-State Polytechnic, Jan. 2017-2022.
- Mal Hoover, grublo@k-state.edu, College of Veterinary Medicine, 2017-2020.
- Sadie Polson, scpolson@k-state.edu, student representative
Non-voting attendees: Lynn Carlin, lcarlin@k-state.edu, liaison for the provost and Paul Volino, pvolino@k-state.edu, liaison for Human Capital Services