On March 1, 2017, the UW Staff Senate passed a resolution requesting that as administration rewrites benefits to generate revenue, UW maintain the benefit of having student fees waived UW staff.
All staff members at UW can currently take up to six credit hours of classes and have student fees waived. The proposed resolution would allow that fee waiver to be applied to new fees.
“Currently the course tuition and mandatory fees are waived, but course or program fees are not,” Rachel Stevens, Staff Senate member, said. “The proposed programs fees represent a substantial shift, and now the cost of taking courses will be much higher for UW staff.”
Stevens said the increase in cost could have a significant impact on opportunities for staff.
“Some staff members are pursuing degrees, or completing course work that relates to their current position at UW,” Stevens said. “Since staff compensation has lagged behind our comparators for the past decade, the tuition waiver was an important benefit that UW offered.”
Staff Senate President, Mark Gunnerson, said Staff Senate is fighting to keep benefits that UW UW’s Staff needs.
The resolution also requested a $40 increase in pay for every five years of service. Gunnerson said this increase would align staff’s benefits with the standards in Wyoming.
“If you look at faculty, they have a tenure and promotion package,” Gunnerson said. “Other educators have a step promotion program. The staff does not have any package for an increase. Staff senate is fighting to keep the benefit package where it’s at.”
Katherine Kirkaldie, Staff Senate member, said not covering program fees in the new benefits package could have a significant impact on staff members’ ability to enroll in classes.
“For some employees, being assessed program fees for a class may be more than they can bear financially, which will effectively nullify their ability to use the tuition waiver benefit. This is likely to affect employees in lower salary grades disproportionately,” Kirkaldie said.
Gunnerson and Kirkaldie said staff have experienced a stagnation in salary increases in the last few years.
“Program fees, if assessed, will diminish the tuition benefit, which is unfortunate given stagnant or minimal employee salary increases over a period of many years,” Kirkaldie said.
Members of Staff Senate should know the outcome of their resolution by the middle of April. Gunnerson said he is hopeful about the senate’s request.
“President Nichols has been very receptive to the staff senate resolutions in the past. We are very grateful for that,” Gunnerson said.
