Past Issues

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1. Top Stories

REGENTS APPROVED LABOR CONTRACTS with the U’s AFSCME clerical units at the Dec. 12 meeting. The contracts were negotiated following a 15-day strike earlier this year. In a work session the day before, the board also discussed the Gopher football stadium feasibility study released this week. Regents expressed enthusiasm for bringing Gopher football back to campus, but said they want such a project to be consistent with the U’s academic mission and financially viable. MORE: http://www.ur.umn.edu/unsreleases/find.php?ID=999

NOMINATIONS ARE BEING ACCEPTED for the 2004 Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Awards through Jan. 15. This award, given by the U’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, honors individuals, organizations, or projects that have made significant contributions to the common good through public leadership and service. MORE: http://www.ur.umn.edu/unsreleases/find.php?ID=986

A $4.5 MILLION GRANT to help special needs students who are integrated into general education classrooms has been awarded to researchers in the U's College of Education and Human Development. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education, will allow researchers to work with Minnesota teachers to track the individual progress of integrated special education students while at the same time evaluating their success in general classroom work. MORE: http://www.ur.umn.edu/unsreleases/find.php?ID=969

2. Feature Stories

FOR MANY KIDS, GETTING OUT OF SCHOOL means rushing home to video games and TV; however, recent research indicates that students who participate in after-school programs have better school attendance, better grades, and a more positive attitude to school. Now President Bruininks wants a new commission to study how to improve opportunities for out-of-school time. MORE: http://www.umn.edu/urelate/brief/extra/school2003-12-17.html

A SCHOLARSHIP FOR U STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES has been the dream of Harvey Johnson since he had to drop out of the U nearly 50 years ago because of difficulties associated with his frequent seizures. Now, Johnson aims to raise enough money to provide the support that U students with disabilites have often lacked in the past. MORE: http://www.umn.edu/urelate/brief/extra/scholarship2003-12-17.html

3. Work and Life Resources

Council of Academic Professionals and Administrators (CAPA) News
Over the past several years, P&A employees have become increasingly involved in U governance. Now, the opportunity to get involved in U governance might change massively under a proposal for the University Senate to open its membership to P&A and civil service employees. MORE: http://www.umn.edu/ohr/capa

Civil Service Committee News
The U is helping civil service employees offset the increased cost of health care by distributing a one-time, $200 lump sum payment, which will be reflected on the Jan. 21, 2004, paycheck. To qualify, you must be an active, 75 percent-time or greater civil service employee making $65,000 per year (base salary) or less, and you must participate in one of the health care plans offered by the U. Your central HR rep should have more information for you. For more information on the Civil Service Committee, see http://www.umn.edu/csc

Resources from Human Resources

Work Life: As employees return to work after the recent strike by AFSCME Unit 6, various issues can arise, such as workload backups from tasks that were put on hold while staff members were away from the office or friction between union-represented employees who went on strike and those who stayed at work. MORE: http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/eap/mending.html

Great Service: When Facilties Management recently conducted a survey to see how they could improve their service, almost 80 percent of people contacted responded with comments (a normal response rate to a survey is 30 percent). For the janitorial and maintenance staff of Facilities Management, this was proof that their work definitely has an impact on everyone at the U. MORE: http://www.ur.umn.edu/spi/articles.html

Brief is compiled by University Relations at the University of Minnesota. Please send comments, questions, or submissions to Jason Sanford, editor, at sanfo012@umn.edu All Twin Cities event submissions are handled through the events calendar at http://events.tc.umn.edu

Notice: Brief is the official University of Minnesota staff and faculty weekly news digest, featuring human resource, employee benefit, administrative, legislative and budgetary, event, and other pertinent information. You may choose to unsubscribe from Brief. However, please be aware that if you unsubscribe from Brief, you will not receive this up-to-date information, compiled and delivered directly to you, in any other University communications. To unsubscribe, visit http://www.umn.edu/urelate/brief/briefsub.php