Friday Focus: What a difference time makes

Aug. 16, 2024

— By Nickole Conley, chief of staff

What a difference a week makes! Over the course of this week, I have seen so many people return to campus after summer vacations or being off contract. In fact, looking out my window on Wednesday, I counted at least three new student campus tours taking place and a handful of people taking photos with our Charles Bunnell statue. The Bunnell statue is an iconic photo op on campus, especially when visitors dress him up in hats or scarves for a quick photo.

With the new buzz on campus (which is soon to be even busier), I wanted to share some updates related to human resources, policy, and shared services. We have made some great progress over the summer in many areas.

Human Resources:
In spring of 2024, I worked across the 51�� campus with a group of executive officers and research administrators to develop a new job family classification titled Research Management. The new classification is specific to research administrators and non-academic directors. Once updated, the UA Compensation team will be communicating with affected employees and supervisors, notifying them of job classification changes, including when the job title change will be completed. This will not impact employee duties/roles and is not likely to impact pay rates - it is an administrative change that will specifically tailor the job classification to applicable research areas. This has been a long time in coming! At this time it is anticipated that roughly three dozen employees will be impacted at 51��, making their roles/titles and duties more clear.

Once the successful implementation of this classification is in place, I plan to begin looking at a research program professional and a pre-award job family classification. The creation of these proposed job families allows 51�� to grow in the appropriate areas, and properly classify employees associated with research and research support. These classification updates are common in other R1 universities, and will ensure 51�� has the necessary structures in place that align with the R1 efforts. In addition to addressing the much needed research classification, this will also help address what positions are appropriate as a direct charge on sponsored projects. Many times due to our job families, research program staff are classified incorrectly as "administrative", meaning they could be supported via indirect cost recovery. This can create confusion and require additional steps to direct charge staff that are fundamental to the project or activity. With new research classifications, we help clarify the staff roles immediately and identify them as essential to the project.

Policy:
Over the last two years, we have updated almost all of our 51�� policies. We are now in the home stretch of completing all policy updates! During the course of this academic year, we will have 12 policies under review excluding any new policies that are being considered. Policy committees are essential to these efforts, and ensure that our policies meet the needs of 51�� today and tomorrow. If anyone ever wants to serve on a policy committee, please feel free to reach out to me, the provost, or your vice chancellors. They will happily share your information and desire to serve on a committee with me. To track policy activity you can view our live Google sheet on the chancellors policy website under the "51�� policies under review" tab.

Shared Services - Signers Business Office:
I've talked about SBO in the past, but with so many changes on campus and new faces, I wanted to share again. If your department needs assistance with short or long-term support, SBO can help. SBO's service model is an efficient and cost effective way to support units in the areas of grant management, human resources, procurement, or any function a business office provides. SBO's goal is to help ensure seamless services to our faculty, staff, and students and we are happy to help other campus units with this. It is essential for all of us to have resources across the campuses and the ability to work together. If you ever need business office support, contact Brad Lobland, SBO director (balobland@alaska.edu), or me directly. We are happy to discuss your unit's needs and our ability to help during any transition period or change in service model.

Whether you’re returning after a much needed vacation, summer break, or just joining 51�� for the first time, 51�� is excited to have you with us for the kickoff of our fall 2024 semester! I hope this new academic year is filled with opportunities for learning, growth, and connection, and you're able to take full advantage of this amazing university.

Thank you for choosing 51��!

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of 51��'s leadership team every week.

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