To:        The UMBC Community

From:    Freeman Hrabowski, President

 Philip Rous, Interim Provost

Re:        Regents Policy on Reporting Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect

The Board of Regents approved a policy in December for reporting suspected child abuse and neglect.  Recent events elsewhere demonstrate the need to establish and communicate policies that explain individual and institutional reporting obligations.  It is important to note that the new USM policy is based on existing State law.

The new policy requires each campus to designate an institutional point of contact for reporting suspected child abuse and neglect.  Stephanie Lazarus, Human Relations Manager, located within the General Counsel’s Office, is UMBC’s official contact for such reports.  She can be reached at 410-455-5745 or slazar@umbc.edu.

As the first step in communicating with the campus about this important matter, we are sharing a letter from Chancellor Kirwan regarding the new policy, along with the full policy document.  Additional guidance and education will be provided to the campus early in the spring semester.  Questions you may have about the policy in the meantime may be directed to Stephanie Lazarus.

Please read the Chancellor’s letter and the policy, both of which are attached to this email. *

* please note that both documents can be found in the "documents" tab of this group.

Professional Staff,

Please see information below. It is a response received by our PSS/CUSS representatives on September 20, 2011 in response to an employee request for an explanation of Governor O’Malley’s executive order regarding leave days for state employees outside of the USM (state sanctioned administrative time off).

Feel free to post feedback or discuss using our "discussion" feature.

Stanyell Bruce
President, Professional Staff Senate

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Response received by PSS/CUSS representatives on September 20, 2011 in response to an employee request for an explanation of Governor O’Malley’s executive order regarding leave days for state employees outside of the USM (state sanctioned administrative time off).

*name(s) of employee(s) have been removed*

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This is in response to the recent inquiry that you received from  [ ] regarding the Executive Order authorizing “reduction recovery days” for employees of the State Personnel System.  As  [ ] noted, the Executive Order specifically exempts the University System of Maryland (USM), and the USM has not instituted such leave days for FY 2012.  After examining the State’s reduction recovery plan in light of the circumstances that we face in the USM this year, we determined that we could not adopt a similar plan for three important reasons.

First and foremost, after three years of budget cuts, frozen salaries and furloughs--and the strains that these measures placed on our employees and institution operations--we could not ask our employees to shoulder additional workload burdens.  Our ability to maintain the level of quality that is expected of the USM already has been pushed to its limits after years of economic downturn, and that situation is unlikely to improve in the near term.  After careful analysis, we determined that the staffing  pressures  likely to result from adoption of the State’s new leave plan would  harm our ability to effectively meet our mission and, at the same time, impose greater demands on current staff and faculty.

Second, even if it were possible to add substantial leave days while maintaining quality, we are seriously concerned about the signal that doing so might send to the public.   While it is impossible to convey our gratitude with economic rewards during difficult economic times, the USM values its employees deeply.  If we were to provide significant additional leave under current conditions, we fear that we would convey a message that our staff and faculty are effectively expendable.   Put another way:  five work days is the equivalent of nearly 2% of a year’s total work time.   For the last three years, we have fought hard to avoid layoffs and keep furloughs to the minimum possible numbers of days.  At a time when public employment is under intense public scrutiny, it would be unwise for the USM to send a message that it can function easily with an effective 2% reduction in productivity.    In the current social and political climate, this would have been a mistake with real potential for harm to the interests of the USM’s institutions--and its staff and faculty.

Finally, we note that the Executive Order’s reduction recovery plan was a direct response to the heavy furlough requirements for State employees in recent years.  As you may be aware, the furlough plans of the USM’s institutions were far less onerous that of the State.  For example, in FY2011, State employees making $40,000 had eight furlough/salary reduction days, and employees making $50,000 had nine.  By contrast, at [ ]’s institution, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, employees with salaries of $40,000 had three salary reduction days, and those with $50,000 salaries had five.  We note that UMBC’s furlough plan was typical of many USM institutions, and some of our institutions required even fewer furlough days for employees with salaries less than $100,000. As such, the justification for the State’s reduction recovery plan does not apply with the same force at the USM.

We are painfully aware that USM employees have endured many burdens over the last three years, and are deeply grateful that staff and faculty have remained committed to the USM and its institutions despite these conditions.  For the reasons described above, we could not conclude that adoption of the State’s reduction recovery plan was prudent or feasible for USM institutions.  Nonetheless, we continue to look for ways to improve the status and wellbeing of our staff and faculty during these difficult times, and we welcome any insights and suggestions that CUSS may have to help us meet that goal.  Please convey our thanks to your members for their dedication to the USM and its institutions, and feel free to contact JoAnn Goedert at jgoedert@usmd.edu or 301-445-1921 if you have any further questions.  We look forward to continuing to work with you on these and other issues. 

UHS will be providing flu shots to the students, staff and faculty of UMBC for $20. UHS will accept cash, personal checks or UMBC campus card.

Wed, Oct 12 - 11-2 p.m., UC Ballroom
Thurs, Oct 13 - 11-2 p.m., Commons Main Street

Questions or concerns about individuals in high risk categories, or those who would like to bill their health insurance, please contact UHS at x5-2542.

Welcome back to another academic year at UMBC! I hope you enjoyed the summer and were able to take some time for yourself and with your family. We in the Professional Staff Senate are energized and have hit the ground running in our efforts to support and represent our fellow staff members. If you haven’t already done so, please join our myUMBC groups page at http://my.umbc.edu/groups/pss. This is our official website and we plan to post information about our events along with other important announcements. Additionally, we encourage you to email us at ProfessionalStaffSenate@umbc.edu or use the group discussion feature to share feedback, ideas or concerns. The PSS 2011-2012 Action Plan will be finalized in the upcoming weeks, so look out for it on the groups page.

NEW THIS YEAR: Your CUSS (Council for University System Staff) representatives, Brian Souders and Joel DeWyer, will send monthly updates about discussions, decisions and more that affect professional staff across the University System of Maryland.

I also want to share a few other items:

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Upcoming Programs (for full list of workshops and flyers, go to www.umbc.edu/hr/T&OD/T&ODindex.html)
* Welcome to UMBC event, 9/15 @ 2-4 p.m.: staff are invited to join President Hrabowski and Interim Provost Rous in welcoming new colleagues to the UMBC community.
* Professional Development Day, 9/22 @ 8:15-12:30 p.m.: “Developing Calm, Confident Power at Work” offers techniques to stay calm in challenging times which help our minds thing more clearly, prioritize our workload and accomplish tasks more easily.

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RETRIEVER FEVER – UMBC HOMECOMING 2011 – October 12 – 15, 2011. UMBC’s Homecoming celebration has many great things in store for all members of the community. For a full calendar of events and to register, go to www.umbc.edu/homecoming. The committee is also happy to bring back the popular office decorating contest, go to http://alumni.umbc.edu/homecoming_spirit for more information and to register. A few events that the PSS would like to highlight are:

* Faculty and Staff Social, 10/12 @ 5 p.m. Flat Tuesdays
* Homecoming Kick-Off Bonfire, Pep Rally and Movie, 10/12 @ 6 p.m., Erickson Field
* Alumni of the Year Awards, 10/13 @ 7:30 p.m., Library Gallery
* Men’s Soccer vs. New Hampshire, 10/14 @ 7 p.m., Soccer Stadium
* Midnight Madness, 10/14 @ 9 p.m., RAC
* 5K Dawg Chase, 10/15 @ 9 a.m., Stadium Lot
* UMBC Fest, 10/15 @ 11-7 p.m., Quad
* Kids Zone, 10/15 @ 1-4:30, Sports Zone, The Commons
* Comedy Night featuring Donald Glover, 10/14 @ 8 p.m., RAC

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GET INVOLVED:

* Professional staff members are invited to attend our monthly senate meetings (9/8 and beginning in October - 3rd Thursday of each month, 2:30-4:30 p.m., commons 318).
* The senate has representatives on University and Senate committees. There are openings on the Staff Development and Staff Outreach committees. For more info, please contact Stanyell Bruce.
* There are also many opportunities on campus for staff to contribute to the University. Staff can volunteer for commencement, give during the Maryland Charities Campaign and/or the Faculty and Staff Campaign, teach an Introduction to an Honors University course and more. We will be sure to send you information as it becomes available. .

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PROFESSIONAL STAFF SENATORS FOR THE 2011-2012 YEAR:

Executive Board
Stanyell Bruce, Alumni Relations, President
bruce@umbc.edu, x5-2632

Carrie Sauter, Interdisciplinary Studies, Vice-President
csauter@umbc.edu, x5-2037

Ben Goldberg, Off-Campus Student Services, IT Officer
beng@umbc.edu, x5-5672

Mike Oettel, Shriver Center, Secretary
moetel@umbc.edu, x5-5655

Taifa Simpson, MARC U*STAR Program, Treasurer
hibbert@umbc.edu, x5-2634

Timothy Sparklin, Research Administration, Past President
sparklin@umbc.edu, x5-2737

Senators
Steve Bowers, Financial Services
bowers@umbc.edu, x5-1496

Linda Brown, MIPAR
librown@umbc.edu, x5-1083

Hans Cooper, Registrar Office
hcooper@umbc.edu, x5-1886

Alison Ginder, Residence Life
alisong@umbc.edu, x5-3575

April Householder, McNair Scholars Program
aprilh@umbc.edu, x5-3057

Michelle Massey, International Education Services
massey@umbc.edu, x5-8155

Jenny O'Grady, Institutional Advancement
jograry@umbc.edu, x-1711

Matthew Poland, Sponsored Programs
mpoland@umbc.edu, x5-8155
Alison Rohrbach, University Health Services
arohrbach@umbc.edu, x-1599

Anne Roland, Public Policy
anne@umbc.edu, x5-8457

Laila Shishineh, Undergraduate Education
lailams@umbc.edi, x5-3737

Aki Thomas, Athletics
aki@umbc.edu, x5-2125

Brian Thompson, Graduate School
bthompson@umbc.edu, x5-3578

Beth Wells, Provost Office
bwells@umbc.edu, x5-8907

CUSS Representatives (Council of University System Staff)
Brian Souders, International Education Services
souders@umbc.edu, x5-2624

Joel DeWyer, Commons Administration (alternate)
dewyerj@umbc.edu, x5-1446

Listed below are links for the new season and discounted tickets at Hippodrome and Broadway Across America venues.  The new special codes are either broadwayweekday or broadwayweekend

These links have been provided by Megan Miley, Manager Regional Sales, Broadway Across America. Her contact information if needed is listed below. Please feel free to share with co-workers, family and friends.

Broadwayweekday

https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/go.htmI?l=EN&t=baabal&o=71448647&g=816

Broadwayweekend

https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/go.htmI?l=EN&t=baabal&o=71448647&g=815

&customerID=976F0ecfa91d671a3ffcd8638ed23081

Please refer to the above links for purchasing discounted tickets for the 2011/2012 season. Click on the link, use the promo code listed before the site and create an account.

Feel free to send along to friends and family!

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We wanted to reach out as we've partnered with Goldstar for heavily discounted tickets to Grease at the Olney Theater and Cirque Du Soleil at 1st Mariner Arena.

All you have to do to get the discount is create a free Goldstar account.

To sign up and redeem for Cirque, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/cirquebaltimore
39% off!

To sign up and redeem for Grease, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/greasedc
48% off!