02 Mar Contract Implementation Updates
- Administration misses February 9 deadline to add additional representation to Well-being Framework Steering Committee
- American College Health Association meets with students, faculty, and staff focus groups this week
- Fill out this form to be a part of the UICUF organizing committee focusing on Student Wellness
Now that our new contract is executed and implementation has begun, we will be working to bring you continued updates on not only the substance of the contract, but what implementation looks like. We encourage you to reach out to UICUnitedFaculty@gmail.com with questions about the contract or observations about ongoing implementation issues in your unit.
Student Wellness and Psychoeducational Resources
A major part of our bargaining strategy was to use our collective power as faculty to gain resources for our entire campus community, an approach known as “bargaining for the common good.” Our pre-bargaining season survey made clear that the number one priority UIC Faculty held for the UIC community was increased availability of and transparency around student wellness and psychoeducational resources. As a part of negotiations our Provost and Chancellor committed “to improving mental health care services for students and establishing psychoeducational testing on campus through transparent, collaborative, and accountable processes and continued support of the ongoing efforts by the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Health and Wellness and the Disability Resource Center.”
Faculty representatives have been learning more about the Well-being Framework Steering Committee (members listed at the bottom of this email) and their existing plans to expand resources. The key dates and commitments identified in a campus-wide announcement on January 24 include:
- February 9, 2023 – With additional representation from the Disability Resource Center, students, and faculty, the Well-being Framework Steering Committee will reconvene to discuss and develop next steps for the asset mapping and community engagement process.
- February 27, 2023 – The Well-being Framework Steering Committee will meet with the American College Health Association consultants during their site visit, which will include meetings with undergraduate, graduate and professional students, faculty and staff to learn about the experiences and challenges they have faced.
- By April 2023 – The American College Health Association consultants will provide the Assistant Vice Chancellor with recommendations for strengthening UIC’s ecosystem of care for students.
- By August 2023, the Assistant Vice Chancellor and Well-being Framework Steering Committee will publish metrics, goals and timelines for this improvement process.
At this time, faculty union representative Nicole Nguyen, associate professor of Criminology, Law, & Justice and Educational Policy Studies, has helped populate the focus groups of student, faculty, and campus stakeholders to speak with consultants from the American College Health Association (ACHA) this week. We look forward to seeing what recommendations these visits elicit from the ACHA and how the Office of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Health and Wellness plans to implement them–information that should be available to us all sometime after spring break. However, we are disappointed that the administration has already failed to follow through on its commitment to add DRC staff, students, and faculty to the framework committee by February 9.
We want to keep organizing around this with UICUF members, students, staff, and other members of the community. Please fill out this form if you’d like to be a part of that and share it with anyone else you know who would like to be involved.
| Well-being Framework Steering Committee Members: Raphael Florestal-Kevelier, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Health and Wellness & Clinical Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences Kathleen Kashima, Senior Associate Dean of Students, College of Medicine Chandra Harris-McCray, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Marketing and Communications Jason Huertas, Captain of Support Operations and Internal Affairs, UICPD Galen Duncan, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Health, Wellness, and Performance John Coronado, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Geri Biamonte, Employee Assistance Practitioner Rebecca Mischak, Director Physician Practice, University Health Service, Occupational Health Department Michele Mariscalco, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences Academic Affairs Josephine Volpe, Associate Vice Provost for Advising Development David Marder, Medical Director, Occupational and Environmental Health Center Francine Godwin, Senior Director, Creative and Digital Services Masahito Jimbo, Department Head Family and Community Medicine |