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Linwood Futrelle made the first-ever Employee Forum presentation to the Board
of Trustees at the board's May 28 meeting, saying he was telling the "story of
the staff and their daily contributions to the University."
"We're the fibers and stitches that hold the cloth together," forum chair
Futrelle told the panel, referring to Carolina's 6,261 non-faculty employees.
Futrelle outlined the many roles staff fill, from program administrators and
computer programmers to stone masons and housekeepers--employees who "make the
place livable."
He also touched on issues of concern to staff, such as compensation, work
environment, parking and campus access and training and professional
development.
Compensation issues include the need for merit pay, portable retirement
benefits, family health insurance subsidies and child-care assistance for
lower-paid employees.
Futrelle also called for geographic cost-of-living differences to figure in
salary levels.
"Chapel Hill is an extraordinarily difficult place for young staff and even
young faculty to afford housing," he said.
Parking is another issue affecting employees' job satisfaction, Futrelle said,
in some cases driving staff away.
"If you want people, good people, you have to give them a way to get to work,"
he said.
Futrelle called on trustees to lobby on behalf of employees, in the General
Assembly and elsewhere.
"When you advocate for higher faculty salaries, add the word `staff,'" he
said.
While the forum's presentation was for information purposes only, trustees
chair Richard Stevens said the board would support the group's cause.
"You deserve it," he said.
During the presentation, Jeffery Beam, assistant to the biology librarian and
vice-chair of the Employee Forum read his poem "Song of the University Worker."
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