In response to employee concerns about proposed charter-status legislation, the University held its first of six meetings to address employee questions yesterday.
Leonard Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer, detailed University charter status plans in front of a packed room of faculty members and staff in the Special Collections Library auditorium. The meeting was planned to address unease about the impact charter status could have on their jobs.
Staff Union President Jan Cornell said employees are hesitant about the charter because the administrators have not clearly outlined the potential impact.
"I still do not have a sense of what will happen," Cornell said. "They are beating around the bush."
During a question-and-answer session, employees voiced concern over how the University will regulate faculty salaries and benefits. Some employees spoke of colleagues at the Medical Center, which became a charter institution several years ago, who say they are unhappy with the effect of the Medical Center's autonomous status because of its effects on benefits.
Sandridge said that with 17,000 employees at the University, there inevitably will be rare cases where employees are not happy with their compensation. But overall, he said, charter status will result in more reliable and consistent compensation.
In effect, the charter document does not include plans to change jobs, compensation, grievance procedure, health care coverage, insurance, annual leave program or sick leave program, Sandridge said.
Currently, the University does not have the ability to determine salaries for all University employees. The charter status will grant the Board of Visitors greater flexibility to set wages, but Sandridge told employees the BOV will use that flexibility only for wage increases and not take action that will negatively affect employees.
With charter status, "the University of Virginia's decisions on how people operate rests here in Charlottesville with its Board of Visitors and does not have to be the same as it is across the state," Sandridge said.
Greater flexibility over business measures does not equate with the desire to layoff University employees, Sandridge added. The University will remain accountable to the state regarding the management of employees and employee benefits, he told those in attendance.
"This is a highly regulated entity," Sandridge said. "If anything, the expectation for our compliance is even greater."
Some employees still expressed concerns over the University's ability to continue to provide the faculty with support.
Assistant History Prof. Jeffrey Rossman decried "rampant outsourcing" at the University and the lack of pay raises even under state control.
"The result across the board is deterioration of things that impact our lives and our ability to fulfill the obligations we signed up to fulfill as faculty and staff," Rossman said.
Sandridge replied that the localization that would come with charter status would provide employees a greater outlet to address concerns about pay raises and positively affect their salaries.
"I cannot imagine any reason, ever, that this institution would be foolish enough, as dependent as it is on its people, to start tinkering with salaries," Sandridge said. "Part of what we are trying to do here is to make sure the Board of Visitors has the ability to reward properly, to classify people properly, to do things without having to follow the strict interpretation of the state."
Kelli Palmer, assistant to University President John T. Casteen, III said she does not have particular concerns about the effect of charter status, but colleagues have voiced concerns over whether the charter status will negatively affect their benefits.
"I think the University is trying to respond to the questions," Palmer said.
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