Reporter Volume 25, No.21 March 17, 1994

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

The UB Professional Staff Senate represents about 1200 people,
two-thirds of whom report to the Provost just as faculty does, Rosalyn
Wilkinson, chair of the Professional Staff Senate, told the Faculty
Senate Executive Committee last week in a report which pointed up the
similar needs of both faculty and professional staff.
	According to Wilkinson, people like to work at UB for a number
of key reasons. "UB is one of the biggest employers in Western New
York, and we have a lot to offer workers in terms of special
services," Wilkinson said. She provided the FSEC with a selective list
of UB faculty and staff services, including the various medical
clinics, a National Public Radio station and a variety of news
services, workshop and conference possibilities, and Division I
athletic events, among others.
	UB also has a better physical environment than most state
agencies, Wilkinson said. Good employee benefits are another reason
for working at UB, she reported.
	Although management often sees job security as the thing that
workers want, Wilkinson said, workers often place personal respect,
ethical management, and good communication before job security. She
said that having a warm and caring general environment, a productive
and supportive workplace, and more competitive, user-friendly benefits
and services would make UB a better institution.
	A university-wide orientation would definitely improve the
environment of UB, Wilkinson said. "Many people don't know who's who,
and have never seen any sort of organizational chart to help them know
how things are working," she said. Social and networking possibilities
such as the Campus Club and the Women's Club are also good at bringing
people together, Wilkinson said. Workers should also be automatically
entitled to career changes preparation, Wilkinson said. "People need
the option of change," she said.
	In terms of improving the workplace, coaching and leading work
better than evaluation, and teamwork and empowerment work better than
authoritarian rule, she said. "Many staff members feel that they can
make good suggestions about how to improve things," she told the FSEC
members. Flexible work hours, which have long been used in private
business and even in some areas of the SUNY system, would also be
helpful, she said. And like faculty, professional staff benefit from
development, mentoring, internship and networking opportunities, she
added.
	Central to all these possibilities, she said, is open, two-way
communication. "To be frank and honest is very important," she said.
	Wilkinson also outlined a number of benefits and services at
UB that could be added or improved, including bookstores, libraries,
computer services, day care, health care availability, the possible
creation of a drive-by ticket booth for campus events, campus parking
and shuttle buses, and convenient, private and pleasant dining
facilities. One main difficulty with services at UB is that people
don't know about the facilities that the university already has, she
pointed out.
	David Banks of Anthropology said "I have this gnawing feeling
that these recommendations say that UB isn't healthy now. I've noticed
large variability in the happiness of particular units. And
interaction between units is not very good."
	"We can certainly become much healthier," Wilkinson responded.
"And I think that has to start at home, within the departments, units,
divisions, and then the whole university."
	John Boot of Management Science and Systems said that
Wilkinson's report was more successful as a list of "desirable traits"
than as a policy document. "As policy, make a short list, and then we
could solve some of these problems," Boot said. But Powhatan Woolridge
of Nursing said that focusing on one or two items does not preclude
working toward the other items, too. "When the PSS goes to the
President, we usually bring things up one at a time, although we're
working on three or four things," Wilkinson said.
	Maureen Jameson of Modern Languages and Literatures said that
there "was probably room for better interaction between the
Professional Staff Senate and the Faculty Senate."
	Wilkinson agreed, saying that "The first step is to get people
to understand what they have in common. For instance, a
university-wide orientation for both faculty and staff could greatly
help in this area."
	In other FSEC business, Voldemar Innus, senior associate vice
president for university services, and Ronald Naylor, associate vice
president of university facilities, reported on the progress that UB
is making toward coming into compliance with the required codes of
accessibility for people with disabilities.
	Naylor said that UB has worked to meet the necessary codes,
and to go beyond the codes in many cases. "We feel comfortable that
our new facilities meet the letter of the law, and that our newest
facilities go beyond the letter of the law," Naylor said. In terms of
the top eight priorities that UB had identified for improving
accessibility for people with disabilities, seven have been funded or
are already under way, Naylor said.
	"We've tried to address the major accessibility issues,"
Naylor said. "We've not yet been able to address a lot of smaller
things. We can't be aware of everything out there, but we're going to
do an audit of all buildings that will include the issue of
accessibility."
	In response to a question from Charles Trczinka of Management
about the potential limits of UB's commitment to accessibility,
Voldemar Innus said that "In principle, we should be accessible. But
questions can be raised in particular cases as to whether a particular
problem is our next most important priority." That decision would need
to be made by relevant committees, Innus said.