The Faculty Welfare Committee dealt with various issues this year, including faculty housing, parking, the Santa Clara Regional Center, health care, child care, and several other issues.

EVC John Simpson asked the committee for recommendations concerning the priority system used for allocating on-campus faculty housing. The FWC developed a set of recommendations concerning the priority system and the Mortgage Origination Program (MOP). We made the following recommendations (the full document is attached):

The committee discussed parking issues with Wes Scott, the Director of TAPS. We were pleased to hear that there have been changes to campus policy such that short-term interest payments (STIP) from parking revenues will go back to parking rather than into the Chancellor's discretionary fund. We were also pleased to hear that non-State-funded building that displaces parking spaces will be required to reimburse TAPS for the parking spaces lost and that efforts will be made to find funds to reimburse TAPS when this happens with State-funded building.

Director Scott also indicated that he would be willing to have a member of FWC sit on the campus transportation committee. The FWC is concerned that there be Senate input in decisions that are reached about campus parking policy.

The committee was concerned that faculty will be required to teach courses over the hill, should the Santa Clara Regional Center become a reality. EVC Simpson met with the committee and indicated that no faculty would be required to teach at the Regional Center and that there would be incentives (where needed) to encourage faculty to teach there. EVC Simpson also indicated that he intended to involve the Senate in the academic planning process and that there would be a resource "firewall" that would protect the Santa Cruz campus from being drained in order to launch the new initiative over the hill.

Health care issues continue to be a major concern of the committee. We are concerned that there are too few medical options in Santa Cruz and no access to UC Medical Hospitals. The good news is that the Office of the President has allotted us funds for a pilot "Health Care Facilitator" program. Next fall a Health Care Facilitator will be hired whose job it will be to help active and retired faculty, staff, and enrolled family members understand their plan and their patient rights. The Health Care Facilitator will assist in resolving issues with doctors, medical groups, or medical plan carriers. This program has been highly successful at Irvine and Berkeley, where there have been pilot programs.

The committee continues to be concerned about the availability of child care for faculty. In last year's annual report we noted our request of the Chancellor that more space be made available for child care and that alternative funding strategies be developed. Ours is the only campus in the UC system that has a policy of funding child care facilities exclusively through gift funds. Additionally, because the Millennium Committee placed the responsibility for implementing its recommendations concerning child care in the Office of the Chancellor and EVC, we asked the Chancellor to be more proactive in the child care area and to set up a Child Care Task Force and/or give someone in her office direct responsibility for seeing that child care receives the priority it deserves. None of these requests have been implemented, although the Chancellor did act on our request that the child care facility be made a campus funding priority.

However, there has been very little movement on funding the child care facility (which has been on the drawing board since 1981). Underwood Associates completed a funding feasibility study for the Development office, but this study is still in draft form. In essence, another year has slipped away with very little movement on an issue of critical importance to many faculty.

The committee also discussed the problem of the campus' ceiling on salaries for Assistant Professors. Because of market forces, it is increasingly necessary to hire off-scale. However, this means that unless the faculty member comes up for tenure in a few years, he or she will hit against the salary ceiling for Assistant Professors (currently Assoc. 2). In some cases the expectation is that the faculty member will be ready to be considered for tenure in a few years; however, it is increasingly the case that this is not the expectation. We have urged CAP to consider this issue.

On other two fronts, there has been movement on issues of interest to the Welfare Committee. We were pleased that the campus has hired Nancy Aebersold as Coordinator for Dual Career Service (or spousal employment). We were also pleased that the Chancellor has indicated that she will appoint a faculty/staff Taskforce on Work-Life Issues. This committee will advise the Chancellor on the issues and concerns of faculty and staff arising from the intersection of work and personal life and from the campus work environment.

Respectfully submitted,

June 3, 2000