February PAT Council Meeting
By Jody Record, Campus Journal Editor
February 13, 2008
The SPPC has appointed a committee to examine UNH’s policy regarding
benefits for unmarried partners in light of the state’s enactment of
a civil union law, Phil Hammond, the PAT representative to the SPPC, reported
at this month’s PAT Council meeting.
The committee is charged with looking at the existing policy and perhaps crafting
a new one that redefines who is eligible. Presently, married couples and same-sex
partners are eligible for benefits. Unmarried heterosexual couples are not.
One option for a revised policy would be to include any couple in a legally
defined relationship, a move that would still exclude unmarried heterosexual
couples but would honor civil unions. Another scenario would be to expand eligibility
to any couple in a formal relationship, whether that is a marriage, civil union
or a couple living together.
Or, the committee could opt to leave the policy as it is. The deadline for
submitting their recommendation is June 30, 2009.
The SPPC is also looking at the university’s termination policy and
how it compares to other employers.
There was a brief discussion on telecommuting, touching on the issues surrounding
the idea of UNH employees being able to work from home. One problem mentioned
was how to decide who gets to telecommute and who doesn’t. There is also
the question of liability.
Currently, with the exception of the Office of Sponsored Research, the university
doesn’t have a telecommuting policy. The SPPC will continue to discussion
the concept.
In other news, PAT representatives Rob Anderson, Mary Essley and Karen Gilbert
volunteered to serve on the Staff Excellence Awards’ selection committee.
And Tammy McGlone will replace Jon Plodzik as the alternate representative
to the SPPC.
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