An initial crowd of 400 to 500 employees were on the Campus Green to hear President Ray Watts and Cyndi Ballinger introduce plans for a UAB Staff Council. This new initiative, which originated within the UAB Blaze Leadership Program, is being created to promote an exchange of ideas among its members and with the administration, similar to the faculty senate and student government organizations.
“We want you to feel like you are a vital and important part of the process, because you are,” Watts said of the decision to create the council. “Thank you for everything you do daily.”
Ballinger, who is a member of the Blazer Leadership Program that originated and shepherded this idea, said the group is working to formalize its creation. The plan is to hold open forums to get input and feedback from employees during coming months and hold elections in the spring, she said. She invited those present to find a member of the working group to share their ideas or place them in suggestion boxes that were available.
Ballinger also thanked Chief Human Resources Officer Alesia Jones for championing the proposal and Vice President for Finance and Administration Allen Bolton for providing lunch and entertainment.
Information regarding open forums will be announced in The eReporter and on the council website at uab.edu/staffcouncil. Until then, employees can email suggestions to StaffCouncil@uab.edu.
Council membership will be open to exempt and non-exempt, full- and part-time regular and irregular staff of the university; staff employed by the UAB Health System or its entities (excepting the UAB School of Medicine) are ineligible.
Help the Graduate School and Staff Council provide much-needed items to the Ronald McDonald House and Birmingham-area schools.
