University administrators met with the Student-Employee Relations Coalition yesterday to continue their review of the severe weather policy in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran.
In the meeting, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask indicated that the University's new severe weather policy is currently being formulated by a committee of administrators, and said that he hopes the policy will be in place by the end of October.
Trask also reiterated to SERC that University employees would not be monetarily compensated for missing work on Sept. 6, the day the hurricane hit Durham. That point had been fundamental to SERC's petition, which was drafted in response to what it felt was an unfair treatment of University employees following the hurricane.
The SERC petition, presented Sept. 26 to President Nan Keohane and signed by over 1600 people, maintained that employees should be paid a day's wages regardless of whether or not they worked on the day of the hurricane.
To address the wave of campus-wide criticism brought on by the University's decision not to compensate all employees in the aftermath of the hurricane, the administration formed a committee in September chaired by Trask to redefine the University's severe weather policy.
The committee met Oct. 8, and Trask said the committee is not going to convene again because it has discussed all that it needs to. "I think that the new policy, as we've discussed it, is going to respond to the majority of their concerns," Trask said, adding that the new policy should be enacted by the end of the month.
But SERC members were concerned that since the proposal will deal only with the University's future severe weather policy, it will fail to address the University's treatment of employees during the hurricane. "I think that the administration is expected to, and always talks about, representing the entire University campus-yet it seems to deny that employees are an integral part of the University," said Trinity junior and SERC co-coordinator Abrielle Beaton.
Trinity junior Erik Ludwig, SERC co-coordinator, said he agreed with Beaton and noted that administrators have not formally acknowledged the petition at all. Since each signature on the petition represents a capital contribution to the University, it warrants a formal written reply, he said.
"How many signatures does the administration want before it thinks [the petition] deserves a written response?" Ludwig asked.
Misty Allen contributed to this story.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.