Institutional change is slow. Progress created for diverse opportunities takes time, but there are committees at the University of Idaho dedicated to updating bygone policies.
UI is rich with faculty and staff members that have started initiatives and projects focused on constructing an equitable environment that reflects members of the community.
Whether it is improving the lives of students who require assistance through the Center for Disability Access and Resources, or more commonly known as CDAR, creating paid parental leave for faculty or an anti-bullying policy that gives employees a healthy work environment.Ubuntu and Athena are just two of these committees that are generating change to contribute to the UI community.
Kristin Haltinner is an associate professor in sociology at UI and the current Ubuntu chair. Ubuntu is a committee focused on the needs of students, staff and faculty, and works to enhance the experience for under-represented groups. Haltinner said one of her proudest accomplishments of the committee in recent years was the ability of students and UI employees to use their preferred names on university accounts and learning management systems. This was in partnership with the LGBTQA+, administration and registrar’s office.
Ubuntu is currently working on research for the chance to cover the costs for CDAR testing for students. Haltinner said she’s heard feedback from students that some go without accommodation because of the price of testing. The potential for raising the money, after research is completed, could come from grants or fundraising.
“I’ve heard from a lot of students that they go without the accommodations they need,” Haltinner said. “They try to talk to their professors about being flexible with them without having an official diagnosis. So, it can be a significant barrier to people getting the help they need.”
Another initiative Ubuntu has been working on is single-stall bathrooms that are gender inclusive. Haltinner said she has students that are non-binary and gender queer, and don’t feel comfortable using same-sex restrooms on campus.
“There are some (single-stall restrooms) in the ISUB, not in the actual TLC half of the ISUB though,” Haltinner said. “So, students have to get across to the other side and come back or book it way out of their way to go to the bathroom. So, it ends up making students struggle to use the bathroom, if they’re not in the right place.”
Haltinner emphasized that it is the shared work of the Ubuntu committee that accomplishes campus-wide diversity initiatives and projects.
Diversity means including all people and creating a fair environment. This includes making a change that is helpful to women. Athena is a UI committee created to promote an equitable environment for women at the university. One of their current projects proposes paid parental leave for staff and faculty members. The potential policy change would be monumental for UI, as it is the only four-year institution without paid leave for employees in Idaho.
Two members of the committee, Laurel Meyer, an education abroad advisor, and Jessica Martinez, a reference and instruction librarian, touched on the challenging process, along with why the change is principal.
“I think that women supporting women and making connections across campus is so important and it’s important to my own career growth and happiness, but also to women being more represented in leadership and influential roles on campus,” Martinez said. “Another Athena initiative is the portraiture on campus. Because when you walk around campus, you see a lot of pictures of men who have been in positions of power on campus and that doesn’t change unless we do it on purpose.”
The update in policy would allow faculty and staff members 12 weeks paid leave upon employment with the university. Following the birth, adoption or foster of a child, redistribution of the employee’s workload would be given to the department and college.
Meyer said the change started with a discussion over coffee with Martinez about the disappointing lack of paid parental leave. After starting the process of making this difference, Rebecca Scofield, the department chair of history at UI, reached out to be involved with the project. Since teaming up with Scofield and other members of Athena, they’ve made progress. During a UI faculty senate meeting in January, Scofield and other members of the committee presented the proposal for the change in policy. She read testimony from UI staff and faculty on why they believe paid leave is important at the university.
“The first story I’m just going to briefly skim over is my own,” Scofield said. “I started this job when I was six months pregnant, and I did deliver my son on the last day of lecture, and I finished out grading finals. I was someone who was told repeatedly that I had done it right. I delivered in the summer. I had built in maternity leave. But as all of you know, it is never that easy. As I say here, the following three months were the most difficult of my life, breastfeeding was a nightmare. I didn’t sleep. I haven’t really slept in five years. And living away from friends and family. I felt entirely alone and desperate. I was trying to rewrite my book.”
Scofield said that she believes if the university provided paid leave for staff and faculty so many things could be accomplished.
Meyer and Martinez said the initiative started summer of 2019, with setbacks throughout Athena’s time planning it. Former UI President Chuck Staben vetoed the first draft, but the committee has continued planning and presenting their initiative to members of faculty senate, the faculty affairs committee and the staff council. All groups have given unanimous support.
Meyer said they formed the 12-week model from neighboring universities in Washington and Oregon.
“We are proposing 12 weeks,” Meyer said. “The rest of the state only has eight weeks, but everyone that we’ve talked to, has really said that they’re moving towards 12 weeks, and if by the time we get eight weeks we’re already going to be falling behind others. WSU is probably our closest competitor as far as employers in the area and they have 12 weeks. So, we really do want to be competitive.”
The committee has frequently met with the Division of Finance to create potential financial models. They review demographics of employees at the university and an overview of what paid parental leave would look like. Since UI already budgets salary before the start of every year, Athena proposes that they pay parents who need to leave what they already are going to be paid.
Meyer and Martinez said the policy has received unwavering support from members of the community along with committees at the university.
“I love our committee, and it’s a great group of people,” Martinez said. “And navigating university policy is very confusing and can be very frustrating, but I’ve learned a lot. And when you have a kid, you just want to make the world a better place for them. I feel great that this is a way. And then hopefully, I can make it a little bit of a better place to work.”
“I think everybody’s on our side,” Meyer said. “I think we haven’t met a single person who says no. There’s not one person that’s just been like we don’t need that. But everyone agrees that it’s the right thing to do, and a good thing to do. And so that’s been reassuring that this is what people want. We just have to keep pushing.”
While these types of changes can be steady to make, it is because of committees like Ubuntu and Athena that UI continually becomes a better place to work and learn.