Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) Quarterly Meeting Recap - Sept 2023

The Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) held its quarterly meeting September 6-8, 2023, at the UC Santa Barbara campus. On the first day, the Delegation received Business Updates, Delegates provided location updates, and all were welcomed by Don Lubach, UCSB Ombuds Officer with a team building activity.

On Day 2, Delegates welcomed Kimberly Young, UCSB’s Assistant Director of Community Relations, to understand the role of Government Relations and what role staff can play in advocacy for the University.  

The Delegation also received presentations on Day 2 and 3:

• Lisa Romero, Employee Services Manager at UCSB – to gain additional insight into UCSB staff issues
• Chuck Haines, Vice Chancellor – Chief Financial Officer, Office of Budget and Planning – to provide insight into how finances and budgeting work at UC
• Juliann Martinez, Interim Executive Director, Systemwide Employee Labor Relations – presented the history and future of staff surveys
• Jo Mackness, 2023-2024 Staff Advisor to the Regents – to provide her perspective on working with the Regents and to hear the delegation’s current concerns relating to staff
• Jay Henderson, Associate Vice President, Total Rewards Systemwide Human Resources – to provide orientation and context of systemwide work; partners, projects, history, and current developments
• Jim Steintrager, Chair, UC Systemwide Academic Senate – overview and history of the Academic Senate

The 2023-2024 CUCSA Work Groups also provided brief updates and took feedback during the Town Hall event on their initial charges:

• The Wellness work group is continuing from last year and is focusing now on defining what wellness means to CUCSA including advocating for a Systemwide Director of Wellbeing, tools for supervisors, the Okanagan Charter, and mentorship and coaching programs.
• The Sustainable Workforce work group is an off-shoot of last year’s Wellness committee, charged with compiling a toolkit for standard messaging around work-life balance and boundary setting to be shared with UCOP, SWHR, SHRO, and through our network.
• The Policy-covered Staff Identity work group is new this year, charged with collecting and summarizing pertinent quantitative and qualitative information relating to policy covered staff at UC.
• The Compensation work group is continuing from last year and is focusing now on elevating the “Understanding Your Compensation” tool, understanding changes occurring within our benefits packages, and further exploring the option of rental housing for staff members.