Inside Iowa State
April 14, 2000
Campus studies will look at child care, parental leave needs
by Anne Krapfl
Focus groups soon will be organized
to gather ideas from staff and faculty on two issues related
to family -- child care and parental leave, Carla Espinoza,
assistant vice president for human resource services, told
the Professional and Scientific Council April 4.
The first effort evolved from planning for next year's "year of the family" celebration. Employees and students will be asked about their experiences with on-campus child care services. The latter effort is in cooperation with a subcommittee of the University Committee on Women that is reviewing Iowa State's policies and guidelines regarding the federal Family Medical Leave Act.
"Times are changing and employees have said they want more flexibility in how they use their vacation and sick time," Espinoza said. "All we're doing at this time is exploring to get some ideas on the table.
"We're looking at the philosophical, policy side of things."
While greater flexibility is the goal, some council members expressed concern about what those features will "cost" them. They cited private companies at which more flexibility in use of leave time resulted in less leave time. Espinoza said this study is not a back-door attempt to reduce employee leave benefits, but a chance to ask questions and look at lots of options. Anyone with ideas may e-mail them to her, espin@iastate.edu. Dianne Bystrom, Catt Center, and Pam Thomas, women's center, are co-chairing the UCW subcommittee.
During the council's open forum, Maura Peglar, Richmond Center, and Ron Palumbo, McFarland Clinic, presented an overview of Iowa State's Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a professional counseling service for employees and their household members. The program assists clients with issues that may be personal, financial, legal, family or job related. The counseling, up to three sessions per year per family member, is at no cost to the ISU employee. The program doesn't offer services such as psychiatric testing and care, or substance abuse counseling.
"If you just feel stuck, if you don't have clarity on an issue, if you're thinking, 'I just don't know what's wrong' - - all of this is legitimate," Peglar said.
Requests for EAP service begin with a call to the Richmond Center, 232-5811 in Ames, 1-800-830-7009 outside Ames. Local counseling service is provided, regardless of employees' location in the state.
In other council business:
- Newly elected council representatives were announced and will be seated at the June 1 meeting. Representing the academic and research area are: Catherine Good, Roger Hintz, Brent Brueland, Douglas Wood and Lynette Edsall. Representing extension is Beverly Peters and representing IPRT/Ames Lab is Stacy Joiner. Elected to fill vacant seats in the student affairs area are Debra Sanborn, Sarah Cooney and Robert Wiese.
The council's next meeting begins at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 4, in the Memorial Union Pioneer Room. Council officers will be elected for the 2000-2001 year, and council members will get their first look at results of the P&S survey done this winter. A noon open forum, in the same location, will feature oral reports from four of the 12 employee groups that won grants this year for student recruitment and retention projects.
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