Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
February 1, 2002

Child leave policy considered
Creative decisions encouraged under proposal

by Debra Gibson
Review continues on a proposed university leave policy supporting the arrival of children for ISU faculty and P&S employees.

Both the Faculty Senate and P&S Council are evaluating the policy's most recent draft, with all recommendations due to President Gregory Geoffroy by Feb. 15. (The proposed policy is available online at http://www.iastate.edu/news/today/feb/2002/childleave.html.)

The policy was created for two reasons, according to Carla Espinoza, assistant vice president for human resource services:

To show university support for reasonable workload adjustments during times of pregnancy, birth and adoption.
To provide managers a framework in which to create and approve leaves during these times.

"Assuring equal treatment is not the issue with this policy," Espinoza said. "In the past, managers have felt compelled to provide the same leave opportunities for everyone. The policy encourages managers to weigh the circumstances. We want creative decisions to be made on the basis of individual circumstances. Not everyone wants or requires the 12 weeks off (guaranteed by the Family Medical Leave Act).

"What came up most often in conversations leading up to this policy was how difficult it has been for parents to be granted leave, not how much they got," Espinoza added. "That astonished me. Though this time off was protected by the law, because there wasn't a cultural acceptance of these leaves, those taking them often felt blackballed or guilty because someone else had to cover their jobs."

Consequently, the proposed policy does not address specific time periods in which either ISU-employed parents can take leaves from their positions. Rather, it encourages managers to be flexible in supporting requested leave situations.

For instance, it promotes "resources to bridge transitions," which could be providing employees with the necessary tools to work within their homes (e.g. laptop computers, cell phones, software). It also advocates adjustments in existing promotion and tenure review schedules, if requested.

During the year-plus the proposed policy has been in the works, Espinoza said discussions were held about creating leave "pools," in which employees could donate vacation time to be used by parents taking these leaves. However, she said the idea was nixed for several reasons.

"First, there's the question of managing these hours -- should they be considered dollar for dollar, or hour for hour?" Espinoza explained.

"Second, if B-base employees don't accrue vacation time, then they can't donate it or use it. Third, if I donate 40 hours to a person outside my department, who pays for that? My department head won't want to pay vacation time for another department's employee."

Suggestions to include elder and foster care in this policy already have been made, and Espinoza acknowledged "the door hasn't been closed on that one." She said she'd like to give the original policy an opportunity to function before adding major revisions.

"Let's get started with this policy," she said, "and show that it can work and that it won't be abused or misapplied. If it works, and becomes a recruitment and retention tool for the university, then we can always go back to revisit and improve it."