Reports on Policies that Create Unnecessary Barriers (Apr. 2017-Aug. 2017)

Posted on October 17, 2017

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I write to provide an update on an initiative launched in fall 2016 to encourage faculty and staff to report university policies and procedures that are perceived to create unnecessary barriers.

The reports addressed here were submitted from April 2017 through August 2017. Not every report received is addressed here, as some of them related to very specific department or unit-level issues that my office does not control and with which we would not interfere. In those circumstances, an email was sent about the issue (but without attribution) to the relevant unit. Other submissions concerned issues we resolved previously through this process.

I encourage faculty and staff to continue to report policy and procedure concerns online.

The first category of reports address barriers that have resulted, or will soon result, in a change in policy or practice at UIC.

  1. There was concern about the amount of time elapsing between when employees contact University Payables with an issue and when they receive a response. In response, University Payables now offers  Service Desk Request Form to employees for a more efficient way to contact University Payables (UPAY) for assistance. Visit (http://apps.obfs.uillinois.edu/news/dsp_news.cfm?TS=20170627132156750) for more information.
  2. It was brought to our attention that the release of the Promotion and Tenure Dossier Forms in late May leaves some departments a short window to complete and process them. In response, the Office of Faculty Affairs will release forms this year no later than February 28th.
  3. A concern was raised about the frequency of emails that are received from the campus. OFFICIAL e-mails are intended to convey pertinent and must-know information directed at faculty, staff and/or students. MASSMAIL has been terminated. The Office of Public and Government Affairs has launched the website, UIC Today, to serve as a hub for up-to-the-minute campus information -- including messages from leadership, colleges and units on campus. This new communications platform will replace MASSMAIL and some messages previously sent as OFFICIAL or MASSMAIL may be provided online at UIC Today. I encourage you to make https://today.uic.edu your homepage on your browser.

One submission involved regulatory, budgetary and/or other requirements that cannot be changed.

A member of the UIC community wrote in about the need for a shuttle to be provided to commuters traveling from Union Station and Ogilvie, as was done in the past. We recognize that this was a great service for some of our UIC commuters and inquired about restarting it. Unfortunately, there are no funds available to support the return of the commuter shuttle. The UIC Commuter Shuttle was carefully scrutinized before making the decision to end the service to UIC Campus.

The final submission raised an issue that is under further investigation

There was a concern about UIC’s Pre-tax Qualified Transit MasterCard Program. The suggestion was made to have the MasterCards be reloaded automatically, and not require faculty and staff to pick-up and sign for a new card every month. In response to this, a working group has been formed to figure out how to adopt this solution. We will keep you posted.