Faculty Welfare Committee discusses heart health, faculty satisfaction

The Faculty Welfare Committee held their last meeting of the school year yesterday where they discussed faculty issues of the past, present and future. Here are the top three takeaways.

UNC had the lowest faculty response rate on a system-wide workplace climate survey commissioned by the Board of Governors. 

The survey conducted this semester asked faculty and staff how content they were with their work environment at UNC. Committee member and Assistant Provost for Academic Personnel Ann Lemmon said the University got a week-long extension due to their low response rate and still only got a 31 percent faculty response rate. Lemmon said she doesn’t think UNC faculty are concerned with UNC System issues.

“I honestly think that there are a lot of folks on this campus who really don’t care what the system does and if it was a system survey well ‘That’s not ours, why do it?’," Lemmon said.

Clare Counihan, committee member and program coordinator for faculty and staff at the Carolina Women’s Center, said she heard from staff that they didn’t necessarily trust the survey to protect their personal information despite being executed by a third party.

“One of the things that came up in the employee forum a lot, and in conversations among the staff was anxiety about how firm the firewall was or how actually anonymous it was,” she said.

Lemmon said the data from the survey will be released over the summer and that once Chancellor Carol Folt is briefed, she will communicate the results to UNC faculty. 

The UNC Total WellBeing Expo and the American Heart Association “Check. Change. Control” blood pressure program saw great success in the past few months.

Office of Human Resources Senior Benefits Consultant and committee member Rob Stevenson said they had 615 faculty and staff attended the Total WellBeing Expo on March 14. 

The event hosted almost 100 exhibitors that gave employees advice on how to stay healthy. Stevenson said 78 people went through the complimentary health screening to get a better idea of their susceptibility to chronic conditions. Stevenson said 58 employees have also gone through all the steps of the “Check. Change. Control” blood pressure program. Employees can check their blood pressure in 12 locations around UNC up until June 1.

Faculty Welfare Committee Chairperson stepped down. 

Committee chairperson and journalism professor, Rhonda Gibson, is stepping down from her post a year earlier than expected. Besides stepping down as chairperson, Gibson will also be rotating off the committee, opening up a position for another faculty member to fill. Four people have applied to join the committee but only two will be accepted. As of now, there is no chairperson lined up, but the search for experienced committee members is ongoing. 

@marcoquiroz10

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