Employee Forum: educational technology degree, salary bands

During the Jan. 11 Employee Forum meeting, delegates learned about a School of Education master’s degree program that might interest campus workers who seek new skills in instructional design, digital development, content creation, entrepreneurship and design-focused areas.

Todd Cherner, clinical assistant professor in the School of Education, described the Master of Arts in Educational Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship, or MEITE program, which prepares students to invent the future of education. He said the program:

• Is grounded in validated theory and research-based practices with tracks in which students specialize: entrepreneur, innovation specialist, learning engineer, adaptive learning analyst.
• Includes four core courses, internship opportunities, a summer final project and a prototyping course in which student teams use a design-thinking approach to create a new piece of technology. Students also take an internship.

Provost’s round table

Provost and Chief Academic Officer J. Christopher Clemens said that:

• The University’s year-old budget model is based on state appropriated funding and includes a set of metrics and a unit performance factor. Two-thirds of budget interviews with campus units are complete.
• Capital projects include a new translational research building that is moving to the design stage.
• His office is wrapping up searches for the next dean of the School of Government and University Librarian, and the Kenan-Flagler Business School dean search is under way.

Human Resources update

Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Compliance Becci Menghini said that:

• There are child care openings at the University’s Bright Horizons Childcare Center near the Friday Center and that a request for proposals to extend the center’s operation is pending.
• The state Office of Human Resources adjustment that increased salaries for housekeepers and certain positions in Facilities Services was only for that one salary band. Administrators have talked with supervisors and crew leaders to outline the process to address the wage compression that happens when a lower level employee makes more or minimally less than an upper level employee. “We’re also planning some sessions on communicating how career bands generally work and what they mean in those categories in particular, and they’re working on a timeline to do that.”
• Human Resources is planning phases of work with units, the UNC System and the state to seek salary adjustments for other bands.

In other news:

• EHRA consultants Shayla Evans-Hollingsworth and Ashley Hockaday presented on the conversion of employees in auditing, business and finance professional job classifications from being subject to the State Human Resources Act (SHRA) to a status of Exempt from Human Resources Act (EHRA) non-faculty positions. They said that the roughly 500 SHRA employees eligible to convert to EHRA status have been notified. Employees can elect to convert using a digital process through April 16. The conversion doesn’t bring automatic salary increases but includes opportunities to add longevity pay to a base salary. Eligible employees, managers and human resources officers have been invited to three informational sessions on Jan. 19 and 31 and March 29.

• Starr Sanders, a program specialist with Campus Safety in the Office of Institutional Integrity and Risk Management, spoke about drafting a University policy on minors in the workplace and classroom.

Watch the meeting on YouTube.