I would like to first and foremost thank Genevieve Johnson for nominating me for staff council a few years ago. Second, I would like to thank all of the people who supported or will be supporting me. Starting with Ali Yildirim, James Kurtzleben, Amanda Thein, and Andy Jenkins. Thank you for not only allowing me to pursue this great opportunity but also giving me so much backing. Thanks also to my team members, John Riehl and Mara McConnell, who have committed to covering for me during the next year. I would also like to thank Marla Rosenblum, Kevin Zihlman, Brian Baxter, Kellie Digmann, Jackie Kleppe, and James Jorris who were always there to answer all my questions and boy did I have many!  And finally, thank you to my family without whose support I would not have been able to take on this opportunity.

To all my fellow staff councilors, I would like to say, thank you for choosing me to represent all of us. I will not take this privilege and responsibility lightly. It is an honor for me to give back to an institution and community that has given me so much. I was welcomed with open arms when I came to the university many years ago, and thanks to the community, I just could not get away.

We are here because our colleagues put their trust in us to be their voice and to advocate for them. I am here in front of you because you put your trust in me and together, we will do all we can for our fellow colleagues and for the institution. 

Let’s now look at this year’s vision.

The themes for this year all focus on staff as individuals: their well-being, their growth and finally, their empowerment. Along with those themes, we will also look at making some long-term culture changes through our efforts to enhance the staff experience and to continue making us a destination university for peoples’ careers.

Starting with our first theme, well-being, we will look to continue our collaborative partnerships with UI leadership, human resources and other areas, committees and initiatives on campus, and also in the community. We will strive to use the US Surgeon General’s framework for mental health and well-being as our guide.

We will continue to focus on our strong and effective partnership with Well Being, including the Discover Your University program, health classes and any other wellbeing resources. We will also work very closely with the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health, and other departments on campus, working towards continued enhancements to the staff experience.

For the staff growth theme, we will look for opportunities and changes taking place at the university. For example, an initiative I’ve begun with University Human Resources is a policy update to better support professional development and well-being for staff. This initiative ties into the university’s strategic plan for staff success. It will help to allow staff an opportunity to grow their knowledge and skills and also lead us to recruiting and retaining a highly skilled and amazing workforce. That is just one of many examples of effort we’ll be putting into staff growth.

And now to the last theme of staff empowerment. We will work hard to empower our staff by bringing more awareness about Staff Council; who we are, what we do, and how we can support them, especially all the new hires. This is an area where we can really make a difference. 

With the understanding and knowledge that we can improve more than just the staff experience, we will continue to collaborate with other shared governance bodies, including, but not limited to, the Faculty Senate, Graduate and Professional Student Government, and Undergraduate Student Government. With all of us working together, we can contribute towards a positive institutional impact.  

Here are some details about how we will achieve this: 

• Continue the “educate, explore, elevate” structure for incoming concerns by constituents 
• Practice active listening 
• Redesign the website to increase awareness, enhance accessibility & user experience 
• Bi-monthly committee updates starting this October 
  • We will aim for bi-monthly committees updates on what they’re working on, discussions taking place, any concerns, etc., to bring continued broad visibility into each other’s work. This will allow us to collaborate more effectively, efficiently, and start early on conversations with each other on issues or initiatives. 

And finally, I would like to stress the following:

If you have an idea, share it. We never know when the seed of an idea may germinate into long-term improvements for staff. If you have a question, ask it. No question is too small to ask. If you have any concerns, big or small, bring them up. If you have something to share, such as a great article on work-life balance that you think will benefit us all, share it! 

As we continue to work on enhancements and improvements to our staff experience, we must also not forget to support and take care of each other, just like we do for our constituents. We will strive to never lose sight of all the amazing things we are achieving. We are strong and resilient people who can do great things. Let us work together to move the needle with our core values of honesty and integrity. This is our year to make a difference, so let’s make some long-lasting meaningful change together.

Thank you,

Makur Jain
Staff Council President