October 26, 2006
PSO: Aiming to improve the quality of UW work life
What group of UW employees is 6,200 strong, crucial for keeping the University functioning, and largely invisible? Professional staff. You might even be a pro staff. Among our ranks are advisers counseling students, research scientists running labs and experiments, fiscal and human resources personnel keeping the University in compliance with laws and regulations, and facilities managers maintaining the University’s buildings. We include budget analysts, program directors, admission officers, theater managers and marketing directors.
Working to improve professional staff’s quality of work life at the University is the Professional Staff Organization (PSO). It represents the issues and concerns of professional staff to the University administration, the campus, and our local community. Established in 1990, PSO has over the years provided information to legislators, represented professional staff on faculty councils and committees ranging from academics to facilities and worked to improve communication and build camaraderie among the professional staff throughout the University system.
The Professional Staff Organization aims to be recognized by University administration and human resources as a trusted and sought-after partner in the governance and functioning of the University. We regularly engage in partnership, collaboration, and participation on key University committees and initiatives. For example, the biennial professional staff salary survey was a direct outgrowth of concerns raised by PSO in its early years. And each year when the Distinguished Staff Awards are announced, we have another reason to thank PSO. The organization initiated the staff recognition program in 1991, and it was later adopted by the University administration and expanded to include classified staff.
PSO’s significant achievement during 2005-2006 was the completion of its review of the Professional Staff Program (the University regulations under which professional staff are employed). The process took two years of dedicated work. After conducting a thorough review, the committee met with representatives from human resources and worked together to update the program. Although not all of the PSO’s requested changes were agreed to, notable gains were made in clarification of release time for University service, program levels and overtime status, performance evaluation input, and the complaint processes.
Every year PSO hosts a number of meetings for professional staff. At our annual fall meeting this year, slated for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1 in the West Ballroom of the HUB, President Emmert will be speaking, followed by brief remarks by Kim Johnson Bogart, director for strategic initiatives in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, on the Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign for Students. And coming on Dec. 7 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in 120 Kane will be a brown-bag presentation by Mindy Kornberg, the new vice president of Human Resources.
But PSO isn’t all about meetings. One of our major interests is professional development. We offer scholarships of up to $350 to individuals to defray costs for classes, conferences, meetings and workshops offered by UW Professional & Organizational Development or other organizations, both on and off campus. We also offer grants of up to $500 for on- or off-campus classes, programs or speakers that contribute to the professional development of a group of UW professional staff members. In 2005-06 we awarded $2,035 in scholarships and grants to eight employees and one employee group. (For application guidelines and quarterly submission deadlines: http://depts.washington.edu/psoweb/scholarships_dev.htm.)
We encourage professional staff to participate in our activities. For example, we are looking for staff to represent PSO on a number of faculty councils and committees. We also have working groups and standing committees that offer opportunities to participate in PSO projects. At the moment, we’re looking for people who would like to join the communications committee and help develop materials to promote PSO and advertise our events.
Please join us in our efforts to improve the quality of work life, encourage staff development and participate in the governance at the University
For more information about PSO, please see our Web site: http://depts.washington.edu/psoweb/
Judith Yarrow, chair of the Professional Staff Organization, has been at the University since 2001. She is the managing editor of Northwest Public Health, the biannual journal of the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
