Council approves assistance animal policy draft

The Professional and Scientific Council unanimously approved a draft policy currently available for public comment. The assistance animals on campus policy provides guidelines for their use on university property and in campus buildings. Assistance animals are defined as service and emotional support (for example, therapy) animals, not pets.

The council's motion, approved at the group's April 1 meeting, included a recommendation to provide a definition of the term "housing unit" used in the draft policy. Public input on the policy must be submitted to policy@iastate.edu by April 21.

News from UHR

Julie Nuter, associate vice president for university human resources, updated council members on three items, including the results of a survey about P&S search committees -- part of the state Board of Regents' efficiency efforts -- that is available on the UHR website. Two other reports -- a P&S human capital inventory, and a child care feasibility study -- are complete and will be shared later this month.

Nuter said this year's P&S human capital report includes data on targeted job classifications, overall turnover and job distribution across pay grades.

"We focused on areas that were really tied to the university's mission around science and technology," Nuter said. "We looked at research positions, ag specialist positions, IT system positions, FP&M engineer positions and the environmental health and safety positions."

She said the child care feasibility study revealed demand for another university child care center and information is being gathered for a proposed facility that is part of the ISU Research Park expansion.

April seminars

The P&S Council will host two seminars this month. They are free and open to the public.

  • "Collaborative Technology and Application Development: One View of Our Future," Jim Kurtenbach, interim vice provost and CIO, April 14 (2-3 p.m., MU Campanile Room)
  • "Supervisory Survey Assessment Results," Don Broshar, University Human Resources, April 27 (2-3 p.m., MU Gallery)

Other business

President-elect Tera Lawson said the revised council constitution was approved by a majority of all P&S staff who voted during the online election period. The constitution, which includes more general language and guidelines, went into immediate effect. Specific language was moved to the council's rules and bylaws, which were approved in February.