Council discusses work-life topics

Members of the Professional and Scientific Council set aside time to discuss work-life issues and tuition reimbursement during the group's Feb. 6 meeting.

Stacy Renfro and Kipp Van Dyke, who serve as council representatives on the university's work-life advisory committee, distributed a work-life questionnaire and facilitated a discussion following small group conversations. Renfro said feedback from the discussion would be shared with the advisory committee.

"We went through this [questionnaire] as a committee and put our heads together to make a best estimation of what we have," Van Dyke said. "That will be our starting point for where we're going with some of the potential action items for the committee."

Renfro said tuition reimbursement is among the committee's priorities. Currently, Iowa State funds up to three college credits per semester at ISU or accredited U.S. colleges and universities.

"This [committee] identified moving from three-credit reimbursement to four-credit reimbursement for those employees on campus," Renfro said. "We identified that as a priority, we've been working on that."

Council members declined to make a recommendation. Discussion raised further questions about funding allocations and portability. Renfro said more information and research will be collected for continued discussion at the next meeting.

Other business

Tera Lawson, program coordinator in the School of Education, was voted the council's next president-elect in a runoff election.