Establishment of Boston University Staff Advisory Council
Dear Friends,
In October 2021 I announced the establishment of a Task Force on Workplace Culture (TFWC) to assess—as the name indicates—our work environment and make recommendations to me and senior leadership about how we can improve Boston University’s workplace to continue to accomplish our mission and recruit and retain excellent employees. The TFWC included 18 staff members led by Amanda Bailey, vice president for human resources, and Andrea Taylor, senior diversity officer.
The TFWC issued its first annual report to me in December 2022. The report reflected the results of an all-staff flexible work survey administered last year and made several recommendations, which I summarize below:
- Increase remote work options
- Formalize guidelines for flexible work
- Formalize guidelines for seasonal flexible work
- Institutionalize a staff advisory group to follow on the efforts of the task force
In various meetings (including, most recently, the Management Town Meeting on March 22), I have emphasized that in further developing workplace options and implementing guidelines we must be grounded in the recognition that Boston University is a residential research university, where the people who are at the core of our mission—our students and faculty—live, study, and work. To be a successful high-quality residential university, we must necessarily balance work flexibility for our staff with our needs on campus. To maintain this balance does not, at this time, justify that we change the remote work policies put in place in August 2021.
We do believe, however, that we should put in place University-wide guidelines for flexible work and flexible seasonal work. I have asked Amanda Bailey, vice president for human resources, to draft these guidelines for review and subsequent dissemination.
The work and engagement of the TFWC over the last year make a strong argument for the continuing formal engagement of staff members in an advisory capacity. I enthusiastically accept the recommendation of the TFWC to establish the BU Staff Advisory Council or BU-SAC. The mission of the new Staff Advisory Council (SAC) will be to foster direct and regular communication between staff and University leadership to identify and address issues that affect our workplace culture and identify areas of opportunity to improve it. The council will be composed of a diverse, representative group of staff drawn from administrative and academic departments.We are in the final steps of formalizing the operation of the Staff Advisory Council. Here are some of the important elements:
- The SAC will serve as an advisory body and report directly to the University president, who will chair the council.
- The SAC membership will be composed of 30 staff members who will each serve three-year terms. The staff will be selected by a membership committee of the SAC.
- The current TFWC members have been invited to serve as the SAC’s initial members. For more information, please see the article in BU Today and additional notices as we move from vision to reality.
I believe that these new policies and the establishment of the BU Staff Advisory Council will improve the workplace environment and culture and continue our tradition of having Boston University be a great place to establish your professional career.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President