On September 26, the Senate voted 53 to 44 to confirm Eugene Scalia to serve as the secretary of labor at the Department of Labor (DOL). Scalia’s confirmation comes one week after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a full committee hearing on his nomination and just months after the resignation... View Article
With nearly one-third of the U.S. higher education staff workforce age 55 or older, the implications are many for colleges and universities. New research by CUPA-HR on the aging of the higher ed workforce highlights some challenges institutions will likely face in the coming years as staff begin to retire in large numbers. Here’s what... View Article
Each year, CUPA-HR’s Higher Education Human Resource Awards honor individuals, teams and institutions that are doing outstanding and innovative work around advancing diversity and inclusion in higher ed, elevating the HR role on campus, furthering the higher ed HR profession, and giving selflessly of their time and talents to CUPA-HR and their higher ed HR peers.... View Article
“You’re short on ears and long on mouth.” ― John Wayne As HR professionals, we’re experts at listening, right? In my experience (and I’m also pointing my finger at myself), sometimes yes, and sometimes, not so much. Galen Emanuele, one of the keynote speakers at CUPA-HR’s spring conference in Seattle, encouraged us to apply the improv concept... View Article
From diversity and inclusion efforts to people development initiatives, leading change and more, human resources teams and HR practitioners across the country are doing great work every day. CUPA-HR’s Higher Education HR Region Awards program recognizes some of the best and brightest in higher ed HR and honors HR professionals who have given their time... View Article
Editor’s note: You may have missed this article when we published it in 2016. It’s been updated in honor of Employee Appreciation Day, which occurs on March 1 this year. Encouragement is essential for employees to feel valued and engaged in the workplace, and leaders and supervisors should always be looking for ways in which... View Article
Many colleges and universities, particularly master’s and doctoral institutions, have seen an increase in the numbers of part-time and adjunct faculty over the past decade — a trend that has likely been driven in part by the 2008 economic recession and institutions’ responses to financial challenges in its aftermath. New research from CUPA-HR on how... View Article
Another provost leaves after just three years — which by the way is the median tenure for provosts — and we open yet another search. We appoint an interim (probably the same person who served as interim during the last search), bring in another search firm, dust off the job description we used just a... View Article
Student affairs has one of the most diverse workforces on college and university campuses today, particularly as it relates to women and African Americans in leadership positions. Student affairs is also exemplary for pay equity compared to the rest of higher education. According to findings from CUPA-HR’s just-released research report Focus on Student Affairs, 2018:... View Article
How often does “stuff” ruin your workday? Stuff like people’s propensity to complain about anything and everything; petty squabbling or personality conflicts; miscommunication; misunderstanding; mistakes. This is the stuff that gets on people’s nerves. The stuff that makes people angry. The stuff that is distracting and disruptive to people’s daily psyche. So how can we... View Article
Last July we shared with you how six early-career HR professionals started a journey to develop their skills and careers in higher ed. We recently had the pleasure of watching that class of CUPA-HR’s Wildfire program — Shamika Patterson, Tapiwanashe Nhundu, Chris Roediger, Thuy Nguyen, Heather Butterfield and Drexel King — as they ended their... View Article
Each year, CUPA-HR’s Higher Education Human Resource Awards honor individuals, teams and institutions that are doing outstanding and innovative work around advancing diversity and inclusion in higher ed, elevating the HR role on campus, furthering the higher ed HR profession, and giving selflessly of their time and talents to CUPA-HR and their higher ed HR... View Article
“Intersectionality” – the combination of discrimination or bias experienced by individuals with overlapping identities, each of which is associated with discrimination on its own. Research has shown that women and minorities each face their own challenges related to equal pay and representation in the higher ed workforce — women working in higher ed leadership earn less than... View Article
Among staff-level jobs in the nation’s colleges and universities, the skilled crafts area is growing markedly, while current skilled crafts workers are nearing retirement — making a hiring boom likely within the next decade. According to just-released findings from CUPA-HR’s 2018 Staff in Higher Education Survey, skilled crafts workers (who hold jobs like electrician, carpenter,... View Article
During the years that I was the chief HR officer at the University of Georgia, my sons, Josh and Caleb, were in middle school. One night at dinner, we were having the typical conversation during which I (as the parent) was trying to pry tidbits of information from them regarding what they did at school,... View Article
While the employment of professionals in higher education saw an overall increase of 7 percent and grew in all areas over the past year, two areas — “other education” and “safety” — grew at a substantially faster clip than all the rest. According to just-released findings from CUPA-HR’s 2018 Professionals in Higher Education Survey, while... View Article
How often do you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything you need to do? How often do you get in the groove of a project or task, only to be interrupted by an office drop-by, an incoming phone call, an “urgent” email, or a beep, buzz or chime on... View Article
Ever-evolving technology and near-constant digital innovations are changing the landscape of teaching and learning — in our K-12 classrooms, in our colleges and universities, in our workplaces and in our everyday lives. Digital Learning Day, coming up on February 22, was started in 2012 as a way to actively spread innovative teaching practices and ensure... View Article
CUPA-HR’s strategic priorities were last updated in 2011, and our values and ethics statements were last updated over a decade ago. With the ever-changing needs in today’s complex higher education landscape, it is important to periodically review our priorities, our values, and the ethics that guide our work to ensure their relevance and their impact.... View Article
With the dizzying pace of change in human resources these days, the need to capture employees’ attention and spur them to action has never been greater. At the same time, the distractions of our connected world are increasing exponentially. In the article “Step Up Your HR Communications Game: What the Latest Technologies Can Do for... View Article
The bond between HR and technology has not always been a strong one. After all, HR is people-oriented, and technical lingo might seem like gibberish to those of us who engage with human beings more often than our computer screens. So how can you successfully communicate your project needs to IT when you’re having trouble... View Article
President Trump has announced his intent to nominate Cheryl Stanton as the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour administrator. Stanton, who currently serves as the executive director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW), held multiple White House roles under President George W. Bush, serving as the White House’s principal legal liaison to DOL,... View Article
Pictured (left to right): Erik Smetana, University of Missouri System Administration; Lauren A. Rubitz, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Darrell Easley, Mississippi State University; Kenneth Nelson, University of Colorado Boulder; Marc Serrett, South Dakota State University; Shanna Hines, Bates College Six CUPA-HR members have been selected to participate in the 2017-18 Emerging CUPA-HR Leaders program.... View Article
Six early-career professionals who are participants in CUPA-HR’s 2017-18 Wildfire program — Shamika Patterson, Tapiwanashe Nhundu, Chris Roediger, Thuy Nguyen, Heather Butterfield and Drexel King — joined nearly 200 individuals July 13-16 in Tempe, Arizona, for the Association Leadership Program (ALP), an annual gathering of CUPA-HR leaders from the chapter, regional and national levels, corporate... View Article
On July 19, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) favorably reported out President Trump’s nominations of Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel to be members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Approved in a 12-11 vote along party lines, Kaplan’s and Emanuel’s nominations now advance to the full Senate for consideration.... View Article
Great work is being done by HR organizations and HR professionals at colleges and universities across the country. From innovations in processes and procedures to transformative HR work, from unique and forward-thinking diversity and inclusion initiatives to championing change, many HR organizations are successfully positioning themselves as strategic business partners and contributors to their institutions’... View Article
On May 17, CUPA-HR hosted its inaugural “Day on the Hill” event, during which 24 members headed to Capitol Hill to promote and advocate for key higher ed HR policy priorities. With a healthy mix of institutions represented (large public universities, community colleges and small private universities from within the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania... View Article
On March 30, the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) favorably reported out the nomination of President Trump’s choice for secretary of labor, Alexander Acosta. Approved in a 12-11 vote along party lines, Acosta’s nomination now advances to the full Senate for consideration. The Committee’s vote comes a month and a half... View Article
The 115th Congress continues to move forward with the confirmation process for President Trump’s nominees. The president has announced 24 individuals that will make up his cabinet, including heads of key federal agencies. Fourteen of these nominees have either just concluded or still face confirmation hearings by the Senate committee of jurisdiction for their designated post and... View Article
Congress convened on January 3 to usher in the 115th Congress and begin immediate work in an effort to deliver on election promises. With Republican majorities in both houses, an incoming Republican administration and one of the busiest Congressional calendars in years, 2017 promises to be an action-packed year that will bring much change. To... View Article
Another year ends, another year begins! We hope you had a productive and enjoyable 2016. As you jump back in to your work in this new year, don’t forget to take advantage of CUPA-HR’s many resources and services to help you do your job better, faster and smarter. CUPA-HR’s The Higher Education Workplace magazine and... View Article
If you were to poll a random number of employees about your organization’s performance management process, what do you think they’d say? Chances are, they’d lament that it is not helpful, that it’s just one of those “must-do” tasks or that it doesn’t add value to their work. But don’t fret — you’re not alone!... View Article
Remember that bully on the playground in middle school? The one that picked on his classmates? The one that gossiped and spread rumors about her “friends”? The one that made his peers’ lives miserable? That bully is all grown up now, and he’s in your workplace. In her session at this year’s CUPA-HR Annual Conference,... View Article
On September 6, Congress returned from a seven-week recess with a long list of possible legislative actions — and a very small window of time to complete them. There are only a handful of scheduled legislative days left until Congress returns home again for the final campaign push ahead of the November elections, yet important... View Article
Think about the many different work styles, personality types, viewpoints and temperaments in your organization. Now add to that mix competing ideas, workplace stress, ego and pride, and it’s easy to see how coworkers can butt heads. While many workplace disagreements are either intentionally resolved or simply fizzle out on their own over time, others... View Article
The upcoming election promises to fuel both federal and local interest in workforce regulation, as the leading candidates from both parties have focused their campaigns addressing inequality through a variety of measures, including changes to the laws governing the workforce. Indeed, while Mr. Trump has yet to release many details on his specific policy proposals,... View Article
Do you remember when you were first starting out on your higher ed HR career path? Maybe you were fresh out of college, or maybe you worked in the private sector before making the leap to higher education. Maybe a job in human resources was your plan all along, or maybe you just fell into... View Article
Are you an HR legal expert? Here’s a real court case to help test your HR legal knowledge. Review the facts of the case, tell us which side you think prevailed, and find out if you’re right! The Case: First Amendment – Epstein v. Suffolk Community College (E.D.N.Y. 2:14-CV-00937) The Facts: Supreme Court Rule –... View Article
When was the last time you had honest-to-goodness fun at work? I’m talking tell-your-family-and-friends fun. Think-about-it-afterward-and-smile fun. Mentally-check-out-and-enjoy-the-moment fun. If you can’t recall the last time your team, department or office had fun as a group, it’s definitely been too long! For too many employees, work can be like groundhog day. Same tasks, same meetings,... View Article
This blog post was contributed by John Martin, associate director of client services at Princeton University and chair and treasurer of the CUPA-HR Eastern Region board of directors. I recently did some training for one of my client groups on campus and as we were preparing to begin, I heard one of the employees say... View Article
This blog post was contributed by Mary Anne Berzins, assistant vice president for human resources at University of Utah, who has presented extensively on the topic of facilitation skills. The ability to facilitate dialogue and create spaces in which people can engage and share perspectives is a key HR competency; however, it can be challenging... View Article
According to human capital expert Dr. Peter Cappelli, the mid-1940s saw the birth of modern HR … [A]fter World War II, U.S. industry suffered a talent shortage unlike anything since. Many of the men (it was always men) who might have gone into business had fought instead. It didn’t help matters that talent development had... View Article
Effective May 7, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires the use of a new I-9 Form to verify the identity and employment authorization of those hired to work in the United States. Frequently higher ed HR professionals are challenged with how to complete the I-9 process for employees who can’t come to campus... View Article