... until I saw this tweet
Holy moly, staff at SUNY Binghamton are now required to sign up for shifts that involve taking meals to, supporting, and testing students in quarantine. Turning a worker (librarian, security guard, registrar) into a healthcare worker without consent
— voicesbend (@voicesbend) September 20, 2021
Dateline Addition: Monday, September 13
A message from President Harvey Stenger
The past 18 months have been difficult for all of us. Many of you have volunteered for roles on campus out of your comfort zone for longer than anticipated. Over time, these extraordinary efforts are beginning to strain our current volunteer base. Our campus culture needs to be one of shared responsibility. Although we have different titles, we have one common value: supporting our students. We cannot allow our colleagues who volunteer to continue to shoulder the burden. So now is the time we need to all step up to support them, our students and our campus.
We must continue to provide numerous services in our campus fight against COVID. These include the University’s Surveillance Testing Center, which will test upwards of 5,000 individuals per week and provide consultation to students and other operational services (meals, transportation, package delivery, etc.) to those in isolation or quarantine housing. Providing these services requires many resources and our staff of volunteers needs additional support.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to replenish our pool of volunteers so necessary to these COVID-related services, so beginning the week of Sept. 13, almost all staff will be required to sign up for a bi-weekly shift (two per month) for the remainder of the fall semester. We have worked with both UUP and CSEA to create this unique circumstance and there will be some exceptions to this requirement. Faculty, CSEA OSU employees and select professional staff who directly support our COVID efforts will be exempt. In addition, staff who are already volunteering will not need to sign up for additional shifts unless they desire to.
The following circumstances will apply:
• Staff filling roles during the week will do so instead of their regular job.
• Staff filling roles partially after or before their regular work hours will receive comp time or work with their supervisor to adjust their schedule accordingly.
• UUP staff who sign up for four 4-hour shifts on the weekends will receive $500 in extra service and complete their semester obligations. CSEA staff will receive a combination of comp time and overtime.
Shifts will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. To find the role that bests suits you, I would suggest signing up sooner rather than later. Those who wait until later in the process may not have a choice of roles or shifts. The entire cadre of slots will not be available immediately, so those who don’t fill available spaces immediately will be placed on a waiting list. Staff required to participate will be receiving an email from JoAnn Navarro at VPOperations@binghamton.edu later this morning with additional instructions and information.
This effort will take all of us pulling together to ensure that we can continue to provide quality support services to our students, faculty and staff! Thank you for all of your efforts.
SIncerely,
Harvey Stenger
President
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