The Employee Assembly filled two vacant positions and discussed policy changes for staff holiday time off at one of its final meetings of the semester on Wednesday afternoon.
To start off the meeting, Wendy Treat, the vice chair for operations and finance, gave an overview of two incidental vacancy positions — College of Veterinary Medicine representative and health and safety representative. Treat introduced one potential candidate for each role and encouraged them to speak about their candidacy and interest in the position.
Slated to fill the role of College of Veterinary Medicine representative is Marcy Benda, who had previously served on the Employee Assembly as both the women’s representative and the 20+ year employee representative.
“I’ve been employed by the vet college [for] almost 25 years now,” Benda said. “I’m the executive assistant to the hospital director [and] also meet regularly with all the assistants of the department chairs and associate deans throughout the veterinary college.”
Following Benda’s statement, the Assembly transitioned to hearing Kevin Fitch’s pitch to fill the position of health and safety representative, which would give him voting membership and the ability to voice concerns or considerations from his department.
Fitch works under Cornell Environment, Health and Safety as one of three radiation safety specialists. Because the representative position has been vacant as of 2020, Fitch noted the importance of filling the role.
“I’ve been here at the University for 33 years, and I do plan on doing the big retirement after this, so I will be looking in our department for a replacement because we do feel that this is something that is very necessary,” Fitch said.
After Benda and Fitch shared their interests in the roles, the Assembly transitioned into the executive section and voted on the two candidates. Shortly after convening, the executive Employee Assembly came to its decision.
“It is our pleasure to welcome both Kevin and Marcy to the Employee Assembly,” said Vice Chair Erika Crawley.
Crawley also asked the Assembly if anyone was interested in filling the vice chair for communications position. Rose Howard, a current Employee Assembly representative, promptly volunteered and was approved by unanimous consent.
Before concluding the meeting, the Assembly also discussed holiday leave after receiving feedback from employees about having insufficient time for travel and preparation between the start of their break and the holiday season.
Many Assembly members raised equity concerns surrounding staff holiday breaks, as students and faculty receive more time off than staff. The upcoming winter break for Cornell staff members will run just eight days, from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1, while students are off for nearly a month, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 20.
Crawley noted longer breaks at peer institutions such as the University of Southern California, staff will receive 11 days off during their upcoming winter recess period. She also cited the University of Pittsburgh as an institution that ensures both faculty and staff have the same time off over winter break.
Representative At-Large Danyel Wierson brought up security concerns in terms of being the last “one percent of staff on campus.” She said that when faculty and students leave campus before staff members, being the last “person in a department [is] kind of creepy.”
The Assembly discussed possible flex time options and mentioned an upcoming floating holiday policy to address members’ paid time off concerns as the holiday season approaches.
Rafaela Gandolfo Bustamante ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].