A quiet Friday for the UWS campus
11/25/2009
By Brittany Berrens
Web Editor
These signs have been posted on building doors since last week.
The University of Wisconsin – Superior campus will be closed on Friday, Nov. 27, but it won’t be because everyone is out shopping for deals on Black Friday.
Friday will be the first campus-wide furlough day for UWS. In May 2009, Governor Doyle announced that all state employees must take eight unpaid furlough days for the next two fiscal years in order to save money. This includes all UWS staff and faculty.
UWS employees have four fixed and four floating furlough days. These unpaid “vacation days” result in a three percent cut back in paychecks for staff and faculty members.
“The first time I looked at my check after taking some furlough days, I was like, ‘Wow!’ I mean, it’s not devastating for my family because my husband and I both work, but it was still noticeable,” said Rothwell Student Center Director Gail Archambault.
University staff and faculty were sent e-mails instructing them not to do any work, answer work related phone calls, or check their work e-mail account on the furlough day.
For staff member Gail Archambault, this will not be a problem. The Rothwell Student Center Director will be traveling to Florida to visit her newest grandchild on what is to be her fifth furlough day.
Other employees have gotten creative with how they could spend their furlough days. In August, a group of staff members used one of their flex days to go kayaking on Lake Superior. They called it, “Furlough Friday.”
Archambault says this is the kind of attitude employees should have about furlough days.
“Nobody’s really happy about it, but what are you going to do? At least we get the time off to go with the cut,” she said.
The eight furlough days will save the school approximately $474,000. All of these savings are to be turned over to the state government. The other campus-wide furlough days this school year are on Wednesday, December 30, Monday, March 15 and Friday, April 2.
Friday will be the first campus-wide furlough day for UWS. In May 2009, Governor Doyle announced that all state employees must take eight unpaid furlough days for the next two fiscal years in order to save money. This includes all UWS staff and faculty.
UWS employees have four fixed and four floating furlough days. These unpaid “vacation days” result in a three percent cut back in paychecks for staff and faculty members.
“The first time I looked at my check after taking some furlough days, I was like, ‘Wow!’ I mean, it’s not devastating for my family because my husband and I both work, but it was still noticeable,” said Rothwell Student Center Director Gail Archambault.
University staff and faculty were sent e-mails instructing them not to do any work, answer work related phone calls, or check their work e-mail account on the furlough day.
For staff member Gail Archambault, this will not be a problem. The Rothwell Student Center Director will be traveling to Florida to visit her newest grandchild on what is to be her fifth furlough day.
Other employees have gotten creative with how they could spend their furlough days. In August, a group of staff members used one of their flex days to go kayaking on Lake Superior. They called it, “Furlough Friday.”
Archambault says this is the kind of attitude employees should have about furlough days.
“Nobody’s really happy about it, but what are you going to do? At least we get the time off to go with the cut,” she said.
The eight furlough days will save the school approximately $474,000. All of these savings are to be turned over to the state government. The other campus-wide furlough days this school year are on Wednesday, December 30, Monday, March 15 and Friday, April 2.
PHOTO OF THE DAY:::...
Art in the park. Photo by Alyssa Palmer
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