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Friday Focus: Supporting and celebrating staff at UAF

April 3, 2026

—&�Բ�����;By Derek Bastille, UAF Staff Council president

At UAF, we frequently discuss the importance of the “three pillars” that interact to support our institution. The students who are our reason to be here and are seeking education and training; the faculty who teach and mentor students, and lead the research we do; and the staff who provide the resources, infrastructure, support, and environment needed by both students and faculty. Staff are involved in all aspects of UAF, from the highly visible to behind-the-scenes positions, and all staff have an important role in keeping UAF running and educating students.

The UAF Staff Council is a governance organization composed of non-represented staff, and it advocates on their behalf to UAF leadership. Even though its focus is on non-represented staff, most of the topics and issues that are brought to the chancellor, HR, and other members of leadership apply to a wide variety of other UAF staff. SC works in concert with the Faculty Senate and ASUAF on larger, collective issues involving staff, faculty, and students, and is also a part of the accreditation process for UAF. As a strong advocate for professional development, SC works with UA Staff Alliance to provide funding for things like travel, certifications, and course fees.

With the successful vote to unionize nearly all of the UAF non-represented staff, the UAF Staff Council is now in a state of adjournment until either BOR regulation 3.01 is updated or other non-represented UAF staff are identified. I am proud of all of the accomplishments of the Staff Council over the years for staff representation and advocacy, and wish any future representatives of UAF Staff Council success once it has been reactivated. Please be patient as we all work through topics like the future of staff development funds and the Staff Make Students Count Award.

Every year, UAF celebrates Staff Recognition and Development Day, and SC is working with UAF Onboarding and Engagement to recognize employees with longevity milestones, along with the annual Cornerstone Award. All staff are encouraged to attend to help cheer on their co-workers in addition to attending the training sessions and keynote.

There has been some confusion about how longevity is being calculated, so I will try to explain briefly. Previously, we would calculate the number of years between the adjusted service date and the end of the SRDD year. That date was updated by HR and was reset for situations like a break in service. This often caused staff to have less longevity than they had earned. So, for this year, longevity is now calculated based on cumulative eligible time. That is, the sum of years that a staff person worked in full-time, benefited positions. To this total is also added any time worked before Banner was implemented in 1996.

There are many complications with this change, and I ask your patience as the SRDD team works through them. My kudos to both Carla Browning and Molly Anslinger for working through all the permutations and making this switch as fair as they can. Please note that we will be reaching out to those who may have leapfrogged over milestones to ensure they get recognized.

At its heart, SC is all about staff supporting and advocating for each other. I am always amazed at the variety of hard work each of you does day in and day out to keep UAF running, and I am humbled to lead SC and be trusted with advocating on your behalf. Thank you for all that you do!

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF's leadership team every week. On occasion, a guest writer is invited to contribute a column.