J. David Martin

J. David Martin is head of the Pomerantz Business Library, an employee of the University library system. He has been installed as president of the University Staff Council for 2002-2003. fyi asked him about his goals and the direction that Staff Council will take in the coming year.

fyi: You’ve had a year as vice president/president-elect to observe Pat Arkema, the past president of Staff Council. Have you decided what kind of president you’d like to be?

Martin: I hope I will operate collaboratively, getting as much input as possible and seeking consensus on decisions. At some point, someone has to make a decision, and that will be me. People may say I spend too much time seeking input, but that’s the way I will do things. I hope to involve others and let staff know what’s going on.

fyi: What are your goals for the next year?

Martin: I want to do a better job of communicating with the charter committees around campus. People don’t know about the work that’s going on in these committees in important areas such as parking, retirement, Taser guns, or other subjects. I’m going to request that they include Staff Council in early stages of their discussions of these issues. We’d like them to know that if there’s any way that Staff Council can help, we’re open to having them come to us at any time. It’s also a two-way street—we need to communicate better with them, too. Several Staff Council members recently attended a meeting of the charter committee on parking and transportation, and they clearly listened to what we had to say.

fyi: What else is coming up that you can foresee now?

Martin: Last year, our Governmental Relations Committee coordinated its work with the Faculty Governmental Relations Committee. Now we need more work to see what we want to accomplish. We have sent out a survey to ask staff members what they think about establishing a political action committee for voluntary donations by staff and faculty to a fund that would let our voice be heard in political circles. Staff Council can’t set up a PAC; this is just giving the staff a chance to give us their opinions.

We have worked for many years to make sure that staff members are included in search committees for important positions around campus and we’ve done fairly well, but we have to keep going. To me, that’s a constant battle we need to fight.

fyi: What do you feel are the most important things that Staff Council has accomplished over the past couple of years?

Martin: Certainly one is getting our own office established in the Iowa Memorial Union, with a half-time administrative assistant. That support has made a huge difference in the workload of several Staff Council members. It clearly made a difference in my agreeing to run for this office, because I don’t have secretarial support in my work position. It says something about the University support of our work.

We have been able to work on revising several policies that are important to staff people: administrative review, sexual harassment, and consensual sexual relationships. They were discussed in Staff Council while they were in draft stage. Some of these policies take years to percolate through the system.

Staff Celebration Day certainly is a success, judging by the attendance and feedback we receive. We have fewer dollars to spend on it this year, but that’s just going to mean less food than in previous years. We’ll still be able to celebrate staff work. It’s important to have this celebration at any time, but it’s vital in times when staff morale has suffered from budget cuts. It takes time and energy on many people’s parts to carry it off.

Other things we do, like the Board of Regents Staff Excellence and Outstanding Staff awards, are important, too. It’s one of the many things that Staff Council does behind the scenes.

Then there’s the Diversity Committee, which has run the Martin Luther King Jr. kickoff program in February for many years. They have improved each year and have become more important to the campus.

fyi: Staff Council president is a very big job. What motivated you to agree to take it on this year?

Martin: I guess I was motivated by a concept of service, the same motivation that staff councilors believe in—the motivation that makes them work to make campus better. It’s important to give back to the University. Beyond that, I enjoy keeping informed. Eventually, staff members begin to want to look at the big picture beyond their jobs. At some point, they discover that decisions made in that bigger world influence their work situations.

Staff councilors are not reimbursed for this work; it’s voluntary time. But the University does support councilors by asking their supervisors to give them time to accomplish Staff Council work. I think it’s important that we’re supported by President Mary Sue Coleman, Vice President Doug True, and others who work every month with Staff Council—their willingness to bounce ideas off us and collaborate with us influences a lot of things.

I have a wonderful staff at the library, too. They’re very capable, and I have the utmost confidence in them. Clearly, the University library administration was very supportive, not only with me but also in giving Donna Hirst and Janice Simmons-Welburn the ability to be staff councilors. The library system stresses the “service” part of our mission. We are expected to be in professional organizations, to travfà to professional meetings when the budget permits. My decision to be Staff Council president comes out of that ethic.

Article by Anne Tanner