Staff Council president Kell urges staff to stay informed on budget process, ask good questions
If 15 years as an administrator in two Carver College of Medicine departments won’t help Glenn Kell prepare for his new role as Staff Council president, then perhaps his pastime as a softball umpire will.
As the administrator in the Department of Urology, Kell is responsible for all business-related aspects of the department, from human resources to purchasing and budgeting to patient scheduling. Prior to joining urology, he spent five years in the Department of Psychiatry as an assistant to the administrator while he worked on his doctorate in higher education.
Before he and his family settled in Iowa City 15 years ago, he spent eight years in Zambia as principal of a Bible college and two years in Nairobi, Kenya, where he helped set up a small Christian university.
On April 1, Kell took over as Staff Council president for departing president Martha Greer. fyi talked with Kell about the big issues Staff Council will address in the coming year, how staff can stay informed during a time of uncertainty, and his side job on the softball sidelines.
How did you get involved in Staff Council?
Our nurse manager, Helen Rittenmeyer, was on Staff Council and said, ‘Glenn, you ought to run for Staff Council. You’d be interested in things going on there. You’d be good at it. Why don’t you get involved?’ I tried to run one year, but there weren’t any openings in my particular category. The next year, a couple of write-in votes elected me. This is my third year on Staff Council.
What made you want to become Staff Council president?
We dealt with a sticky situation related to our bylaws when a Staff Council president resigned. It became a difficult issue for us as a group. But as we worked through it, we went back and established the principles and eventually established consensus, even though we were divided initially. It was a cordial division, but afterward someone came to me and said, ‘The way you helped us work through this would be a good approach for us to use on Staff Council. Would you allow me to nominate you for president?’ I thought about it, prayed about it, and said, ‘Yeah, we’ll see where it goes.’
What do you enjoy about being involved with Staff Council?
I like that it gives me the opportunity to learn more about the University in terms of what’s happening and its impact on staff. And it gives staff an opportunity to talk with the administration about the things that are happening. We meet each month with the president and we meet every other month with the provost. It gives us an opportunity to hear from them firsthand about what’s going on. It’s not filtered through the newspaper, through the rumor mill, or through some college or other organization.
The University’s budget concerns are foremost on many staff members’ minds. How can staff get involved in the process and stay informed about budget-related decisions?
I think step one is just learning about the budget. Where does the money come from that supports the day-to-day function of the University? Until we understand those dynamics, we’ll never understand what’s happening inside the University because we have a series of revenue streams. For instance, the hospital’s revenue streams are different from some of the revenue streams for the College of Medicine. Those revenue streams are different from the University at large. The first step is to take a look at where those sources of funds are.
I think the second is to take a look at what’s going to happen with those sources of funds. What’s happening with the state appropriation? What’s happening with stimulus money? What’s happening at the hospital with the various payer sources that we’re receiving reimbursement from? When we take a look at and put all those things in balance, then we have a broader picture of what’s taken place. Once we understand that picture, then I think staff members are in a position to say, ‘How can we help?’
What can staff do to learn more about the budget process?
Ask good questions. There’s a lot of information available. The University and the College of Medicine have established special budget web sites. Attend some of the forums. President Mason has had a series of forums. Jean Robillard, vice president for medical affairs, has had a series of forums for staff. If you can’t attend those forums, often those meetings are later shown on the web.
People who work with the budgets are very open to questions. Contact the finance officer, the deans’ offices, the president’s office, the provost’s office. They want to answer those questions. If they can’t answer them, they’ll refer you to someone who can. I’ve also been appreciative of the fact that there’s been opportunity on the various web pages for staff to submit suggestions because our staff is at the grassroots of what happens at the University. It gives us an opportunity to make suggestions about how we believe we can help improve the overall function of the University.
Between the budget, benefits changes, and job reclassifications, it’s a stressful time for a lot of employees. Is there anything Staff Council can do to assure people, hey, it’s going to be OK?
Staff Council has been meeting to try to establish the principles we believe the University should use in approaching the budget situation. One of those principles we’re asking for is to proceed in a way that minimizes anxiety, and certainly the transparency the University is trying to build into the process is helpful. We want people to be confident in their jobs as much as possible. A nervous person doesn’t work nearly as well as someone who’s secure. The question a lot of people are asking is, ‘Am I going to have a job tomorrow?’ So the fact that the University has been open, that’s the biggest thing we can do to help people understand what’s going on. Where will it lead? We don’t know yet, but we’re going to try and help people understand the process and invite them into the process. I think the University is doing a good job trying to work with staff to keep people involved in what’s happening.
What are some of the other big issues you expect Staff Council to address in the coming year?
I think the largest challenge we have is to help our councilors be aware of how the University functions. When we’re better aware of how the University functions, we’ll be in a better position any time a special issue arises to put it in context and gather the information to try and approach that particular situation. I’m more concerned about helping our staff councilors understand the overall functioning of the University.
What do you do when you’re not at work?
One of the largest activities I’m involved with is being a softball umpire. The last four years I’ve umpired approximately 300 games a year, both fast-pitch and slow-pitch, everything from high school ball to little girls age 10 on up. High school ball is a lot of fun. So I spend a lot of time starting in March through October umpiring.
I’ve always been around sports. I umpired my first game when I was 16, I’d always been interested in getting back into it. After I finished school here, my kids were gone from home; I felt like I had more discretionary time. I had been playing some softball and talked to some of the umpires about the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA). I took the necessary training. I play two nights a week and umpire the rest of the time. Slow pitch is a game you can play forever. The ASA has national championships through age 75 and over. It’s a great game.
by Madelaine Jerousek-Smith
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