West Virginia University Staff Council will be working to increase the University budget as well as salaries for classified staff this year.
The council created a committee to travel to Charleston in November or December to speak with delegates about the budget and salary issues, said Ron Campolong, council member and trade specialist at Facilities Management.
The Council wants to see the budget increase, Campilong said.
"They want us to do more with less," said Jo Morrow, president of Staff Council. "The wages we make, we have to live on them."
The council has asked for pay raises before. Morrow said in April, when the Board of Governors was to pass the budget, it postponed the salary portion to write a new proposal that did not include pay raises for classified staff who had 15 or more years of service.
The Council presented its own proclamation to University President James P. Clements April 26, Morrow said.
The proclamation proposed that everyone, including faculty and non-classified staff with more than 15 years work, should not receive a pay raise, Morrow said.
Clements is currently working with his financial team to come up with models supporting staff salary raises for the first Board of Governors meeting, she said.
The council would also like to change the way salaries are distributed, Ron said.
Classified staff falls under the University's payroll as state employees. Workers are paid twice a month, but the council would like a more consistent every two weeks pay schedule, Ron said.
"It needs a legislative rule or law change to adjust the pay roll schedule," Ron said.
Council members will meet with chairs of the Finance and Education
Committees in the House of Delegates and Senate to sponsor a bill, Campolong said.
It also hopes to partner with the Department of Highways, which is seeking a similar change, Morrow said.
"I haven't contacted them yet, but as soon as possible we'd like to meet with the Department of Highways to see how they are approaching this," Morrow said.
Classified Staff members work in five categories – technical, clerical, craft maintenance, managerial and professional, said Linda Campolong, Council member and housekeeper for Housing and Residential Education.
"Students are the reason we're here," Ron said. "We're here as service personnel only because students are here."
Anyone on campus is a "customer" of classified staff, Linda said.
"The employees are the backbone of the University," Linda said. "We're the ones that are always here."
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