BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
 
 

July 26, 2016

Dear BGSU Faculty Colleagues:

In this fifth communication on implementing our new collective bargaining agreement, we want to share information about changes to reporting the use or non-use of sick leave pursuant to the agreement as well as the University’s move to a streamlined electronic reporting system for all types of leave. Beginning this contract year, all faculty members will report their use of paid and unpaid leave on a monthly basis using the University’s electronic reporting system. Faculty members must submit a report each month even if they did not take any leave.

The bargaining teams worked collaboratively to clarify and enhance many of the faculty leave sections of the new contract, including parental leave and sick leave use (Article 21, Sections 8 and 11). In addition, the University will be moving all leave reporting to the same electronic reporting system used by other groups of BGSU employees. Effective July 1 for 12-month faculty, and August 10 for 9-month faculty, full-time faculty members will be responsible for logging into the MyBGSU portal time and labor reporting system and indicating whether or not they used any leave for the month and, if leave was used, entering the hours used for each category of leave for which they are eligible (e.g., sick leave, vacation leave, Family Medical Leave, personal leave, unpaid leave). This reporting will take place at the end of each month, and needs to be completed within the first three working days of the following month.

Training materials have been developed to walk you through the leave reporting process. Your Department Chair or School Director will also be able to provide help, as will administrative or classified staff members in your academic unit who have been using the reporting system for several years. If you experience technical problems using the leave reporting system, please contact Bill Balzer (wbalzer@bgsu.edu), VP for Faculty Affairs and Strategic Initiatives.

Article 21 of the CBA provides guidance for determining the number of hours of leave that should be reported. If you have questions regarding how to calculate your leave, please contact your department chair or school director. The Administration and BGSU-FA will work together to help make this a smooth transition. This joint communication will be archived on the Provost website. A future joint communication will address the new process for converting some sick leave to personal leave (Article 21, Section 8.7).

Best wishes for a safe and productive summer.

Rodney K. Rogers, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President

David J. Jackson, Ph.D.
President, BGSU Faculty Association