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Memorandum from President Merten:
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In Fall 1999, President Merten created the "Quality of Work Life" task force, asking it to address and make recommendations regarding the quality of work life for all George Mason University employees. This group of fourteen faculty and staff - including the chairs of the Staff and Faculty Senates and faculty specializing in organizational psychology - has met regularly for almost a year. While much of that time has been spent reviewing the university's current policies, members of the task force also developed and analyzed two surveys that were distributed to all university employees in April 2000. One survey (PDF), which included 73 structured questions, was sent to a random sample of 600 employees across all job categories (adjunct, restricted, administrative, and tenure-line faculty; classified staff, and wage employees). A second survey (PDF), soliciting general input through three open-ended questions, was sent to all other employees.

These surveys were developed in an effort to gather the broadest possible input from the members of our community and to make sure that the task force's recommendations are consistent with what the community needs. The full report (Word doc) of the research findings, a summary of the responses to the open ended questions (html, Word doc, PDF), and a summary list of "insights" (html, Word doc, PDF) is available on this web site.

While the information elicited from the surveys is important, it is not as important as the community-wide discussion that the task force hopes this research will prompt. Thus, all university employees are invited to participate in a discussion session (html, PDF) to talk about the survey findings. President Merten and members of the Quality of Work Life Task Force will attend each discussion session. To RSVP for a discussion session, call x32741. Reservations are recommended, but not required.

The task force considers the feedback from the discussion sessions a critical element in the recommendations it will make public and forward to the President and Executive Council in January. Please feel free to pass along your comments and ideas to any member of the committee.

Task Force Membership:
Kathy Bohnstedt, DoIT, Manager, Electronic Classroom and AV Classroom Technologies.
Fletcher Daniels, University Police.
Teesta Ghosh, Adjunct Faculty, Public and International Affairs.
Nalin Jain, Business Counselor, Arlington SBDC, School of Public Policy.
Ken Kovach, Professor of School of Management.
Patrice Levinson, Nurse Practitioner, Student Health Services.
Jim Metcalf, Professor, College of Nursing & Health Science.
Stacey Remick-Simkins, Program Coordinator and Chair, Staff Senate.
Tracy Seffers, Enrollment Services Manager, PWI.
Marie Scanlon, Fiscal Technician, School of Management.
John Spaldo, Operations Director, Johnson Center and Student Unions.

Co-Chairs:
Steve LaNasa, Interim Assistant Vice President and Chief, Human Resources Officer.
Karen Rosenblum, Vice President of University Life.

 
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For comments or questions:
Contact Nancy Murphy

University Life - Quality of Work Life Task Force
George Mason University
Mason Hall, D105
Mailstop 1C2
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA  22030-4444

Phone: (703) 993-8760
Fax: (703) 993-8745

Updated: October 11, 2002

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December 2000


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