The Higher Ed Workplace Blog

On January 4, 2023, the Biden administration released the anticipated Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Regulatory Agenda), providing the public with a detailed glimpse into the regulatory and deregulatory activities under development across approximately 67 federal departments, agencies and commissions. After completing a thorough review of the items included in the Regulatory Agenda, CUPA-HR put together the following list of significant proposed actions for members.

Throughout the year, the Higher Ed Workplace Blog and Higher Ed HR Magazine feature HR innovations and success stories from the CUPA-HR community. In case you missed them, we’ve listed several great blog posts and articles of 2022 that will leave you feeling inspired and ready to take action at your institution.

On December 15, the National Labor Relations Board’s Region 31 announced it will be pursuing a complaint against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Pac-12 Conference and the University of Southern California for violating the National Labor Relations Act by misclassifying student-athletes as non-employees, unless the matter is settled. On February 8, the National College Players Association filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the Region alleging that USC; the University of California, Los Angeles; the Pac-12 Conference, and the NCAA are “joint employers” who violated the NLRA by “repeatedly misclassifying employees as ‘student-athlete’ non-employees.”

CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard’s overview this month includes details on the DOL’s proposed self-correction program for retirement plan late participant contributions and loan replacements, Florida’s appeal of a federal judge’s decision blocking the Florida law restricting employer anti-bias training, an athletic director applicant’s loss of a reverse discrimination claim on the basis of interview performance, and more.

On November 17, CUPA-HR joined the American Council on Education (ACE) and over 60 other higher education associations in sending a letter to House of Representatives and Senate leadership urging Congress to pass permanent protections for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after recent court decisions have left the status of the program in limbo.

Salary benchmarking is not one-size-fits-all — especially when you’re looking at groups as varied as administrators, professionals, staff and faculty on a college or university campus that is unique in its combination of Carnegie class, affiliation, regional location and mission. The question, then, is how to tailor your benchmarking efforts to take these variables into account and choose data that is appropriate to your unique needs.

CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard’s overview this month includes an EEOC statement on abortion travel assistance, background on the Affirmative Action case before the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court’s review of the decision prohibiting state court lawsuits against unions, expanded paid leave in California, a case involving a whistleblower wrongful discharge claim, and the return of in-person voting at employer premises in NLRB-supervised union elections.

Thank you to all who attended the CUPA-HR Annual Conference and Expo in person and virtually last week! It was wonderful to welcome new (300+ first-timers!) and familiar faces and to learn about successful projects and initiatives from higher ed peers at institutions across the country. For those who weren’t able to attend, here’s some food for thought from our three outstanding keynote speakers.

As the 2022 midterm election nears, Congress has turned its focus to campaigning and essentially halted legislative action until after the election. Despite the lack of activity from Congress, federal agencies have continued to push forward with anticipated regulatory actions in the labor and employment policy area. This blog post details some of the regulatory activity CUPA-HR is currently monitoring, as well as a stalled nomination for a top position at the Department of Labor.

Positive recognition in any form is a sure mood booster and helps move campus well-being in the right direction. Learn about Kansas State University’s creative way of recognizing teams and departments on campus for their hard work to keep campus operations running smoothly.