THE
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Athletics welcomes new diversity, medicinal employees into ranks
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‘THEY CONTROL THE NARRATIVE’
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Thursday, August 29, 2024 Vol. 78 No. 1
THE student voice since 1960
BLUFF
COUGAR VILLAGE
EVERGREEN
Housing employees speak out against restrictive media ‘policy’ DYLAN HEMBROUGH editor-in-chief University Housing employees are bound by department policy to direct all media inquiries to Director of University Housing Mallory Sidarous. Some employees have chosen to speak out against the policy, calling it a violation of their rights as American citizens.
policy or practice?
Sidarous said the policy, which she actually referred to as “department practice,” is meant to present accurate information to outside sources. “It’s been in place since before I was the director,” Sidarous said. “I think it’s in alignment with a lot of media relations policies, where we speak as one voice as a department, and where we make sure we have the correct subject matter.” According to Sidarous, the practice only applies to employees when asked to speak from the perspective of their position. “If somebody wants to speak on behalf of themselves as an individual, that is different from speaking on behalf as an employee,” Sidarous said. “Let’s say Joe
is a music major, and you want to write an article about Joe’s concert that he was in as a percussionist. That’s not related to his role as a resident assistant.” “If it is … that would go through us,” Sidarous said. “They may not be the most qualified person to answer those questions.” However, on Aug. 19, resident assistants in Bluff Hall received an email from Bluff Hall Community Director Elijah Zagorski reminding them of the practice. The communication originally came from Associate Director of Residence Life Rex Jackson, who referred to the practice as a policy and specified that it did extend beyond work-related media inquiries. “If The Alestle (or any news organization) reaches out … [employees] cannot talk to them from the perspective of their position without Mallory’s approval,” Jackson wrote. “Even if they are being asked to talk from outside of their Housing position, [it is] always good practice for them to check with us first.” Jackson also said that Housing employees who are contacted by the media must notify their supervisors, who will re-
lay it up the chain of command to Sidarous. If an employee were to violate this practice and be caught, Sidarous said there is no set disciplinary protocol. “It would be specific to the situation and, potentially, that student, and maybe the status that they are in as a student employee,” Sidarous said. “It’s hard to give specifics.” Sidarous said she has never heard of any complaints against the practice.
Employees speak up
Aside from the Aug. 19 email, the practice is rarely referenced or enforced in writing, and it doesn’t appear in any employee contracts. Sidarous said it is written down as department practice, but no documents were offered to back this up. Two Housing employees, both of whom wished to remain anonymous due to disciplinary concerns, said the practice had only ever been communicated to them verbally. “I think [Sidarous] is smart enough to know not to put something like that in writing, because that would be pretty damning,” the first
employee said. The first employee said that, This employee also said to a point, they understand why that, in addition to violating his Housing would institute such a rights as an American citizen, practice, but that their reasons the practice prevents some nec- aren’t good enough justification essary work from being done to for enforcing it. improve campus. “I can totally understand “My intention was to get our their point of view, trying to do stuff working damage control for the safety of in the public’s our community eye. It could be out here,” the detrimental to employee said. I think it’s in alignment their operations “I’ve got cerhere if word with a lot of media tain things out got out about here I battle on relations policies, where something they a daily basis to we speak as one voice didn’t want get resolved, as a department.” out, so I can and I will use understand whatever rethem wanting sources I can to control the to try to make Mallory Sidarous narrative,” the Director of University Housing employee said. that happen.” The second “At the same anonymous employee said they time, something as innocuous as believe this practice gives Hous- talking to someone about a safeing power that has the potential to ty concern, I don’t think there’s be abused. any reason we need to have a gag “They control the narra- order.” tive,” the second employee said. Despite disagreeing with “I think it’s mixed — good and the practice, the first anonymous bad. Sometimes, you don’t want employee said they don’t believe people’s specific names to fall their coworkers will speak up. into situations, but other times, “I think most people were more details on a situation need to come out.” see HOUSING on page 2
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Stipend delay, lack of communication on backpay causes headaches for frustrated union members CAMELA SHARP reporter BRANDI SPANN opinion editor AFSCME Local 2887 members waited nearly two weeks for backpay and stipends from the university without prior notice of the delay. They received their overdue payments only after filing a grievance.
Timeline of Events
On Feb. 26, after 606 days without a contract, AFSCME Local 2887 and the university reached an agreement. The final step for the union was a membership vote to ratify the new agreements. AFSCME held meetings on all three SIUE campuses to reach as many members as possible. By March 19, they had a 99 percent ratification vote and informed the university of their decision that very night. Chancellor James T. Minor did not sign the agreement until June 11. President Dan Mahoney signed on June 12. There would be two payments providing union members with stipends and back-
pay: one on July 16 and another on July 31. Members who were employed between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, were meant to receive a stipend of $1,800 on July 16. Some people who did not fall into this category also received the payment. Union leadership also discovered that five people were still receiving bi-weekly instead of bi-monthly pay. Amy Bodenstab is president and chief steward for AFSCME Local 2887, as well as the office manager in the Department of Teaching and Learning. She reached out to Human Resources and asked for those members to be paid at the same time as everyone else.
Then, on July 31, members of the union did not receive their backpay at all. Union leadership was informed by payroll that there was an error in uploading the payments. When asked for a solution to the issue, payroll said that they would have to wait until the next pay period to properly provide the payment. “You rely on your employer to have a degree of integrity from the things that they tell you. So if you rely on that and then it doesn’t come, that definitely does affect people,” Ariel Kallisto, the people chair for AFSCME Local 2887 and an office support specialist in the Department of Teaching and Learning, said.
Consequences for Union Members
According to Bodenstab, she was informed that payroll was understaffed and could not do anything special because the AFSCME contract was taking up their time.
Not receiving the payment on the last day of the month caused issues for union members. “For a lot of people, that’s the day before mortgage, [or] before rent, [or] before utilities and things [are] due. So if somebody thought … ‘I’ll use this part of my paycheck that I was going to [use for] mortgage [on] my car, or I’ll take care of this thing for my kids,’ and then that money doesn’t show up that next day … that causes problems for people,” Kallisto said. Michelle Nickerson is an ACCESS of-
fice administrator and a union steward for AFSCME Local 2887. Nickerson had set up appointments for both of her vehicles and for her glasses knowing that this money would finally be paid to her in the upcoming weeks. The first paycheck came through properly and her vehicles were taken care of, but her glasses ended up costing an extra $500. “My thought was, ‘we’re getting our second check on payday. I can afford that.’ [I went] ahead and I [paid for] it. So, I technically spent the money before I had it. Payday came and the money wasn’t there,” Nickerson said. Bodenstab not only had to face financial setbacks of her own but, as president, she was informed of many others affected by the delay. “One woman said she had a payment that was due, and she was counting on this money to make that payment. [We’re living lives where] if anything goes wrong, we’re getting a loan, [or] asking for somebody to give us money. We’ve got to pay that stuff back, and we’ve got to pay it back with interest, so it costs us more to survive,” Bodenstab said. Bodenstab wants those not in the union see BACKPAY on page 2