Copyright Policy Proposal
“The policy needs to go back to legal to make it more readable,” said Ron Goldberg, director of Alumni Relations for the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, as he began the discussion about the proposed revision of the copyright policy. The policy was brought to the council’s attention last month; they were the first governing body to look at the proposed policy. It is not an official draft, but rather a proposal for a possible change.
The major issue that the council agreed upon was the readability of the policy. It was written by the legal department and has a very dry structure. Council agreed that the language needs to be simplified to facilitate compliance and understanding. It was noted that the policy does not specify the reporting structure or sanctions for violations. Also, it makes references to many other institute policies with reference websites, but some do not work. The policy is not available to RIT community for review, yet.
ASL Interpreters and the Semester System
The Staff Council executive committee met with President William Destler and the new Chief Diversity Officer Kevin McDonald. One of the major issues discussed was how the conversion from quarter to semester systems will affect working hours for the interpreters, as it seemed that they might lose valuable hours. According Josh Bauroth, Staff Council chair, Destler noted that it is quite the opposite; everyone would be working more hours on the semester system.
New Website
Staff Council will get a new website once the institute transitions to a new web management system. The new url will be http://rit.edu/staffcouncil. Also, communications committee is working on creating staff recognition award notification form on the website, according to Matt Dana, NTID marketing communications web developer.
Retirement Plan Alterations
The institute is working on implementing and complying with the new changes to the 403(b) retirement plans by the IRS. The new changes, in over 40 years, are designed to make 403(b) plans more consistent and work like 401(k) plans. They plan to make the transition as seamless as possible.
