Respect

UConn is one of the nation’s great public universities. It is a place where every employee’s work has meaning and contributes to building this unique institution that is the pride of our state. All of us play an important part in making UConn the best that it can be, whether we work as trades people, front office staff, teachers, researchers, food-service workers, or even the president.

The “Something’s Happening” Committee (SHC) originated and acts as an independent, self-managed, employee driven, grassroots group of individuals committed to mobilizing action, observing trends in behaviors, monitoring accountability, and facilitating continued progress in pursuit of a respectful, civil, dignified, ethical, diverse, inclusive, and safe workplace environment. The committee, comprised predominantly of representatives identified by administrative units and unions and interested stakeholders, proactively solicits, gathers, and monitors information and data to inform its projects and priorities. Priorities are centered around influencing action or changes in the areas of training and development, accountability and engagement, and policies and procedures.

The SHC accomplishes this by leveraging the collective knowledge of the committee and the information it attains to annually set goals for its actions through a consensus decision making model. Focus areas include:

• Creation, distribution, and analysis of campus-wide workplace climate survey;
• Recommendations to leadership on areas of concern, skill building needs, and communication and resource gaps which includes suggestions for mitigation;
• Host trainings and workshops to facilitate dialogue and provide information to university employees;
• Leverage committees’ networks and direct access to employees as a means to communicate and to collect and disseminate information and data;
• Serve on university task forces and committees to advocate, educate, and serve the voices of university employees;
• Ensure that university employees are knowledgeable and aware of policies, departments, and resources available to them for resolving workplace concerns.

Help us to build at UConn a community that celebrates diversity and promotes civility. The climate of our working environment is important, and we’ve made it a priority to encourage cooperation and mutual respect on all our campuses, among all of our UConn family members.