PA Headlines: Penn State Prepping for All Virtual Spring Semester | – wkok.com

PA Headlines 12/18/21

UNIVERSITY PARK – The Pittsburgh Tribune Review (TribLive) is reporting… As Penn State University officials monitor the spread of the omicron variant, they are urging those in the University Park campus community to prepare to work remotely next semester.  Penn State is planning to begin the spring semester in person. But with local covid-19 hospitalizations at an all-time high and the spread of the omicron variant creating uncertainty, students and some staff may have to alter those plans on short notice.  According to Mount Nittany Medical Center’s covid-19 dashboard, 61 covid patients between the ages of 22 and 95 were being treated Friday, with nine in the ICU and six on ventilators. Forty three of those patients are not vaccinated, according to the dashboard.

The school says it will provide an update on the situation by Dec. 30.  “Our overriding concern remains the health and safety of our campus and local community,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a University news release. “As I have said throughout the pandemic, the university has developed a number of on-ramps and off-ramps to address the situations that may emerge.”  Barron said the university’s covid-19 Operations Control Center will continue to monitor pandemic conditions over the winter break and will be in touch with local health care and government officials. Penn State’s current semester ends Friday.

“We fully expect to start the spring semester as planned with in-person classes and activities,” he said. “But we also wanted to let the University Park campus community to know that we are continuing to monitor local conditions and are prepared to alter return plans for the semester if deemed necessary.”  Penn State said its commonwealth campuses are all expected to begin the semester in person as planned due to their smaller student enrollment.  If in-person classes are delayed at University Park, faculty members will be allowed to use classrooms to conduct classes remotely and staff members will still be expected to report to work, the university said.

HARRISBURG – PennLive is reporting… The president and CEO of Pennsylvania’s student financial aid agency is getting the kind of Christmas present many could only dream of – a $3,350 raise.  Jim Steeley, who has held the top post at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) since July 2018, will see his $334,950 salary bump up to $338,300, starting on Christmas Day.  In 2020, he was the 21st highest earner in all of state government, according to a PennLive analysis of state employee compensation.  Steely isn’t the only employee at PHEAA receiving a raise.  The executive committee of the agency’s board on Wednesday gave unanimous approval of raises up to 3% for 1,000 other non-unionized employees who work there.

It is the first raise these employees have received since December 2019. The raises combined carry an annualized cost of $2.4 million, said agency spokesman Keith New.  Rep. Sheryl DE Lozier, R-Cumberland County, who chairs the PHEAA board’s executive committee, cited the additional work PHEAA employees have taken on as the agency unwinds itself as a federal student loan servicer, a role it has held since 2009. The agency last summer decided managing the federal loan programs had become increasingly complex and costly and wanted to refocus on programs serving Pennsylvania students.  “Over the last 18 months to two years, our staff has worked diligently to get through a federal contract debacle that has left us here in Pennsylvania with a lot of additional work to make sure our families and students are taken care of as well as all those we service across our nation,” Delozier said.  “Our employees have worked hard to make sure that [clients] are served well and deserve the raise the executive committee voted for.”

Further, she said, the raises correct an imbalance that resulted from unionized employees receiving raises over the past two years while their non-union co-workers’ pay stagnated. She said that left some supervisors earning less than those they supervise.  The union contract provided a 2% raise in October 2020 and another 2.5% raise this past October. In addition, union-represented employees received two step increases during the past two years, each averaging 2.25%.  Eric Epstein, cofounder of the government-reform group Rock the Capital and PHEAA critic, faulted the agency for failing to be more transparent about the justification for the raises.  “Perhaps the raises are warranted, but where’s the accountability? What are the benchmarks, criteria, and metrics? This type of isolated and unilateral decision making is an affront to openness and transparency,” Epstein said.

Along with Steeley, 21 other employees at PHEAA who earn $150,000 or more were approved for a 1% pay bump – or $1,500 or more.  Additionally, 342 non-unionized employees, who earn between $75,000 and $149,000, are getting a 2% pay increase and 637 employees who earn less than $75,000 will see a 3% raise.