Regardless of the result of the upcoming recreation renovation vote, faculty and staff at Iowa State will continue to have free access to all rec facilities, thanks to a vote by the Professional and Scientific Council on Friday.

The council met Friday afternoon in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union to discuss rec services fees and also to review studies and reports being compiled about the university.

With the student vote for the rec renovation project just around the corner, ISU faculty and staff have been presented with the possibility of free use of rec services being taken from them.

The council decided to vote on the issue instead of waiting for the results of the student vote Feb. 27.

“If the students vote against it, we’ll just wait for a fresh crop of students next year and have them vote again,” said Trevor Riedemann, compensation and benefits committee co-chairman and assistant scientist at Ames Lab.

Riedemann likened the situation to a small-town shop owner who offers a bowl of free lollipops to children then takes it away. Likewise, although rec services has never acknowledged or promised the right for faculty and staff to have free access, it has been in effect for many, many years.

Thomas Hillson, representation committee member and system support specialist at the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, said the university should have a wellness program for faculty and staff, especially considering Gov. Culver’s comments on state wellness in his condition of the state address last month.

Another concern of the council was that rec services did not have an accurate depiction of just how often faculty and staff use the facilities. Riedemann said rec services makes head counts, but not classification counts, which means no record is kept differentiating students from faculty and staff.

“What bothers me is that at a research university, we don’t collect data on this,” Riedemann said.

After discussion, the council unanimously passed the measure to keep rec services free for faculty and staff.

Early in the meeting, Carla Espinoza, associate vice president for human resource services, gave an update on a study being done by Towers Perrin, a consulting company researching the compensation structure for the P&S council. After several delays, the report is expected to be released to the public in November 2008.

“I’m excited about getting this closer to closure, so we can get input from you and hear your thoughts,” Espinoza said.

Elizabeth Hoffman, executive vice president and provost, announced the creation of a leadership academy for faculty and staff leaders at Iowa State to be opened in summer 2009.

“The reasoning for this is because universities typically do a very poor job of developing leadership skills of their own people,” Hoffman said.

The academy would accommodate approximately 20 people per year, and would not guarantee entitlement for any of its applicants.