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February 20, 2008
TO: D-List
FR: Ricardo A. Alcaíno, Director Office of Equal Opportunity
Cynthia Cronk, Director of Human Resources
Pat Sheppard, Director of Academic Personnel
RE: University of California Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action Policies
The University is proposing to revise the following nondiscrimination and affirmative action policies:
*University of California Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action Policy Regarding Academic and Staff Employment;
*Affirmative Action Policy Statement for University of California Publications Regarding Employment Practices;
*Personnel Policies for Staff Members 12, Nondiscrimination in Employment;
*Personnel Policies for Staff Members 14, Affirmative Action; and
*Academic Personnel Policy 035, Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment.
The proposed revisions pertaining to nondiscrimination would expand the "covered veterans" protected category to include all veterans with "service in the uniformed services." This change is needed for consistency between University policy and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).
USERRA prohibits discrimination against persons because of their service in the Armed Forces Reserve, the National Guard, or other uniformed services. In addition, the proposed revisions pertaining to nondiscrimination would prohibit retaliation against any employee or person seeking employment for filing a complaint of discrimination or harassment pursuant to the University's nondiscrimination in employment policies.
The proposed revisions pertaining to affirmative action would:
*Expand the special disabled veterans category to include all veterans with service-related disabilities. It is proposed that the term "disabled veterans" replaces the term "special disabled veterans."
*Add a new category of covered veterans (Armed Forces Service Medal veterans) who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. Military, Ground, Naval, or Air Service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded.
These two revisions are needed to provide consistency with the recently published regulations that implement the Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002.
The proposed revisions can be found under "News & Events" on the President's diversity Web site:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/diversity/.
Copies of the proposed policy revisions are also posted on At Your Service at
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/employees/policies_employee_labor_relations/proposed_policies/index.html and
the President's Diversity web site at
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/diversity/news/0212_proprev.html .
As this is a systemwide review, employees on campus will be given the opportunity to comment. Please forward your comments to Steve Carlson at steve.carlson@hr.ucsb.edu by March 21st.