The Kansas House Appropriations Committee is considering legislation that would change the classification of about 600 university employees. These employees include physical plant workers, clerical office workers and technicians.

The positions are guaranteed benefits by the State such as health care, retirement plans and protection against discrimination.

In response to the possible change, Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) schools are transitioning their classified employees to University Support Staff (USS).

Wichita State may be the next university to transition its hundreds of classified employees, pending a vote by those employees next week.

The Alternative Service Committee (ASC) was created by the university administration last year to research options and develop a proposal to address the possible changes to all WSU classified employees and prepare them for the vote.

The committee consists of classified and unclassified staff. All voting members of the committee are classified.

Randy Sessions, ASC Chair and classified employee, said he’s not sure how the vote will turn out.

“I don’t know which way the vote is going to go — I can’t predict that,” he said. “All I know is which way I’m going to vote.”

A transition to USS would place these protections as well as salaries and raises in the hands of the university’s administration instead of the State.

Last year, the ASC held town hall meetings to get input from classified employees on campus and shape a policy for the transition.

Since then, the ASC has shaped a policy and have a final version that has been approved by the university administration.

Last week, the ASC held a second round of town hall meetings informing classified employees and allowing them to ask questions of university administrators including WSU President John Bardo.

Sessions said these changes are “to [classified employee’s] benefit.”

One debated benefit is the elimination of longevity bonuses. Sessions argues this is a benefit because the bonuses are being rolled into the base salary instead of seeing the state eliminate the money altogether.

“If the State takes that away, I lose a thousand bucks a year,” he said. “Our proposal is to roll that into our base salary.”

This would give a 2.5 percent raise to the 400 employees who would receive longevity bonuses after 10 or more years with the university, Sessions said.

“I don’t see it as a lose situation at all,” he said. “I’m not sure why people would, quite honestly.”

Sessions said there has been some push back, mostly from physical plant employees, who make up 30 percent of the classified employees on campus.

“I’m not sure why,” he said.

Randy Pulec, Director of Facility Maintenance, is not a classified employee but oversees classified employees in the physical plant. He said he’s trying to stay out of the way.

“I’m willing to work with whatever system they settle with,” he said. “I’m just waiting to see how it shakes out.”

Classified physical plant employees could not be reached for comment.

Voting begins at 8 a.m. Wednesday and goes through noon next Friday, May 2.

Sessions said employees who do not have ready access to computers, such as custodial staff or physical plant, will have access to voting stations in the physical plant and in the Rhatigan Student Center.

He said the ASC is working with Student Government Association to get unbiased student volunteers to help with logging in and voting.

If the vote is a yes, the proposal will go to KBOR for approval. If approved, the university would begin implementing it into the official policy. Sessions said this could take two to five years.

If classified employees vote no, sections of these employees, such as the university police department, may have the chance to vote to become USS.

“If [the police department] could have voted three months ago, they would’ve said ‘yes, let’s do it,’” Sessions said.

Sessions said the vote only requires a simple majority and that there is no minimum turnout to enact the transition.

“Three people could vote — two yes and one no and it happens,” he said. “I would be disappointed if the turnout was that low, but that’s all it’s going to take.”