The Kansas House Appropriations Committee is considering legislation that would change all classified employees status to the unclassified status.

If enacted, this would affect the hundreds of classified employees working at Wichita State.

Classified employees on campus include physical plant workers, clerical office workers and technicians. These employees meet the requirements for civil protections that have been guaranteed since the Kansas Civil Service Act was signed into law in 1941. These protections include benefits such as guaranteed health care, retirement plans and protection against discrimination.

The Alternative Service Committee (ASC) was created by the university administration to research options and develop a proposal to address the possible changes to all WSU classified employees. The committee consists of classified and unclassified staff. All voting members of the committee are classified.

The committee began a series of town hall meetings last Tuesday to address a possible move for WSU’s classified employees to University Support Staff (USS).

This would allow the university to make decisions regarding pay raises and protection instead of the State of Kansas.

ASC Chair and classified employee Randy Sessions said he wants to develop a university policy to avoid a forced move to unclassified employment by the State.

The town hall meetings will be held to inform and allow comment from WSU’s classified staff. This will help shape a USS policy that will be voted on by all classified employees in April.

Sessions said this type of move is “sweeping the Midwest” due to possible state legislative changes. Many Kansas institutions are considering the move. Kansas State University begins voting on the policy on Tuesday and the University of Kansas made the move in 2005.

“Governments are getting rid of their classified service,” Sessions said. “It’s going to happen, we just don’t know when.”

Other classified employees are not as certain. Esau Freeman works for WSU as a painter in the physical plant. He said he is against the move and doesn’t want to make a decision based on “speculation.”

“I think that they’re asking us to make this decision based on faith and speculation,” Freeman said. “Unless you’re a legislator yourself or, you know, maybe a paid political pundit, then you really have nothing more than speculation.”

Another concern many classified employees have is the possibility of losing their civil protections now guaranteed by the State.

Although Kansas law guarantees a lot of protections in the transition period of a move to USS, some classified employees say they worry about long-term protections. Sessions said he thinks a university policy will provide just as much protection as Kansas’ law.

“I would much rather trust the people that see how we work and see the work that we do than somebody in Topeka that has no clue who we are,” Sessions said. “Once a policy is written, it becomes basically a law for the university.”

Sessions said the possible change is loaded with many differing opinions and emotions. However, he says he understands and tries not to let it affect his job.

“It’s affecting our livelihood and our jobs, and I understand the emotions,” he said. “I don’t take any of this personally.”

For more information on the ASC and a full schedule of upcoming town hall meetings, visit www.wichita.edu/asc.