OU faculty gets creative with maternity leave

by Brittany Yingling
Staff Writer

Tina Ullman said she lucked out when she gave birth to her son Michael during Ohio University's winter vacation in 1996. She did not have to take maternity leave.

Ullman, an OU professor of visual communications, said she was employed full-time at OU for five months when she became pregnant.

"In hindsight, I felt like my hands were really tied because I had just started to work here," she said.

An OU committee of five faculty and staff members tried to give pregnant faculty and staff members more options last January when it submitted a draft proposal for a paid maternity leave policy, according to a Jan. 10, 2000 Post article.

But the committee has been inactive since it submitted the proposal, said Jim Kemper, assistant vice president for administration for human resources.

"I don't think anyone's interested anymore," he said.

The proposal just needed to be clarified, said Barbara Reeves, OU associate provost for academic affairs. "We had questions that weren't answered," she said.

Provost's Office representatives questioned the policy's cost to OU, the inclusion of elder care in the proposal and other legal issues, Reeves said.

"I felt that we had completed thorough research at this point," Kemper said. "The committee kind of sat dazed and confused,"

But university senate could rejuvenate the policy steps, he said.

"To some degree, I almost think it was disbanded until those interest groups are interested again," Kemper said.

Ullman said she took two weeks off when classes resumed Winter Quarter 1997 and returned to work when her son turned four months old.

"I was sick practically that whole Winter Quarter," she said. "You're completely drained."

But she said she had had no choice but to return to work.

When Ullman gave birth to her second son, Jonathan, in September 1999, she said she scheduled her classes so she only needed to be on campus twice a week. But she still took only three weeks off to spend with her son.

"It was very difficult coming back after three weeks," she said.

Ullman said she has assigned the students in her informational graphics class the project of researching maternity leave policies for class.

Tyle Fernandez, a senior in Ullman's class, said his group researched numerous universities in Ohio, and only Ohio State University offers paid maternity leave.

Nearby, Indiana University adopted a paid maternity leave policy with the help of a present OU dean.

Kathy Krendl, dean of OU's College of Communication, said she helped bring childcare awareness to IU.

Krendl's first of two children was born in 1986, when she was dean of IU's School of Continuing Studies. The provost at IU, which had no maternity policy, chose her to participate in a task force charged with examining childcare issues.

During a 10-year span, the task force enacted a family leave policy for faculty and staff members. The group also helped form an advocacy office to focus on childcare issues and an advisory board of graduate students, students and faculty and staff members with children, she said.

IU faculty members who have been employed for three years are eligible for six weeks of full paid leave and partially paid leave for the rest of the 15-week semester, said George Vlahakis, IU manager of media relations. This time can be used for the birth or adoption of a child, as well as long-term health.

"It was a pretty long process," Krendl said.