KANSAN.COM
NEWS
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Anonymous donor provides funds to KU staff in need
▶ JEN SMITH
@hawkglamour
The Rosalei Lanier Gray KU Staff Assistance Fund provides emergency financial assistance to University faculty and staff who are struggling due to an emergency situation or hardship. The Human Resources Management, which is located in Carruth R'oLery Hall, oversees the fund.
As part of their continued effort to support staff members across the University, the Department of Human Resource Management has worked throughout the past year to develop and introduce a charitable fund to aid University staff in need.
The Rosalie Lanier Gray KU Staff Assistance Fund is privately funded, and managed by human resources. The newly-established fund seeks to provide financial aid to University employees following personal or familial crises. According to Ola Faucher, director of human resources, providing additional support to staff members in times of strife is the fund's primary purpose.
"We have a lot of staff who, when they are in emergency situations, may not have ready access to funds, and this is sort of a stopgap measure where they can quickly get some money to help with an immediate need," Faucher said.
This financial assistance is specifically directed toward individuals whose need results directly from personal or natural crises.
"It's not for those kind of normal expenses that someone may have," said Holly Zane, human resources' employee relations senior specialist and one of the fund's primary organizers.
Qualifying personal or natural disasters, as specified in the fund's guidelines, include the loss of one's home to a natural disaster
or fire, expenses associated with domestic violence, complications resulting from the death of an immediate family member, life-changing accidents, and critical or life-threatening illness or injury.
"Certain things are expected," Zane said. "Long in the tooth you might pass away, but no one expects a young child to be shot, and no one expects their house to be burned down to the ground."
The fund also aims to provide support solely for eligible University staff. The fund is geared toward full-time employees or part-time employees who have been at any of the University's campuses for at least six months.
"There are so many employees that give their life's blood for the University that are so dedicated and it just seems [that] as part of that University family, when they get into problems we should
be willing to provide them some assistance," Zane said. "We're all in the same boat, and if in that boat someone falls over a little bit, we want to hand them that rope and pull them in and support them."
We should be willing to provide them some assistance."
Holly Zane HR employee relations specialist
The fund's goal follows the will of its founder. Donated by an anonymous individual, the Staff Assistance Fund has been developed and sustained by the seed money granted to them by the donor, who specified that the money be used to help staff members in financial need.
"We are fortunate enough to have a donor who is willing to help out in emergency situations," Faucher said. "That demonstrates the fact that we as the University do care about the people who are part of our community and are able to find creative ways to occasionally help out on a personal basis."
Following the benefactor's donation, the project to establish the fund itself was spearheaded by Zane, along with others in Human Resources. They considered the program to have launched this past fall. The policy, however, did not receive final approval by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little until last month.
The program has already received requests from six applicants since its introduction, and funds have already been awarded to two individuals.
"They've been very,very grateful for the assistance,"
Zane said. "In the small amount of time we've been in existence [they] have been extremely sweet, extremely grateful for the efforts to try to help them."
Presently, the fund relies exclusively upon the sum provided by its founder. So, to ensure that they continue to be able to help those in need, a $1,000 award is available to recipients once every three years, and no employee may receive more than $3,000 in their lifetime, according to the fund guidelines.
"We would like to be able to raise those, but it's based on the small pot that one has," Zane said. "There might be more flexibility if the fund was larger."
Though the fund may hope to expand its reach long-term, the focus right now is simply on maintaining the fund.
"The long-term goals would be to try and sustain
the fund and hopefully make it grow a little bit so that if more money is available, then we can help more people, but it's just the money that's there so if it's gone, then this fund stops," Faucher said.
Zane, Faucher and others from Human Resources remain optimistic and hope that individuals both inside and outside of the University community will donate to the fund.
"I think everything starts in the heart and that [the] connection between employees, students, [other] employees [and] faculty shows that KU has a heart and wants the best for its employees," Zane said.
More information about donating to the fund or applying for its benefits can be found on its website.
Edited by Paola Alor
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