Faculty Leave-Reporting Reminder and VPN Set-Up Information

Dear BGSU Faculty Colleagues:

This is a reminder that you will need to report your use of paid and unpaid leave for August* and September at the end of this month, and no later than the first three working days in October 2016, using the University’s Time and Labor Reporting System through MyBGSU. Reports must still be submitted even if you did not take any leave.

Please log in to the MyBGSU portal to complete your timesheet:

• For the month of September, you will indicate whether or not you used any leave for the month. If leave was used, you will enter the hours used for each category of leave for which you are eligible (e.g., sick leave, Family Medical Leave, unpaid leave).


• For the month of August, and only if you are a 9-month faculty member, you will also enter your August leave use on your September leave reporting form. The hours of leave used for August should be entered in the Saturday, September 3, date field with the corresponding leave type selected in the drop-down menu on the far right-hand side of that row. (This “work-around” for August leave reporting will be required in September of each year.)

Article 21 of the CBA provides guidance for determining the number of hours of leave that should be reported. If you have questions regarding how to calculate your leave, please contact your department chair or school director. 

Training materials have been developed to walk you through the leave-reporting process. Your Department Chair or School Director will also be able to provide help, as will administrative or classified staff members in your academic unit who have been using the leave-reporting system for several years.

The following two items may be of interest to some faculty members:

• Off-Campus Reporting of Leave Use. For security reasons, the leave-reporting system is restricted to on-campus access. However, for faculty who work off campus, or for those who would appreciate the convenience of reporting time from home, we are offering the option to setup access to the BGSU Virtual Private Network, commonly referred to as the VPN. You may then use your secure VPN access to report leave use from off campus.


• Leave Reporting During Faculty Improvement Leave. Faculty members do not accrue sick leave while on an approved FIL, and because it is a paid leave, no sick leave is to be used while on FIL (CBA, Article 21, Sections 8.1.3 and 8.4.3). Thus, during FIL, faculty members are not required to enter leave use in the time and labor reporting system.

The Administration and BGSU-FA continue to work together to make this a smooth transition. The BGSU-FA is holding two informational fora on leave reporting on Wednesday, September 28, from 11 a.m. to noon in the Faculty Lounge on the Firelands campus, and from 2–3 p.m. in the Pallister Conference Room (First Floor, Jerome Library) on the Bowling Green campus. In addition, if you experience technical problems using the leave-reporting system, please contact Bill Balzer (wbalzer@bgsu.edu).

Regards,

Steve Demuth
Chief Negotiator and Vice President, BGSU-FA

Bill Balzer
Chief Negotiator and Vice President, Faculty Affairs and Strategic Initiatives 

*For 9-month faculty only. 12-month faculty have already reported leave use for August 2016.