Faculty Meeting

The regular meeting of the faculty of the Department of Statistics was held on Zoom at 12:30pm, October 17, 2022. Abel Rodriguez, Department Chair, presided at the meeting. Kristine Chan was recording secretary. 

Announcements 

Postdoctoral scholars and Washington State DLI overtime exemption rules: The Chair brought to the faculty’s attention the new minimum overtime-exempt salary levels for next year, which apply to postdoctoral researchers. Effective January 1, 2023, a change in Washington State overtime law will raise the salary threshold to a minimum of $1,259.20 per week ($65,484 per year or $5,457 per month). This minimum salary requirement applies to both full-time and part-time employees regardless of how many hours they work. The minimum salary is estimated to increase a significant amount annually. Postdocs with a salary below the threshold will need to record time sheets and will become eligible for overtime.  Faculty will also need to make sure that their postdoctoral scholars are only working 40 hours a week. Details can be found here. 

New Business 

UW Louis Strokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP): Courtney McKee, LSAMP Coordinator, and June Summers Hairston, Director of Pacific Northwest Louis Stokes, gave a presentation about their program, which is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded program under the auspices of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. UW LSAMP promotes the progress of underrepresented minority students (URMs) in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This was to spark a conversation how the department could get more involved in such activities. So far, our department is involved in Pacific Alliance for Low Income Inclusion in Statistics and Data Science (PALiISaDS), DICE outreach at the graduate level, and Upward Bound Program. It was suggested that the department could create a UW First-Year Interest Group (UW FIG) to get freshmen interested. Questions can be directed to lsamp@uw.edu.  

Executive Session 

Faculty appointments and reappointments: Faculty present discussed the new appointments and reappointments of faculty/personnel. A poll was later sent to them electronically via Microsoft Forms to record the votes for approving the appointments. 

Adjournment 

There being no other items to discuss, the meeting transitioned to an executive session at 1:18pm, and was later adjourned at 2:00pm.