Frisk always in action supporting staff and the greater good
At least if you’re talking about Deserae Frisk, who can be found dancing, leaping and skipping between her roles as program manager of extended studies at CU Denver in the School of Education and Human Development, chair of the CU Denver| Anschutz Staff Council and chair of the systemwide University of Colorado Staff Council. Outside the office, you can find her caring for puppies, training for emergencies and researching youth welfare.
“Usually my brain is going too hard to sit down,” she said. “I really like being out and doing things; the volunteer stuff I really enjoy.”
This summer, Frisk started her second term for Denver | Anschutz staff council and second year for UCSC, empowering staff and working with administration and faculty leadership at CU Denver and all four campuses to achieve common goals. Some of those goals are ongoing from her first term, such as the tuition benefit – a top priority.
“We’re working on the misalignment between the three campuses,” she explained. For instance, CU-Boulder last year changed the benefit and implemented a discount plan that offers 10 percent off for any undergraduate dependents going at CU-Boulder. “But that only applies to someone who’s working at Boulder. So someone on the Denver campus whose kid wants to go to Boulder, they can’t use that tuition benefit on a kid. Period. At all.”
Even the employees’ home campus tuition benefits can be iffy and difficult to navigate, she said.
In May 2013, Frisk graduated from CU Denver with a Master of Public Administration from the School of Public Affairs. “I did most of the program using my tuition benefit, so I personally know the woes of trying to get into classes and complete my degree.”
Faculty Council is also looking at making adjustments to the tuition benefit and is working on some proposals, Frisk said. She recently met with Faculty Council Chair Laura Borgelt on the tuition benefit and other shared goals.
“We’re meeting to figure out how we can partner better on some of these common issues between faculty and staff, and the tuition benefit is going to be one of the big ones,” she said.
The staff councils will also begin working on proactive university policy input, she said. Because they are a governance group, CU asks for the staff councils’ input on policy changes. Unfortunately, the councils often were reactive rather than proactive.
“We’re going to try to get ahead reviewing policies and getting input on policies,” she said. “At the ninth hour, we’re asked to review these policies and in a lot of cases we haven’t had time for actual input that’s worthwhile.
“We decided this year we’re going to figure out the policies important to staff and we’re going to go after them.”
“We’re hoping we can help bridge that gap,” Frisk said. “Some of our policy investigations are going to be around ‘What is the policy? Is there a change that needs to be made to it? And how do we start that process?’ At the state legislative level, maybe we can let our lobbyists know that this is what staff council thinks.”
Those are a few of the many areas Frisk and staff council members are delving into. In her first term as chair of both councils, Frisk bolstered engagement and outcomes. But she says the councils will be looking at doing more, such as:
- Reviewing at the family leave policy and ensuring staff and supervisors fully understand how it works
- Volunteer opportunities
- Friendly charity competitions between campuses
Frisk’s passion for her job and service to the university would be enough to fill anyone’s plate. But her involvement doesn’t stop there. In her “down time” Frisk is CERT certified -- Citizens Emergency Response Team – and she and her partner (who have three dogs of their own) foster puppies for the Colorado Puppy Rescue.
Even her capstone for her master’s degree has her looking out for the future of the greater communities.
“The project looks at safe and healthy schools and school violence, looking at it wider, not just physical violence but emotional and interpersonal – removing people’s power,” she said. “If students are in an inherently toxic environment, if their teachers talk down to them or teachers are having policies put in place that reduce what they can do in the classroom, if kids that are bullies and making other students feel less-than, that’s one of the external level of violence,” she said. “We’re looking at it at a systems level and how we can reduce harm we’re putting into the system, everything from the built environment of the school to the words used in the classroom when we talk to students.”
With a never-say-never outlook and always being on the lookout for ways she can support university staff and the greater communities, when you look up “frisk” in the dictionary, don’t be surprised to soon find Deserae Frisk’s photo in the description.