University Health Services

The Committee provides comments on proposed academic calendars each year in hopes of coordinating the start of the fall semester, President's birthday, and spring break with K-12 academic schedules. The President's birthday is now consistent with K-12 schools and the fall semester is commencing closer to Labor Day. 

A variety of academic and staff personnel policies have been improved over the last several years. These relate to paid and unpaid leave for pregnancy, parenting, and caring for ill family members. On the academic side, these include tenure clock stoppage, active service/modified duties, and flexible part-time positions. On the staff side, policies on sick leave have been expanded to include care for family members. A catastrophic leave-sharing program allows staff to donate vacation leave to those coworkers facing serious health problems, or their own families, requiring time off. FMLA has been implemented and is helpful to those requiring time off for their own or family's health problems, including paternity leave. 

The use of accrued sick leave to care for family members + a catastrophic leave-sharing program that allows staff to donate vacation leave to co-workers facing serious health issues. New mothers can retain some of their accrued sick leave until after delivery while still qualifying for disability income during pregnancy. 

In 2009, the addition of Work/Life through Be Well at Work, as part of University Health Services. Work/Life delivers programs and services to support faculty, staff, visiting scholars, and postdocs, with integrating work and home life at any stage, while also promoting and advocating for policies and practices that encourage and reinforce UC Berkeley’s values as a family-friendly campus. On the Work/Life website, employees can find resources on Family Friendly Benefits and Policies, resources for pregnancy, postpartum, and expectant parents, resources on adoption, fostering, and guardianship, childcare and summer camps, parenting resources, information on caregiving for elders, and information on flexible work arrangements.   

Effective June 1, 2010, UC staff will be allowed to use up to 30 days of sick leave to care for and bond with a newborn, adopted, or foster child under a new leave provision. CACDC and CAC-LGBT were long-time advocates for this policy, which is part of the updated Absence from Work policy that consolidated several existing leave provisions into a single, comprehensive absence policy.    

In 2023, expanded the scope of the Bereavement Leave Policy amongst all UCs to include the following as a qualifying event: Reproductive loss following a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or unsuccessful assisted reproduction (such as artificial insemination or embryo transfer). The law went into effect on 1/1/2024. 

In 2015, improved revisions to the Time off the tenure clock for childbearing and child-rearing policy. Both men and women providing at least 50% of the care for a newborn or a child newly placed for adoption or foster care may receive a year off the clock. The tenure clock may be stopped for up to 2 years, with a maximum of one year for each eligible event. 

UC Berkeley has partnered with Bright Horizons to offer all ladder-rank faculty members and lecturers SOE backup care when they need to be at work and their regular child or adult/elder care is unavailable. UCB ladder rank faculty and lecturers SOE are eligible to use up to 60 hours of backup care per fiscal year (July 1 - June 30th).  

In 2011, Creation of the Back-Up Dependent Care Program to offer Faculty access to back-up care when they need to meet academic commitments and their regular child or dependent care arrangements are unavailable. Faculty can use up to 80 hours of back-up through Bright Horizons care per fiscal year. 

Beginning Fall 2013, UC Berkeley has partnered with Bright Horizons to offer the Backup Care Advantage Program to undergraduate and graduate students when they need to be at work or school and their regular child or adult/elder care is unavailable. UCB undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to use up to 60 hours of backup care per fiscal year (July 1 to June 30th).  

In 2021, partnered with Bright Horizons to offer 80 hours per fiscal year of highly subsidized backup childcare to undergraduate and graduate student parents to use when their regular child or dependent care was unavailable. 

New mothers can retain some of their sick leave (if they have more than 22 days available) until after delivery while still qualifying for disability income pre-birth of a child. The Committee's additional advocacy efforts to OP have included support of the now available long-term care insurance and domestic partner benefits. 

In 2012, In collaboration with the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (CACSL), a new system-wide benefit for employees that covers the membership cost of Sittercity for all UC employees. Sittercity provides access to local, pre-screened caregivers. Employees can select among pre-screened caregivers for their dependent care needs. CACWF participated in the system-wide workgroup that evaluated and selected our provider, Sittercity, for this system-wide benefit.

Effective Spring 2021, the UC Adoption benefit will provide reimbursement of up to $5,000 in adoption expenses for all UC employees.  

Berkeley Care Bubbles is a parent-to-parent resource to help UC Berkeley community members meet their childcare needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find other Cal families looking to trade childcare, share tutors, create bubbles, and more. 

Lactation rooms have been established in various sites on campus, equipped with hospital-grade breast pumps for nursing mothers to pump during the work day. In addition, individual breast pumps are sold through University Health Services/Be Well at Work Wellness at below-market value and a lactation consultant offers a training session to moms at least once per semester.   

In 2013, Establishment of the Breastfeeding Support Program which provides lactation rooms in various sites on campus with Ameda hospital-grade breast pumps for nursing mothers, breastfeeding education, and breast pumps sold through University Health Services at below market value. In 2013, the UC Office of the President implemented the system-wide Accommodation for Nursing Mothers policy. The Breastfeeding Support Program ensures that UC Berkeley complies with this policy.  

In 1993, supported the integration of the part-day Child Study Center with other programs to serve as a full-day year-round unified teaching, research, and childcare facility that would be able to serve childcare needs for all students, faculty, and staff. The first center that opened served 24 children of faculty and staff. In 1996 it was expanded to serve 48 children. As of 2024, 5 centers are serving xx number of children.

In 2003 fundraised to build an additional Child Care Center, the Haste Street Child Care Center. 

Advocated for UC Berkeley student parents to be eligible for a subsidy at the Early Childhood Education Program (ECEP) centers.
In 2020, Advocated for specific COVID responses to address dependent care challenges: 

1. Created a “Caring for Families" website and established “Berkeley Care Bubbles”, a parent-to-parent resource to help community members meet their childcare needs during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
2. Advocated for family-friendly COVID testing where children could be present in the car when caregivers were using the drive-through testing sites. 
3. Advocated to open Strawberry Canyon Recreational Area for all essential and non-essential staff and faculty parents to ensure a supportive care option for their children while schools were closed due to the pandemic. 

In conjunction with Professor Andrew Scharlach of the School of Social Welfare, the Committee conducted a major needs assessment survey of faculty and staff adult dependent care/elder care in Spring 1992. The Committee issued 23 policy and program recommendations based on these survey results which were in turn accepted by the Chancellor. In 1997 an elder care counselor in Employee Assistance was funded to provide counseling, information, referral, workshops, groups, and other programming to faculty and staff caregivers. In addition, an elder care e-mail digest was started in 1998 for the sharing of resources and support by caregivers in the campus community. The elder care program received funds from the Academic Geriatric Resource Program for a special series on dementia in 1999-2000 and additional activities in 2002.

This program offers confidential guidance to UC Berkeley faculty, staff, visiting scholars, and postdocs who are caring for or concerned about an elderly or dependent adult.  

In April 1991,  Chancellor Tien sent a memo to Deans, Directors, Department Chairs, and Administrative Officers promoting the use of alternative work schedules to ease conflicts between work and home responsibilities. Since that time, the campus personnel office has conducted a series of forums on Flexible Work Arrangements for managers and staff. As of 1997, the campus adopted a specific telecommuting policy. Flexible work arrangements have been supported by Chancellor Berdahl as indicated in his introduction to the Guide and other memos he has sent to campus. 

Active Service Modified Duties for Faculty

Reduction of duties (typically less teaching) for one semester for parents who provide at least 50% of the care of a child. Birth mothers are entitled to two semesters. 

In 1993, proposals were submitted to the Campus Development Office for the expansion of campus childcare facilities for faculty and staff and for underwriting the operating costs of this quality childcare to make it affordable. Though not accepted into Campaign 2001, efforts are still underway to seek scholarship funding for children in the infant /toddler and preschool programs.  

Effective July 1, 2021, UC's Council of Chancellors unanimously approved a recommendation for a new paid family leave benefit for UC employees. This recommendation, supported by President Napolitano and System-wide Human Resources, provides eight weeks of leave at 70% of wages for UC faculty and staff who need time off to care for a seriously ill family member or bond with a new child.

Expansion of the Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PFCB) program. Effective in 2023, the income replacement offered by UC’s PFCB increased from 70% to 100% of eligible earnings for up to eight workweeks per calendar year to replace the income that employees would otherwise lose during an approved Family Medical leave taken for a qualifying reason. 

Recreational Sports and the Lawrence Hall of Science were the first departments to offer a full-day program (combining science and sports/recreational activities) with supervised transportation between the two sites. Now, additional campus programs are working together to offer full-day programs. Each year a listing of campus summer programs is published in the Berkeleyan to facilitate faculty and staff planning. In addition, campus programs are offering programs up to Labor Day and during spring break to meet the schedule needs of working parents.  

Starting Spring 2025, priority UC Berkeley Summer Youth Program registration for all faculty and staff. 

The Committee identified some of the comparable issues facing student parents and caregivers and recommended the development of a "sister" committee, coordinated with CACDC, to address those issues. A student-parent workgroup was formed with a report with recommendations put forth in the Fall of 1997, and a survey was conducted. A new graduate student policy similar to tenure clock stoppage was implemented in the Spring of 1998.  

In 2021, continued flexible academic and attendance policies and practices at the school and college level during the COVID-19 crisis. Schools, colleges, and the Graduate Council extended policies including, but not limited to  

 (1) Extended add/drop deadlines

 (2) Extended deadlines for P/NP and S/U grading options

 (3) Reduced course loads for student parents. 

In 2021, enhanced language on the EVCP website regarding Pregnancy or related conditions that explicitly reference the Student Parent Center as a resource along with DSP and OPHD regarding Title IX/ADA accommodations for Student Parents.  

In 1998, Partnered with the Student Parent Center and the Graduate Division to help address the needs of student parents. This included modifying academic policies to extend time-to-degree accommodations to student parents.   

Members of the Committee participated in the 1991 University-wide Task Force on Dependent Care. A system-wide conference was held in the Fall of 1998 on work/family/life issues, with the Berkeley campus assuming a leadership role in conference planning. There is a work/life listserv and annual meetings for work/life professionals from all of the campuses. The Sloan Foundation-funded UC Family Edge Project is a multi-year system-wide initiative to address faculty work/family challenges.