HUMAN RESOURCES NEWS

The Office of Human Resources would like to announce the following new employees to the University of Baltimore community:

New Staff (exempt and non-exempt)

Rita Aissi-Wespi, executive administrative assistant, Office of the Provost
Elizabeth Brindley, UNIX systems administrator, Office of Technology Services (OTS)
Courtney Cocco, IT support assistant, OTS Call Center
Joanne Dugan, assistant director for Public Services, Law Library
Cyndy Harrison, executive administrative assistant, Institutional Advancement
Kevin Hoffman, Campus Webmaster, University Relations
Wanda Jones, housekeeping, Physical Plant
Stacey Marriott, customer service analyst, OTS
William Nottage, assistant director, Career Services
Julie Persell, planning and communications analyst, OTS
Tamara Smith, reference librarian, Langsdale Library
Melissa Tillman, security officer, Public Safety
Joe Traino, technical services manager, OTS
Dawn Shockley, financial aid counselor
Lindy Utermohle, projects coordinator, Robert G. Merrick School of Business
Larry Williams, Auxiliary Services
Erin Yancy, housekeeping, Physical Plant

New Faculty:

Patience Crowder, fellow, School of Law fellow
Jane Delury, Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts (CLA)
Howard Dobres, CLA
Roger Friskey, CLA
Dan Hatcher, School of Law
Cassondra Joseph, School of Law
Jim Kelly, School of Law
Jim Maxeiner, School of Law
August Tarrier, CLA

Welcome to the University of Baltimore!

And a fond farewell to those staff who have left UB:

Mary Ayd, Schaefer Center
Janine Bruce, Langsdale Library
Pam Christian, Financial Aid
Paul Digiacinto, OTS
Cammie Geater, Law Library
Caprice Lantz, Career Services
Stephanie Lyon, Admissions
Ben Lowenthal, comptroller
Judy Pratt, Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics (retired)
Gary Wimbish, School of Law Office of Admissions
Lisa Narloch, OTS

And to those faculty who have left UB:

Bob Durocher, School of Law
Claire Smearman, School of Law
Steve Fritsche, School of Business
Wayne Parham, School of Business
Milt Jenkins, School of Business (retired)
Jane Keller , CLA (retired)
Bob Lamey, CLA
Ron Lippincott, CLA
Maggie Cohen, CLA

Changing your address? If you have recently moved, please complete the appropriate forms to change your address. Both may be found on HR’s Web page:

Central Payroll Change of Address Form – notifies Central Payroll to change your address on your paycheck and your W2 statement at the end of the year. Please send the original to HR.

Change of Address Form for Health Benefits (HB) – notifies the State Health Benefits Office of your address change. Form requires HR’s signature.

You can access these forms at www.ubalt.edu/hr . Click on forms and retrieve the following:

• Central Payroll Address Change Form (pdf file); download, print and return to HR

• Health Benefits Address Change Form (pdf file and MS word); download, print and return to HR

News about your health benefits:

• Open enrollment for Health Benefits

Dates for this year’s open enrollment activities are as yet undetermined. We expect a delay but anticipate open enrollment will be from November to December 2004.

• Plan Changes for Calendar Year 2005

The state of Maryland’s contracts with the current dental plans and the health plans have expired. New contracts have been negotiated for next year. Information on the vendors will be forwarded to you as soon as it is received by the State’s Department of Budget Management’s Health Benefits Office.

New insurance rates are forthcoming and will be published both in The Current and through e-mail.

• Open Enrollment Benefits Fair Date

The date will be scheduled upon confirmation of the dates for open enrollment. All health vendors plus our optional retirement/supplemental plan vendors will be there to provide information about their plans.

• Student Certifications

If your child is 19 years old, he or she is eligible to remain on your health benefits until the end of the calendar year when they turn 19. After that time, their continuance will be based on their full-time student status. You must send in a student certification form at the beginning of each semester that is prepared and signed by the institution your dependent child is attending, and retain a copy for your records. The state will remove all dependent children if a form is not received a timely manner. Forms are available in HR and in your benefits packet provided during open enrollment.

• Applying for COBRA coverage

If your child no longer qualifies for coverage, you may apply to continue insurance through COBRA. However, you must apply within 60 days of the date the benefits coverage ended. Failure to do so will result in loss of access to COBRA. Forms are available in HR to remove your former dependent from your current benefits and to set up COBRA coverage. This is a reminder that you also must advise HR in the event of a divorce to ensure that COBRA forms are available for your spouse.

Special UNUM enrollment:

• USM Special Open Enrollment for Long Term Disability Plan

Plans are under way to provide a special enrollment period (October is targeted, but not yet confirmed) for USM employees only to enroll in the UNUM long-term disability plan. The plan will be offered to all USM employees who have never applied before. If you have applied and have been denied due to a medical condition, you cannot re-apply for coverage during open enrollment.

The plan provides a benefit equal to 60 percent of your monthly earnings to a maximum of $8,000 per month. There are two elimination periods: 90 day (the plan benefit will begin on the 91st day of your illness), or 365 days (the plan benefit will begin after the first year of your illness). Most employees who are enrolled in the plan elect the 90-day option.

More information will be forwarded as soon as it is available.

Tuition benefits:

FYI–A total of 107 tuition benefit forms have been processed for UB employees who are either taking courses at UB or another institution, or using the benefit for a spouse or dependent for fall 2004. That just goes to show how popular this benefit is.

• A copy of all fall enrollment forms was returned directly to our employees. Keep the form handy in case you are billed for the tuition charges. You should then either visit the UB Business Office with a copy of your form, or discuss the tuition charges with the appropriate office at the institution you or a spouse/dependent are attending.

The Benefit:

• Employee benefit –Tuition remission is offered for both the undergraduate and graduate levels to all UB employees regardless of start date, provided you are employed at the beginning of the semester, at any USM institution, plus Baltimore City Community College (BCCC), St. Mary’s and Morgan State University. A total of eight credits can be taken each semester (fall, spring, summer). Employee is responsible for all fees and books.

• Spouse/dependent benefit

A. Employees who began working before January 1, 1990:

Tuition remission is offered for both the undergraduate and graduate levels to a spouse and dependent children of UB employees whose start date with the USM began before January 1, 1990. The tuition remission can be used at any USM institution, plus Morgan, St. Mary’s and BCCC.

B. Employees who began on January 1, 1990 but before July 1, 1992:

The tuition waiver for a spouse and dependent children is available and covers any USM institution for the first two years for the first undergraduate degree ONLY. Thereafter, spouse and dependent children may attend a USM institution for the junior and senior years only if the program is NOT offered at the home institution, and then the benefit would be at 50 percent. Otherwise, there is no benefit. A spouse is not permitted to use the waiver at St. Mary’s, Morgan or BCCC.

• Spouse/dependent benefit (on or after 7/1/92)

Employees who began working on July 1, 1992, or after, will have the same benefits for a spouse and dependent children as specified above for those who began working on January 1, 1990, but there is a two-year waiting period before the benefit can be used.

• Certain institutions have restrictions (UMUC, for instance, only permits four credits per semester for a spouse or dependent).
• Contractual benefits–UB Contingent II employees are eligible to use the tuition remission program and receive eight credits per semester, if full time. Only attendance at UB is permitted under the waiver. The credits are pro-rated based on the percentage employed.

Pro-ration of benefits:

• All benefits are pro-rated based on the hours employed. Fifty percent of employees may receive four credits per semester, and so forth.

Tuition Timelines:

• All USM institutions have developed a timetable for acceptance of tuition forms for the fall and spring. These will be published in future editions of The Current and by e-mail.

Contracts (so many contracts, so little time…):

Human Resources delivered a new contracts management training program in the spring. The program, which outlined hiring procedures for varied employee types, will be repeated this fall. Copies of the procedures, checklists and associated forms will be made available on the HR Web site. Sample packages are available by e-mail request to HR (e-mail Jodee Maldonado).

Offices are responsible for reproducing these forms and ensuring that the current version is used. Complete contracts should be submitted at least three weeks prior to an employee’s hire date for timely receipt of the first paycheck. Contracts must be received no later than the first day of work to achieve legal compliance. Incomplete contracts will be returned to the office for correction. Managers are responsible for advising employees of any delay in their paycheck as a result of submitting contracts less than three weeks in advance or errors due to incomplete paperwork.

A few fundamentals about the contractual/student hiring process:

Set-up record and computer access for students and Con I, II employees:

• HR sets up new employees into PeopleSoft and provide security access to the Web timesheet.
• New User ID letters are generated by UB HR for all new Con I, Con II and adjunct employees.
• If you are hiring a student employee (this includes student assistants, college work study and graduate assistants) the student admissions process provides the student access to the PeopleSoft system, and a User ID letter is generated. HR will then provide the employee security access once the student is hired.

Set-up access for adjuncts:

• If you are hiring an adjunct, HR will allow access as an employee, but access to the adjunct’s class roster or other student-related records must be set up by the Records Office.

International Student Contracts:

• HR will not accept contracts from international students who have not yet obtained a Social Security card/number. Students are not able to work until they obtain the card and a sign-off is received from the International Student office verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.
• If you are a timekeeper or a manager, and have forwarded a contract HR and your employee is not able to access his or her timesheet, contact HR for assistance.

Timesheet update:

We are well into our second year of using the Web timesheet, and would like to remind you of some important facts regarding use of the timesheet:

• All employees must utilize the Web timesheet, except for adjunct faculty members. Adjunct faculty members are paid via a separate method.

Thank you from the HR team!

Faculty Timesheets:

• Regular faculty need only set up a bi-weekly schedule of “D” (duty) days, and check the approval box, save the timesheet and submit for final approval. Recording of actual hours is not required, except for full time 12-month faculty members who earn annual, sick, holiday and personal leave.

Non-exempt Employees:

• For non-exempt employees (all of our regular employees who are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act), time should be entered each day, including an in time, a lunch break of 30 minutes minimum if you work six hours or more, a return time and a stop time at the conclusion of the day. Caution should be used if you work more than 40 hours, since overtime should not automatically be assumed. Your supervisor must approve working beyond a 40-hour work week before you work the additional hours.

Exempt Employees:

• For exempt employees, work hours should be entered daily, but you do not need to record actual time in/time out. Full time employees must work a minimum of 80 hours per pay period, and this is pro-rated if you work less than 80 hours. Compensatory time is not automatically approved, but may be pre-approved on a limited basis to exempt employees who work beyond the 40-hour workweek. Exempt employees are expected to work the hours required and comp time may be considered if they work on specific projects that may require longer hours. Your manager must approve comp time.

For exempts, you should remember to set up your schedule by following the link below:

Home (LSPRD) > Self-service > Employee > Tasks > Setup Schedules

Check each day that you normally work; for instance, if you work Monday through Friday, check those days, in each week. This will set up the “D” on your timesheet, and you need only enter hours each day.

Holidays:

• The web timesheet populates holidays on your timesheet for Contingent II’s, Regular employees, non-exempt and exempt, and 12-month faculty. If you use the holiday on the day it is earned, the timesheet program will automatically deduct those eight hours from your balance and pay you for that day.

If a holiday appears that should be banked and saved for later (e.g., Election Day is a holiday that we save to use at the end of the calendar year), you must delete the holiday line on your timesheet. For example, if you work on Election Day, delete the line and the hours that you earned for that holiday and it will be saved for later use. If you forget to delete the holiday, this will cause a problem with your holiday leave balance, so please remember to delete your holidays that you do not use on the date they are earned.

Working Multiple Jobs on Campus:

• Often employees have more than one job at the University. Full-time faculty, for instance, may teach an additional course in the summer and receive a stipend; full- time regular employees may also teach or have a part-time job in the Athletic Center or Schaefer Center, for instance. Except for adjunct contracts, employees are expected to complete a timesheet for each job. There are other exceptions, such as student advising and research work, that would not require a timesheet. You should check with the department where you work your additional job to see if a timesheet is required.

Leave Usage:

• All employees who earn leave are able to review leave usage back to January 2003 (the date PeopleSoft went live). The codes indicate the leave type, the hours used and current balance as of the current pay period. Use this tool to check your usage during the year.
• HR relies on timekeepers and managers to not only complete review of timesheets each pay period, within the scheduled time, but also to train new employees as they join their departments to use the Web timesheet.

UB Staff Awards

The Office of Human Resources and the UB Staff Awards Selection Committee are proud to announce the recipients of the 2004 UB Staff Awards. The recipients were recognized at the Convocation ceremony on September 14. Congratulations to all of the honorees.

Outstanding customer service to students and other clients of UB:

Erica Simpkins (formerly Reilly) – Admissions Counselor, exempt staff

Donna Johnson – Records Office, non-exempt staff

Exceptional contribution to the mission of the University and/or employing department:

Janine Zito – office coordinator, Center for Student Involvement, non-exempt staff

Extraordinary public service to the University or the greater community which reflects favorably on UB:

Glenton Queen, housekeeping supervisor, Physical Plant, non-exempt staff