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Hey Gators! Say Cheese!

Do you love to take pictures? The Healthy Gators 2010 coalition invites all UF faculty, staff, and students to submit digital photos representing a healthy gator and/or a healthy campus. Your photo(s) may be displayed on the Healthy Gators 2010 web site and/or used on a poster to be distributed on campus this fall.  Submission guidelines are on the Healthy Gators 2010 website.

The deadline for submissions is August 1.  For more information, contact Jane Emmerée at emmeree@ufl.edu or 392-1161 ext. 4281.



Employee Education Program information sessions offered in July

The Employee Education Program (EEP) is a popular benefit made available to eligible UF faculty and staff. The program covers the matriculation fees of up to six credit hours of covered college-level courses for eligible employees. To better inform employees of the procedures and paperwork associated with participating in the EEP, the Office of Human Resource Services, in collaboration with the Registrar’s Office, will provide two short information sessions on Thursday, July 27, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in Room 316 Stadium West and on July 31, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in Room 316 Stadium West.

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Spaces available for Fall GED classes

If you’ve ever considered completing your high school education, UF’s GED program can help you! The program has enabled more than 20 UF employees to graduate over the past three years.

The fall schedule of classes for the University of Florida’s GED program begins in mid-August. The GED classes are taught by a licensed instructor and meet two mornings a week for a total of four hours per week. GED participants work at their own pace to best meet their learning needs in the areas of math, science, reading, writing, and social studies. There is no cost to attend GED classes, and the time spent in class is considered time worked.

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Retirement Special Pay Plan

As mentioned in the June InfoGator, the University of Florida will be implementing a Retirement Special Pay Plan administered by BENCOR. The plan will be implemented in November.

Educational Sessions
A schedule of educational sessions will be offered this fall:
August 29, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., Reitz Union 282
September 20, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., 2nd floor auditorium
October 11, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., Reitz Union 282

To register now for an information session, log-in to myUFL and navigate to My Self Service > Training and Development. The course code for the information session is GET601 (Retirement Special Pay Plan). Registration instructions may be found on our web site. For questions about this program, please contact the Retirement Office at 392-4941 (SC 622-4941).

What is the Special Pay Plan?
 The Special Pay Plan is a mandatory retirement plan available to salaried (non-OPS) employees for sick and vacation payments at the time of separation.

Who is eligible?
Faculty, TEAMS, and USPS employees participating in a university retirement plan will be included in the Special Pay Plan, with payments of $2,000 or more from sick or vacation leave. Employees entering DROP after implementation will also be eligible.

How does it work?
The payments of annual and sick leave to employees separating from the University will be invested in a 401(a) plan – either fixed or mutual fund investment option. As a result of implementing this plan, the employee and the University will save the 6.2% of social security tax and the 1.45% of Medicare Tax. The 7.65% that the employee saves will also be invested in the 401(a) plan. A sample spreadsheet can be found here.

Advantages of the plan include:

  • This plan provides the maximum tax advantages on sick and annual leave payments for both the employee and the University.
  • Participating employees do not pay Social Security taxes for the funds invested in this plan and Social Security taxes are never due on these funds .
  • Contributions to this plan are pre-tax. Therefore, the total amount of taxes paid will be reduced. No taxes are paid on the contributions until they are withdrawn.
  • The account balance is portable, and there are no administrative fees.

Impact on Leave Hours
The implementation of this plan will not impact the number of hours that may be cashed out at the time of separation.

DROP Participants
Payments of leave for employees entering DROP after the implementation date will be included in the Retirement Special Pay Plan. The eligibility to participate in DROP and the DROP program will not change. Employees will continue to be able to receive a lump-sum distribution for annual leave at the time of enrollment in DROP that will be included in the employee’s compensation for FRS retirement benefits calculation purposes or receive payment at the end of DROP. Eligible sick leave hours will continue to be paid at the end of the DROP period.

 

GatorGradCare health insurance coming soon

GatorGradCare will be offered beginning January 2007 to University of Florida Graduate Assistants (GA, TA, or RA) on an appointment, who are registered for nine credit hours, and have a FTE of .25. University of Florida Graduate Assistants on a Fellowship will also be eligible to enroll in GatorGradCare beginning in January 2007. GatorGradCare will extend free benefits to eligible Graduate Assistants. This new plan will take the place of the existing $500 subsidy plan. However, eligible Graduate Assistants will still receive the fall portion of the University subsidy to assist in current plans for fall 2006 through Scarborough and PSI. Additional information will be forthcoming.

If you have questions about this program, contact Julie Neubig at 392-0003 or at jneubig@ufl.edu.

Register today for free summer seminar: Managing from the Inside Out

Research indicates that the number one reason why employees leave their jobs is because of their managers. Don’t let that happen to you!

Do you want to sharpen your managerial skills?  Want to gain new tools to help move your team forward?  Are you ready to find new ways to hire the best people, retain them, and motivate them to move UF into the “top 10?”

If so, take advantage of this free summer seminar!

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Achieve… skills, knowledge, leadership: Registration for fall training opens August 7

Registration for the fall training schedule opens August 7 at www.hr.ufl.edu/training. Look for workshops on a variety of topics, such supervisory skills, project management, business communication, and “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Computer software training and myUFL courses—plus several new initiatives—also will be available, including:

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A workers’ compensation alert: Hot weather can cause health emergencies

Even short periods of exposure to high temperatures can cause serious health problems. Doing too much on a hot day, spending too much time in the sun, or staying too long in an overheated place can cause heat-related illnesses. The UF Workers’ Compensation Office wants you to know the symptoms of heat disorders and overexposure to the sun and be prepared to give first aid treatment.

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Payroll deadline schedule for Fellowships

Fellowship appointments are processed by the HR Academic Personnel Office.  In an effort to ensure that all Fellowships are paid on a timely basis, a payroll deadline schedule has been established to indicate the dates the Fellowship appointments are due to the Academic Personnel Office.  This payroll deadline schedule is located at: www.aa.ufl.edu/aa/aapers/2006-2007/fellowship_payroll_schedule2006-2007.pdf

Questions?  Please contact Janet Malphurs, Academic Personnel Office, at 392-1251 or e-mail at jmmalph@ufl.edu