New Officers Elected

President – Doug Garrett

2008-2009 Scholarship Recipients

The PEA Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the PEA Scholarship Recipients for 2008-09.  Eight scholarships were awarded:  four to graduate students for $800 each and four undergraduate students for $600 each.

Graduate:  Rob Barton, Kathryn Bezzant, Bill Jensen, Jr., and Matt Lovell

Undergraduate:  Amanda Corn, Kristin Howell, Bonnie Varga, and Nicholas Winn

The goal of the scholarship committee is to award more money to more students, but we need your help.    We could increase annual donations by over $10,000 if each professional employee, who are not contributing, were to donate just $1.00 per month!  Remember your contribution is pre-taxed.  Sign up to contribute through payroll deduction today.

Summer Swimming

As you may know, during the summer, the HPER pool is not open during the morning for lap swimming like it is during the academic year.  Caroline Shugart from the Wellness Center has offered to cover the cost of opening the HPER pool on Wednesday mornings during the summer from 6:30 to 8:00 a.m. for faculty and staff.  In order to do it, however, we need a commitment from at least 6 people to swim consistently.  If you are interested in swimming on Wednesday mornings, please let new vice president Lisa Leishman know via email at lisa.leishman@usu.edu.

Getting to know you:

S. Scott Barnes is the new Athletic Director.  He is originally from Spokane.  He and his wife have a son and a daughter.  Scott's favorite thing so far about USU is the people.  His favorite color is Aggie Blue and his favorite Aggie ice cream flavor is Cookie Dough.  For more information on Scott, see the press release.

Linda Smith Morse from Logan is the External Relations Director for the English department.  She is married with 2 adopted kids at home.  She has worked here for 20 years.  Her favorite things about USU are the students and the cultural events.  Her favorite color is Blue and her favorite Aggie ice cream flavor is Caramel Cashew.

Upcoming Events:

Workplace Seminar Series

As part of the University Inn & Conference Center seminar series, this month's seminar will be given by Caroline Shugart, Wellness Coordinator here on campus.  The topic is "Why Wellness Matters".  It will be held Thursday, May 22, 2008 in the Eccles Conference Center.  Please RSVP online or contact Chelsea Nelson x0089 if you have any questions.

Open Enrollment is going on now.

There's about a month left to update your plan if necessary and re-enroll in Flex Spending.  If you haven't ever signed up for Flex Spending, because you just don't think it's worth your time, sit down for a moment and calculate it out.  If you make up to about $30k, your marginal tax rate is about 15%; up to about $75k, your marginal tax rate is about 25%.  So if you spend $1000 per year on medical expenses, you'll pay $250 less in taxes.  If you spend about ten minutes each month filling out and submitting the reimbursement form, that's $100 per hour.  Think about how much you spend per year on deductibles, copays, office visits, prescription medication, non-prescription medication, bandaids, contact lens solution, child care...yikes, this could add up to a lot more than $1000 pretty quickly!

Border to Border Walk this Saturday

Cache Valley residents will have the opportunity to walk with national walking sensation Debra Flinn as she nears the completion of her 150-mile border-to-border Utah walk in Cache Valley on Saturday, May 17th. The Logan portion of her walk, which is held in conjunction with Logan City and the Utah State University Be Well program, will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Logan Recreation Center and follow a five-mile loop around the USU campus and Logan City before returning to the Recreation Center at 10:30.

Following the community five-mile walk, Flinn’s route will continue to her final destination in Smithfield. By the conclusion of her Utah walk in Cache Valley on May 17th, Flinn will have completed more than 3,000 miles in regional and local walks since June 2007. You may visit Debra’s blog at debrawalksutah.blogspot.com for up-to-the-minute information about Debra’s Utah walk and for further detail regarding events in Utah’s communities.

 Policies:

PEA Email Policy:  The University Relations Committee has come up with a communication policy to help control the number of emails we send out to you each month.  By standardizing when the monthly newsletter will be sent, organizations holding events on campus will have a set time to tell you about what's going on during the coming month, and the number of last minute, rushed notifications will be decreased.  Please visit the University Relations page for a copy of this policy.

President’s Message:

Wednesday, April 9, 2008, marked the 15th Annual Employee Recognition Luncheon. It was delightful to see so many of you attending the luncheon in support of your colleagues and spouses who were honored for their 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years of service to Utah State University.

In addition, President Albrecht and Provost Coward presented Employee of the Year awards to several of our fellow professional employees. The recipients of this prestigious award were Sharon Weston, Center for Persons with Disabilities; Kathy Peterson, Electrical and Computer Engineering; and James Coburn, Department of Physics.

Please join with me in congratulating all of these people for their achievements and years of service. Well done!

Betsy H. Newman
betsy.newman@usu.edu

New PEA Member:

Welcome to Drake Rasmussen, who recently joined PEA.  Drake is from Ogden, UT, and is now Director in the Bear River Activity & Skill Center of the CPD.  He's married with one child, a girl.  When asked about USU, he says:

"I came to USU because it was a great career opportunity plus USU is a great employer to work for and the benefits are excellent.

"My favorite thing about USU is interacting with a variety of people from all different departments. I enjoy the many resources available at USU, which makes it rare for us to have to look outside of USU to get what we need."

Upcoming Events:

Workplace Seminar Series

As part of the University Inn & Conference Center seminar series, next month's seminar will be given by Caroline Shugart, Wellness Coordinator here on campus.  The topic is "Why Wellness Matters".  It will be held Thursday, May 22, 2008 in the Eccles Conference Center.  Please RSVP online or contact Chelsea Nelson x0089 if you have any questions.

Open Enrollment Kickoff

April 28 at 11:00 a.m. in the Ballroom will be the kickoff meeting for open enrollment for next year.

You may have seen that USU is introducing a new plan in addition to the Blue and White plans we have had for the past few years.  It's a high deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA).  This plan has no monthly premium.  You choose how much to put into your HSA, which works kind of like a Flex Spending account, except that you don't lose the money if you don't use it.  Of course, it's a little more complicated than that, but come to the meeting to find out more details.

Probably the best news when it comes to changes this year is that preventive care will no longer be subject to the deductible for any of the three plans, including the new high deductible plan.  Just a copay will be required.

Policies:

University Policy 552, Wireless Network Deployment & Access, states that the IT department is committed to providing 100% wireless network coverage for all faculty, staff, students, and sponsored guests at USU, with full access to all network services USU offers.  If you know of somewhere that coverage is missing, let the IT Service Desk know, 797-HELP.

President's Message

Greetings! We are finally seeing glimpses of the sunshine here in Utah and springtime is quickly approaching. With the arrival of spring comes renewal and so it will be with PEA. We will be holding elections next month to choose the following representatives:

• President
• Vice President
• Chair, Professional Development
• Chair, University Relations
• Chair, Professional Relations

Serving on the PEA Executive Committee or as one of the Standing Committee Chairs provides you with many opportunities to more fully engage with your colleagues and the University administration. I have found my service time with our Association to be rewarding on numerous levels. I’ve met many of you I otherwise would not have interacted with and I have learned a great deal about the inner workings of Utah State and the Utah System of Higher Education. These experiences have been both enjoyable and challenging and I will cherish them for many years.

I encourage anyone who is interested in serving in one of these positions to submit a nomination form. Now is your time to get involved.

PEA Annual Luncheon

Were you unable to attend the luncheon?  Read the comments made by President Newman

 Smoking

You may have read about the campus tobacco task force or the recent resolution passed by ASUSU, recommending that all tobacco be prohibited anywhere on campus.  Current USU policy simply mirrors current state law.  So what do you think?  Should smoking be banned?  Is current policy fine just how it is?  Could some restrictions be made to clean up certain areas of campus without removing it completely?  Should smokeless tobacco be excluded as well?  How could such a ban affect health insurance premiums?

On Tuesday, March 11, at 11:45 in the Senate Chambers in the TSC, as part of our Executive Committee meeting, we will be discussing this policy, but we need your input.  If you come to the meeting, you can let us know what you think or you can email a statement beforehand to pea@usu.edu, which we will read at the meeting on your behalf if you cannot make it.

Based on discussion at this meeting, we will put together a ballot item to go along with the officer elections in April so we can let the administration know where PEA stands.  There is no PEA position for or against any full or partial restrictions on campus tobacco use, sales, and advertising until you as PEA members let us know what your position is.

Are you ready?

The deadline is approaching quickly to apply for a PEA Scholarship.

Spring forward this weekend.  Daylight Savings Time begins earlier than usual.

Your password changes Monday.  Are you ready?

Employee of the Quarter Award

Congratulations to Patti Kohler, a counselor in the Financial Aid office for being awarded Employee of the Quarter for Fall 2007 at the luncheon. 

Higher Education Funding

Betsy Newman, PEA President, confirmed at this morning’s Board of Trustees Meeting that USU employees will be receiving a 2% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective July 1, 2008. In addition, the Utah State Legislature also made available an additional 1% in funding for merit and retention.

See a detailed summary of how the Utah System of Higher Education fared during the legislative session.

Getting to know you...

Meet these new professional employees who have joined the PEA ranks over the past few months.

• Ryan Barfuss
• Celestyn Hollingshead
• Jared Johnson
• Mary Price
• Caroline Shugart

Read more about them.

Luncheon

We had a great luncheon this past week.  Thanks to April Barker and Victoria Dutson, along with all their committee members for making the event a success.  We enjoyed listening to President Albrecht speak to us.  Thank you to all those sponsors who donated door prizes - a complete list of sponsors is available.

Several exemplary employees were honored at the luncheon for their service, attitude, and hard work.  If you see Morlyn Seamons, Paula Olsen, Michael Caron, Mary Lee Anderson, Heather Trauntvein, or Donna Minch let them know you appreciate their positive influence at USU.

New Advisor of the Year

This year’s recipient for the 2008 New Advisor of the Year is Michelle Bogdan.  She has advised undeclared and general studies students within the University Advising Center for the past two years.  Each year students are given an opportunity to nominate an advisor they feel has gone above and beyond the call of duty.  Congratulate Michelle if you see her.