The Daily OrangeEmployee benefits group sets timeline for goals
By Meghan Russell
Posted: 11/19/09, 2:03 AM EST Section: News
A Web site will be created before Thanksgiving that allows Syracuse University faculty and staff to learn more about their employee benefits through the university. The Web site will detail the benefits' use and cost, and the benefits compared to those offered in the Central New York market, said Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina.
The Web site is part of the research being completed by a working group that was formed to examine a range of SU employee benefits and produce recommendations for changes to the benefits.
The committee's proposed changes and recommendations will be posted to the Web site, too, when they are decided, Spina said.
The group, which was formed last month, will adjust benefit levels in order to accommodate the growing diversity of the faculty and staff, and the rising cost of living. The group's members are looking at retirement, health, dental and child care, along with examining ways to offset the federal tax burden on same-sex couple benefits.
"We are exploring the full-benefits system and also exploring what benefits that we do not currently have that might be added," Spina said.
The group is comprised of Spina, Chancellor Nancy Cantor, SU's executive vice president and chief financial officer Lou Marcoccia, academic deans and representatives from various committees on University Senate, SU's governing body.
The group meets a minimum of two hours every Wednesday, and had its sixth meeting this week, Spina said.
Once recommendations have been made, Spina said they would be introduced to the full campus community, initiating a broader discussion and ensuring everyone who wishes to provide feedback can do so.
He expects recommendations will be made by the end of the year, some by the end of the semester, and refinements and changes could go into effect starting July 1, 2010. Others would start in January 2011, he said.
Spina has asked that the group remain silent on its progress until decisions have been made.
Five members of the working group who were contacted declined to comment.
"The vice chancellor did indeed ask us to keep the working group's deliberations more or less confidential until December," said Thomas Keck, the representative from USen's LGBT concerns committee. Keck would like to see benefits extended to employees in opposite-sex domestic partnerships.
merussel@syr.edu
The Web site is part of the research being completed by a working group that was formed to examine a range of SU employee benefits and produce recommendations for changes to the benefits.
The committee's proposed changes and recommendations will be posted to the Web site, too, when they are decided, Spina said.
The group, which was formed last month, will adjust benefit levels in order to accommodate the growing diversity of the faculty and staff, and the rising cost of living. The group's members are looking at retirement, health, dental and child care, along with examining ways to offset the federal tax burden on same-sex couple benefits.
"We are exploring the full-benefits system and also exploring what benefits that we do not currently have that might be added," Spina said.
The group is comprised of Spina, Chancellor Nancy Cantor, SU's executive vice president and chief financial officer Lou Marcoccia, academic deans and representatives from various committees on University Senate, SU's governing body.
The group meets a minimum of two hours every Wednesday, and had its sixth meeting this week, Spina said.
Once recommendations have been made, Spina said they would be introduced to the full campus community, initiating a broader discussion and ensuring everyone who wishes to provide feedback can do so.
He expects recommendations will be made by the end of the year, some by the end of the semester, and refinements and changes could go into effect starting July 1, 2010. Others would start in January 2011, he said.
Spina has asked that the group remain silent on its progress until decisions have been made.
Five members of the working group who were contacted declined to comment.
"The vice chancellor did indeed ask us to keep the working group's deliberations more or less confidential until December," said Thomas Keck, the representative from USen's LGBT concerns committee. Keck would like to see benefits extended to employees in opposite-sex domestic partnerships.
merussel@syr.edu
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