Announcements from the March-April 2015 SUNY Scoop Newsletter:
The State University is committed to developing successful employees. To assist employees in achieving their fullest potential, System Administration provides professional development opportunities, including a tuition waiver program.
The SUNY Tuition Waiver Program waives employee tuition expenses for career-related, credit bearing course work taken at SUNY State-operated campuses. Partial tuition, generally 75% per course, but not exceeding a total of $750 per fiscal year, is waived subject to availability of funds.
Recreation, hobby and/or personal interest courses, whether or not required for a degree, are not eligible for a SUNY Tuition Waiver under this program. Course work must be career-related as determined by the department head or supervisor.
Employees interested in applying for a SUNY Tuition Waiver must submit a completed B-140W Application and Tuition and Fee Assistance form to the Office of Human Resources at the start of the course. The form is available online at www.suny.edu/hr/forms.
Additional support may be available through one’s negotiating unit.
For additional details or questions, please contact the Office of Human Resources at 518-320-1519.
The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence is very pleased to offer you the following professional development opportunity beginning on April 27:
The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to Open Education Resources (OERs) to SUNY faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and any interested academic staff who want to learn about OERs.
This online course will be facilitated by Karen Gardner-Athey, SUNY Office of Library and Information Services. The course is made up of five modules and a final project. It flows from one module to another, with each module building upon the work of the previous one.
Each module is made up of readings, videos, and discussions. Upon completion of this course you should have a better understanding of OERs and resources that can be used immediately in face to face and/or online instruction.
Monday, April 27, 2015 - Friday, June 5, 2015
Registration: http://www.cvent.com/d/drq011
We are pleased to announce the NYS & CSEA Partnership for Education and Training has released the Skills for Success Spring 2015 schedule of classes. Below are promotional flyers listing available courses in the metropolitan and capital regions, along with a course application form. Also included is a flyer announcing several webinars.
While these classes are free for CSEA-represented employees, prior approval is required by supervisors for those classes and webinars that may impact the work day. Supervisors are encouraged to support requests to attend classes they deem to be beneficial both to the employee and to the office.
For additional information, please feel free to contact Robin Hughes at robin.hughes@suny.edu.
We are pleased to notify you of the availability to participate in a 403(b) tax-deferred savings program. The State University of New York (“SUNY”) provides employees with the opportunity to save for their retirement through the SUNY Voluntary Savings Plan (the “Plan”). Participation in the SUNY Voluntary Savings Plan is a great way to build your retirement savings and reduce current taxes.
Whether you want to enroll in the plan for the first time, or you are already enrolled but wish to change the amount of your deferral, you can accomplish your goal by filling out the attached “Salary Reduction Agreement” form and submitting it to Kathy George, Payroll Office, Room N432.
All employees of SUNY who receive compensation reportable on an IRS Form W-2 are eligible to participate in the plan.
Please take a moment to review the plan materials before enrolling. Once you are enrolled, you can review and change the amount of your contributions as often as once per pay period by submitting a new Salary Reduction Agreement form. The exact date your investment allocations will take effect may vary depending upon the policies of the Investment Provider managing the investment options you chose for Plan contributions.
The Tax-Deferred Plans listed below provide a way for you to contribute to a retirement account on a pre-tax basis through payroll deduction. Your contributions, plus earnings are not taxed until you withdraw the funds. Usually this will be during your retirement, when your income may fall within a lower tax bracket.
There are several different Plan options and Investment Providers to choose from through the SUNY Voluntary Savings Plan. The Authorized Investment Providers offer a wide choice of investment options, including stock, bond and guaranteed funds. The following Plans and Investment Providers are available to you:
Fidelity Investments (403(b)(7) Mutual Funds)
1-800-343-0860, www.fidelity.com
MetLife
1-800-560-5001 (account holders), 1-844-298-8899 (new enrollees), www.metlife.com/suny
Teachers Insurance Annuity Associate-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF)
1-800-842-2252, www.tiaa-cref.org/suny
VALIC Retirement
1-800-448-2542 or 1-888-569-7055, www.valic.com/suny
Voya Financial
1-800-677-4636, https://suny.prepare4myfuture.com/emadmin/landingpage.action
NYS Deferred Compensation Plan (457)
1-800-422-8463, www.nysdcp.com
For 2015 you can contribute up to $18,000 per year.
If you are age 50 or older anytime in 2015, you can contribute an additional $6,000 to your tax-deferred account, for a maximum of $24,000.
If you have worked for SUNY for more than 15 years you may be eligible to contribute up to an additional $3,000. To do this you must obtain a calculation from your Investment Provider indicating that you are eligible to defer the additional amount. Please send the calculation along with a new Salary Reduction Agreement indicating the annual amount to be contributed to your campus Office of Human Resources.
Each participant only gets one limit for contributions to all 403(b) plans, so if you are also a participant in a 403(b) plan of another employer, your combined contributions to that plan and to the SUNY Tax-Deferred Annuity Plan in 2015 are generally limited to $18,000. If you do participate in more than one 403(b) plan, you are responsible for tracking and reporting the amount of all of your contributions to the plans so that the total amount of all your contributions to all plans in which you participate do not exceed the limit. Note also that the sum of all of your contributions, and those of your employers, to all 403(b) plans that you participate in are generally limited to the lesser of $53,000 or 100% of your compensation in 2015.
SUNY employees are able to maximize contributions to both the SUNY Tax-Deferred Savings Plans 403(b) and the NYS Deferred Compensation 457 Plan concurrently.
If you are enrolling in a plan for the first time, you will need to complete the appropriate Investment Provider enrollment materials in addition to the Salary Reduction Agreement form.
If you are currently enrolled and wish to contribute the same BI-WEEKLY amount in 2015, no action on your part is necessary unless you are currently contributing additional monies under the Age 50 or “15 year catch-up rule outlined above. Please check your pay stub to be sure your current bi-weekly contribution (Code 404, 408 or 415 for NYS employees) multiplied by the number of pay periods in the year does not exceed the allowable limit.
Please be mindful that if you made a change mid year, you will need to make sure that your current biweekly amount will result in the correct annual amount you want deferred for 2015.
For further details, or if you have questions, please contact Tracy Reimann at tracy.reimann@suny.edu.
Information regarding this program and other benefits can be found on our News & Announcements page on SUNY Benefits web site at www.suny.edu/benefits.
SUNY System Administration has renewed its SkillSoft e-learning contract. SkillSoft’s e-learning initiative offers a wide range of professional development opportunities designed to support all levels of the organization and can easily be adapted to meet strategic business initiatives, on-demand information needs, and individual job roles. Each licensed user has access to all SkillSoft courses and materials including:
To view the course catalog, please visit http://www.skillsoft.com/catalog/default.asp.
If you are not currently enrolled and would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact Kathy Proper at kathy.proper@suny.edu for a password.