Employee benefits to change

The Weber State University Human Resources office has spearheaded a project to adjust the benefits received by employees of the university in order to comply with Internal Revenue Service regulations and to ensure balance between benefits and the work being done by the employees.
Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Cherrie Nelson, HR technician Tina Palick, and members of the payroll office have worked for approximately a year and a half with Vice President for Administrative Services Norm Tarbox, to rework the benefit guidelines for university employees.
“It is a good thing,” Tarbox said. “It brings us in line with IRS code, much closer in line with the benefits of other institutions in the state. We did it in a way that it was pretty inclusive and involved. It took us a year and a half so we took our time and did the best we could to do the right thing and put it in place.”
The changes that will be made apply to salary, hourly and family members of deceased or retired employees of WSU. The majority of the changes were made to apply with IRS tax laws, applying or withholding taxes for certain tuition amounts being received and for dependents receiving tuition benefits and whether or not those benefits will be taxed.
“I don’t have any problem with the changes,” said WSU staff member Kristie Nielsen. “They all seem very appropriate and I appreciate the great benefit that they’ve provided to us. It’s meant a lot to me, my husband and my children as a great benefit of being an employee here.”
Dependents of WSU employees can receive tuition benefits up to the age of 31, as long as they are still claimed as a dependent, unmarried or still being supported by their parents for up to 50 percent of their needs.
Adjunct faculty will see changes in the number of tuition hours they can receive per semester. Up until this year, adjunct faculty received six credit hours toward taking classes for each credit hour taught. That amount has been evened to a one-for-one basis; for each credit hour being taught, the faculty member will receive a credit of tuition, not to exceed six credits per semester.
Clinical faculty members have been told they must make a “substantial” contribution to academic activities, but no cap has been put on the policy. They now are required to work 40 clock hours per semester, working with students doing their clinical studies, in order to receive tuition benefits.
Nelson said she felt the changes being made are going to be good.
“It’s something we needed to do,” Nelson said. “We haven’t looked at that benefit for a long time. Obviously we want to be compliant and we have tried our best to keep the benefits as rich as they were while still being compliant with IRS guidelines and rules.”
The dependents of retired or deceased faculty members will have benefits until the dependent turns 24 and the spouses of those faculty members will only receive benefits for undergraduate courses.
Faculty members will no longer need to fill out a “blue card” to apply for benefits, but will now log on to the HR Web site and follow the steps to apply benefits for themselves, or their spouses or dependents. All faculty members must take a birth certificate for dependents or a marriage license for spouses to the HR office in order for those family members to be added into the system. Times for faculty members to do so are listed on the HR Web site.
The HR office has been hosting meetings to further explain the changes, which will go into effect as of Jan. 1, 2010, and will be holding a final meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Smith Auditorium of the Wattis Business Building.