P&S COUNCIL NEWS
Sept. 29, 2005

Forum on Employee Benefits Set for Friday, November 4

Tim Ashley, benefits manager for the ISU Department of Human Resources, will present details of the 2006 ISU Benefits Plan for P&S Employees at an Open Forum on Friday, Nov. 4. The forum is sponsored by the P&S Council from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in the Oak Room at the Memorial Union. P&S staff are invited to bring lunch to the forum. Ashley will take questions from the audience about next year's benefits plan.

The open forum will be followed by meetings of the Council's standing committees at 1 p.m., and the regular monthly meeting of the Council at 2 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Union.

Family and Medical Leave Act Survey
The P&S Council Policies and Procedures Committee is interested in hearing about employees' experiences taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. If you have an experience you'd like to share, please contact committee chair Penny Rice at pennyr@iastate.edu or call 294-4154.

Recommendations Needed for New P&S Awards
The P&S Council and university administration would like the opportunity to recognize more outstanding P&S employees through implementation of one or more additional awards. Therefore, the Awards Committee is soliciting ideas for additional awards for Professional and Scientific staff. To see a list of the award categories view this web site: http://www.pscouncil.iastate.edu/Awards.html If you have an idea for a new award, whether the award would recognize a specific kind of achievement or would apply to a broad base of P&S employees, we hope you'll share it with us.
Please send comments and ideas to Awards Committee Co-Chair Nancy Knight at nknight@iastate.edu by Friday, Oct. 14. Proposals for new award categories will be drafted for action by the P&S Council and final approval by the Provost's Office.

Employee Assistance Program
If you are benefit-eligible or an affiliate employee of Iowa State University, whether you work on or off campus, you are eligible for benefits under the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Your family members also qualify: spouse or domestic partner, natural and legally-adopted children, step-children, foster children, and parents, siblings, grandparents, or others who live with you or are chiefly dependent upon you for support and maintenance. You may use sick leave to attend EAP sessions. If you have questions about eligibility, contact ISU's Department of Human Resource Services (294-4977) or The Richmond Center (232-5811 or 1-800-830-7009). More information is available on the Human Resource Services web site: http://www.hrs.iastate.edu/eap/homepage.shtml

Retention and Recruitment Grant Awards to be Announced
The P&S Council Retention and Recruitment Committee expects to announce winners of the 2005 Retention and Recruitment Grants shortly. A report will be linked from the P&S Council homepage: http://www.pscouncil.iastate.edu/ The program distributes $30,000 annually to projects that assist ISU in recruiting and retaining students. Twenty-six applications were received this year requesting a total of $62,000.

DID YOU KNOW . . .
(Working at ISU: Facts and Information)

• Employees who pay for their parking permit through payroll deduction have the cost deducted from pretax dollars. The income is taxed if you pay for your annual parking permit any other way.
• ISU Parking Systems subsidizes the cost of CyRide bus passes for staff and faculty, as part of a policy to ease the competition for parking spaces on campus. A semester bus pass that normally costs $130 is available to ISU employees at $65. The subsidized passes are available by mail, at the CyRide Office, or at the University Bookstore.