Category Archives: Faculty

Academic Roundtable – What is Open Access and Why You Should Care About It

Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, staff

Please join us on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 in the Center for Teaching, Learning & Research, LIB 225, at 12:15 PM

Middlebury College has just formed an Open Access working group to investigate this question. To kick start that process, we’ve invited Bryn Geffert, the College Librarian for Amherst College, who will lead us through Amherst’s work in this area. He’ll discuss the practical, philosophical, and legal rationale for pursuing an open access resolution; the questions, fears, and aspirations that surfaced during the debate preceding a vote; and Amherst’s other efforts to promote open access.

You can learn more about the Open Access working group at http://go.middlebury.edu/openaccess/.

You can learn more about Amherst’s Open Access policy, by going to:

Open Access Resolution  https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/facstaff/openaccessresolution

Open Access FAQ https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/facstaff/openaccessfaq

Open Access Faculty Procedures https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/facstaff/openaccessinstructions

 

Lunch will be served.  To sign up for lunch, email Doreen Bernier, dbernier@middlebury.edu by noon on Monday, April 13, 2015

The Academic Roundtable is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning, & Research and the Library.

Spring Student Symposium- Application Deadline is Feb. 27

Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, Spring Student Symposium, staff, Undergraduate Research

web_graphicStudents from all four years and in all departments and programs can participate. Eligible projects include: research in a class, independently, or through an internship or reading, showing, or performing creative work. Projects are presented in a poster/display or oral format, encourage students to apply to present their academic work! Applications must include a project description (200 words) that has been approved by a faculty or staff sponsor. The application deadline is February 27, 2015.

The 2015 Spring Student Symposium will begin in the Mahaney Center for the Arts on Thursday night, April 9 with a keynote talk by Kevin Murungi ’01, the Director of Human Rights and Foreign Policy at Global Kids, followed by a reception and student presentations. The Symposium continues all day Friday, April 10 with presentations of student work in McCardell Bicentennial Hall.

More information and the application are available at the Undergraduate Research website at go/sym.

Join us in celebrating the diversity of a Middlebury education!

The Spring Student Symposium Planning Committee

…the Symposium encapsulates Middlebury at its best. It was valuable for me to prepare and then present in a professional setting. An equally valuable component of the Symposium is how it celebrates students work. I am grateful that Middlebury has put time, energy and thought into a creating a day that celebrates all that goes on here– much of which could go unseen and unheard. — 2014 Symposium Participant

Important Benefits Reminders

Benefits, Faculty, Flex, For Faculty, For Staff, Health Ins, HR, staff

Trouble-free employee benefit plan administration requires a strong partnership between employees and Human Resources. The Human Resources Department works diligently each year-end to accurately process the thousands of required or requested benefit record changes and then to check and double-check our work. However, in the end, we also must rely on you, the employee, to do your part in managing your benefits by confirming that you are enrolled in the benefits you intended to elect. Please carefully review your first paycheck and let us know if you have questions or if anything seems amiss.

Medical/Dental Insurance

  • All medical plan participants were mailed new ID cards in December. These new ID cards have information regarding our new pharmacy benefit manager, MagellanRx, including their group and plan number, as well as their customer service phone number. Please confirm that you have received your new ID card. If you did not receive your new ID cards or if you need additional cards (for example, for a child away at college) call CBA Blue customer service (1-888-222-9206).
  •  If you have been utilizing NEMOP for mail-order prescriptions and have not yet made arrangements to transfer your account to MagellanRx please do so by calling Magellan at 1-800-424-0472 to set up an account.
  •  If you made a change to who is covered under your medical or dental plan, your new ID cards should reflect those changes.  If your new ID cards do not list the correct family members please contact Lisa Hoff at x3372.
  •  As was announced in October, the employee portion of the medical & dental premiums did not increase for 2015.       However, any employee who made coverage level (single/2 person/family) changes should see a premium change in the first paycheck of 2015.

Vision Insurance

  • As a reminder our vision plan is with Vision Service Plan (VSP).  No ID card is required (just tell your VSP provider the last 4 digits of your SSN and date of birth). A summary of the plan and other helpful information is available on-line at http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/hr/staffandfaculty/benefits/vision.  The premium for the Vision Plan did not increase for 2015.

Voluntary Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance

  • Premiums changes related to a change in coverage amount or age-band changes (5 year increments) should be reflected in the first paycheck in 2015. If you made changes or you hit a new age band in 2015, please confirm that your premium changed.
  • Requests for new life coverage or for increases in life coverage over the guarantee issue amount are not effective until approved by Mutual of Omaha. An Evidence of Insurability form must be submitted by you to Mutual of Omaha if you have requested this type of change. Mutual of Omaha will notify you directly of approval or denial. Any premium changes will be made as of the effective date of the approved coverage.

Flexible Spending Accounts

  • 2015 elections for the Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts should be reflected in the first paycheck of 2015. Please review your pay stub and confirm that your contribution is correct (divide your total annual election by 26 to calculate your per pay-period election.)
  • If you are a new Flexible Spending Account plan participant (you were not enrolled in a FSA last year) then FSA Benefits Cards were mailed to your home address in mid-December.  If you had a FSA last year you will not be issued a new card as they are valid for 3 years.  If your card is three years old, it will be good through January 31st and a new card will be issued by mid-January.  The Benefits Card can be used to access funds in your Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account.    Important information about the FSA Benefits Card is available at http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/hr/staffandfaculty/benefits/flex.
  • You have until March 15, 2015 to file claims against your 2014 flexible spending accounts for expenses incurred in 2014. The FSA Claim form and other helpful information on Flexible Spending Accounts can be found at http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/hr/staffandfaculty/benefits/flex. Please visit CBA Blue’s website at http://select.cbabluevt.com/middlebury/ to review your account information.

Retirement

  • If you submitted forms prior to the holiday break requesting changes to your Voluntary Retirement Plan or to enroll in the 457b Salary Deferral Supplemental Retirement Plan, your new elections should have been reflected in your first paycheck of 2015. If you requested changes please confirm that your elections are as expected.

If you have made a change to who is covered on your medical or dental plan and you have not received your new ID card(s), or if a benefit deduction doesn’t look right to you, or if you have any other questions or concerns about your benefits, please contact Human Resources as soon as possible. Thanks for doing your part to keep our benefit plans running smoothly!

Your Benefits Team,

~Lisa Hoff, Benefits Specialist (Health/Dental/Vision/Flex Spending) x3372

~Franklin Daniel, Benefits Specialist (Retirement Plans & Retiree Medical/Dental) x5755

~Cheryl Mullins, Benefits & Compensation Manager x5542

Middlebury College Receives 2015 Community Engagement Reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

accomplishments, award, Carnegie Foundation, Community Engagement, Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, Middlebury, staff, Students

For several years the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has helped frame and articulate “best practices” in higher education/community collaboration and learning. In 2006 the Foundation offered the first elective “Community Engagement” classification. That year, Middlebury’s (then) Alliance for Civic Engagement (ACE) applied for and received recognition in the inaugural round on behalf of the College. This past year, in addition to new applications, colleges and universities that were recognized in either 2006 or 2008 needed to reapply in order to be approved for reclassification. On January 7, 2015 the Carnegie Foundation, in collaboration with the New England Research Center for higher Education (NERCHE), awarded Middlebury College and others distinction through the 2015 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.

This designation recognizes excellent work by faculty, staff, and students from multiple areas across campus (e.g., academic departments in the Arts, Humanities, Languages, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and other interdisciplinary programs; collaboration with Monterey and Schools Abroad; and offices/programs such as Community Engagement, Privilege & Poverty, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, MiddCORE, Programs on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts, FoodWorks, Athletics, the Center for Careers & Internships, the Scott Center, CTLR, Orientation, JusTalks, the Commons, and more)—along with dozens of collaborating community partners. Examples of community-connected teaching, learning, and research initiatives; faculty-advised and student-led projects; volunteer efforts; internships; off-campus federal work study commitments; grant opportunities; alternative break trips; and more—demonstrated our alignment with institutional mission and priorities, overall, and the College’s continued commitment to work with and strengthen communities through partnerships, near and far.

From the Carnegie Foundation:

“Your application documented excellent alignment among campus mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement, and it responded to the classification framework with both descriptions and examples of exemplary institutionalized practices of community engagement.  The application also documented evidence of community engagement in a coherent and compelling response to the framework’s inquiry.

“Your campus is one of 361 institutions that now hold the Community Engagement Classification.  It is heartening to see this level of commitment and activity.  Clearly, higher education is making significant strides in finding ways to engage with and contribute to important community agendas.  There is much to celebrate.”

“The importance of this elective classification is borne out by the response of so many campuses that have demonstrated their deep engagement with local, regional, national, and global communities,” said John Saltmarsh, Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. “These are campuses that are improving teaching and learning, producing research that makes a difference in communities, and revitalizing their civic and academic missions.”

“This is the first time that there has been a re-classification process,” noted Amy Driscoll, Consulting Scholar for the Community Engagement Classification, “and we are seeing renewed institutional commitment, advanced curricular and assessment practices, and deeper community partnerships, all sustained through changes in campus leadership, and within the context of a devastating economic recession.”

Middlebury is one of 157 colleges and universities in the country to receive re-classification. This reclassification is valid until 2025.

“We applaud the Carnegie Foundation for recognizing the importance of setting high standards for valuable campus/community collaboration and articulating benchmarks to help guide those of us striving to pursue excellence in our work, while also drawing national attention and recognition,” comments Tiffany Nourse Sargent ’79, Director, Middlebury College Community Engagement. “One of the exciting points to underscore from this extensive self-study is the celebration that community engagement initiatives now generate from multiple points across campus, involving many more academic and co-curricular entities than was the case in 2006. While we in the Community Engagement office continue to serve as the ‘hub’ for campus community engagement initiatives, it is wonderful to see more and more positive connections campus-wide. To all who have contributed, thank you for your time, expertise, dedication, and good will as we work together to provide valuable and impactful learning experiences for our students and nurture strong and healthy communities.”

Open Enrollment

Benefits, Faculty, Flex, For Faculty, For Staff, HR, staff

Open Enrollment for Middlebury’s 2015 Health & Welfare Benefit Plan is being held from November 1 – 14, 2014.  All benefits-eligible employees are required to complete the open enrollment process within this time period even if they do not intend to make benefit changes for 2015.

Open enrollment is your opportunity to:

• Continue your current medical, dental, or vision elections into the new year OR add coverage for yourself and/or dependents OR terminate your own or your dependents’ coverage.
• Continue your current voluntary life and/or accidental death and dismemberment coverage for the new year OR increase OR decrease the amount of existing coverage in these plans.
• Enroll in the health care and/or the dependent care flexible spending account(s) for next year. If you do not make an FSA election, you will not be contributing for 2015 even if you participated in 2014.  For Q&A’s on the Health Care FSA rollover click here.

Open Enrollment must be completed, using Banner Web, between November 1 – 14, 2014.  Benefits eligible employees will be able to access the open enrollment module from any computer with internet access.

Getting Started
1. Access the Open Enrollment System:

• Click this link: http://go.middlebury.edu/bannerweb OR
• On the bottom right-hand corner of the Middlebury homepage http://www.middlebury.edu/  click “Quick Links” and then “Banner Web”

2. Enter your Banner Web User ID (your Midd ID number) and your PIN and click “Login”.
3. Click “Employee”, then “Benefits and Deductions”, and then “Open Enrollment”.

2015 Premium Rate Chart

Save the Date: Open Enrollment Nov 1st-14th

Benefits, Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, HR, staff

Benefits open enrollment is being conducted electronically again this year.  You will be receiving an e-mail (ooa Oct 31st) detailing our 2015 benefits as well as step-by-step instructions on how to enroll using BannerWeb.  Human Resources will gladly help you through the process; if you have questions please call x2320.

All benefits eligible Faculty and Staff are required to complete Open Enrollment between November 1st & 14th.

Flexible Spending Accounts – it’s not too early to start calculating your 2015 annual election.  Per federal law, this year’s annual limit is $2,500 (plus you may roll up to $500 of unused 2014 Health Care FSA funds into your 2015 account).  If you will have large medical expenses next year (orthodontist work, laser eye surgery, etc.) you should make sure you know how much your out of pocket cost will be for these services before Open Enrollment starts.

For additional information on Flexible Spending Accounts, including a Planning Worksheet visit the Flex Spending webpage.

For Questions and Answers regarding the Health Care FSA rollover click here

Important Benefits Information

Benefits, EFAP, Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, Health Ins, HR, staff

Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP)

For many years our EFAP benefit has been administered by The Wellness Corporation.  Recently, The Wellness Corporation was purchased by E4 Health, a leading provider, under the brand name Lifescope, of holistic life services and wellness solutions for organizations nationwide. The merger of The Wellness Corporation and E4 Health – two experienced and professional organizations – will mean expanded service offerings for our faculty and staff plus continuation of the high quality services and capabilities that we have been accustomed to through our long-standing relationship with The Wellness Corp.  Please take a moment to review the two brief documents attached, which give an overview of our new Lifescope resources as well as updated phone and web contact information.  Please note  –  if you are currently accessing EFAP counseling or other benefits arranged through The Wellness Corporation you will not need to do anything different to continue to see your current provider; this change will be seamless to you.

http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/hr/staffandfaculty/benefits/EFAP

Summary Plan Description (SPD)

SPDs are designed as brief, handy, easily understandable explanations of important benefit plan provisions.  Below please find a link to the 2014 version of the Middlebury College Health & Welfare Benefits Plan SPD which provides current information on our: medical, dental, vision, life, voluntary life, short-term disability, long-term disability, flexible spending accounts, and employee and family assistance program benefits.  All employees are eligible for the employee and family assistance program (EFAP); those employees classified as “benefits-eligible” are eligible for the full range of health and welfare benefit offerings.  You can also find this SPD by visiting the Benefits page on the Human Resources website.  If you would prefer to receive a paper copy of the 2014 SPD, please let me know, or stop by the Human Resources Office, and a paper copy will be provided to you.

http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/470998/original/active_spd.pdf

Please do not hesitate to contact the benefits team with questions about the change to our EFAP provider or the 2014 Health & Welfare SPD.

2014 Spring Student Symposium- Application Deadline Feb 28

CTLR, Faculty, For Faculty, For Staff, Spring Student Symposium, staff, Undergraduate Research

web_graphicJoin us in celebrating the diversity of a Middlebury education! The Spring Student Symposium will begin in the Mahaney Center for the Arts on Thursday night, April 10 with a keynote talk by Vendela Vida ‘93 and student presentations. It will continue all day Friday, April 11, 2014 with activities in McCardell Bicentennial Hall and MCA.

Students from all four years and in all departments and programs can participate. If they have done research in a class, independently, or through an internship; or can read, show, or perform a creative work; or have a project to present in a poster or oral format, please encourage them to apply to present their academic work. The deadline is February 28, 2014.

More information and the application are available at the Undergraduate Research website at http://go.middlebury.edu/sym.

Please remember classes are not held on Friday, April 11th. Please refrain from scheduling any academic or co-curricular events on the evening of Thursday the 10th or during the day and evening of Friday the 11th. This time is reserved for the Spring Student Symposium.