Editor’s Note: See page 3 for the first in a series of articles on this year’s benefits program.
By Sue Lowe
Benefits Office
Open enrollment, a time for Univer-sity faculty and staff to enroll in or change their benefits, is Oct. 16–Nov. 3 this year. Nonbargained-for staff members will participate in the “U-Choose” benefits program, sometimes referred to as the flexible benefits plan.
In order to ease the transition of staff members participating in U-Choose for the first time, the Benefits Office will make departmental presentations to 30 or more flex-eligible faculty and staff members upon request. Please call Laura Schmidt at 763-1217 to make an appointment.
In addition, the Benefits Office in the Wolverine Tower, Room G405, will be open until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during open enrollment. The Benefits Office in the North Ingalls Building will be open until 6 p.m. on those same days.
The Benefits Office also is designating two “help” rooms, staffed with Benefits Representatives to assist faculty and staff in completing their worksheets and making the enrollment phone call on the Benefits Enrollment Line (BEL). The rooms are located in the Wolverine Tower, Suite 18, and at the North Ingalls Building Benefits Office. They will be open 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m., weekdays.
A computer diskette containing generic worksheets in Lotus and Excel for Macintosh and DOS formats is available upon request from the Benefits Office, 763-1214. This disk can be used to model various benefits options.
The Benefits Office also has sent each department a video explaining some of the more complicated points of the U-Choose program. The 15-minute video covers the three new benefits, explains how to fill out the worksheet and how to place the phone call to the BEL.
