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Topic: Professional and Administrative Communicator 2008
By Jackie Smith
Staff Reporter
Central Michigan University employees are expected to see some changes to their
salary and benefits in the up and coming fiscal year.
According to the Professional and Administrative Communicator released this
month, the biggest changes include a three percent salary adjustment, suspension of pay for performance, an increase of premium
payments, and change to medical coverage upon retirement.
Associate Vice President of Human Resources Maxine Kent said that changes such
as the three percent adjustment will take effect on the first payday of the new fiscal year on July 15.
“Salaries fall if we don’t give an annual adjustment comparable
to other institutions,” she said. “We adjust to the budget in what amount we need to hold.”
Employees who were hired between July 1, 2007 and March 31 will not qualify
for the across-the-board salary increase.
Cali Clark, director of employment and compensation, said the primary reason
for the increase is because other Universities in the area similarly adjust salaries.
“It’s important for CMU to stay competitive,” she said.
The pay for performance program will be suspended for the second year in a row,
but the annual performance evaluation of staff members will remain in place.
Pay for performance, which would offer compensation to staff for quality work,
is not being replaced with any other form of reward for good faculty performance.
“There’s no other way to compensate besides merit,” Clark
said.
Evaluations will stay as they are a critical component to helping people move
on in their careers, Kent said, and suspending the program was simply the tightening of available money.
“The whole focus (of evaluations) drives productivity,” she said.
“Open and honest communication between supervisor and employee is more of an incentive.”
Premium costs, medical coverage rates which employees pay, are increasing from
five to eight percent. This will leave CMU with 92 percent of the costs to cover.
It is an adjustment which Kent said makes a simple benefit for employees more
affordable to Central.
Employees hired after July 1, will not be eligible for medical coverage upon
retirement.
Director of Benefits and Wellness Lori Hella said the self-funded medical program
for retirees covers too few people to continue to offer the plan to everyone.
“We’ve been having trouble making (retiree coverage) a stable plan,”
Kent said. “It’s impossible to self-fund a plan with 38 people.”
Many employees are beginning to turn to their own insurance agency for coverage,
she said.
“With that small group of people, it becomes very expensive,” Hella
said. “We’d have to charge retirees to participate.”
Despite the cuts elsewhere, CMU will continue its Cash in on Wellness program,
a four phased program that pays employees for annual physicals and blood tests, weekly exercising, and online lifestyle surveys.
“There’s a number of wellness programs,” Kent said. “We want to get people aware of health
issues and get them exercising regularly.”
Hella said Cash in on Wellness encourages faculty to know their own lifestyle and they are susceptible to. The program
has kept health care costs lower in the long run.
Along with the advantages have come other indirect results like fewer absences among staff and increased performance.
Topic: CMU Model United Nations
By Jackie Smith
Staff Reporter
20 students from Central Michigan University brought world issues into focus
in their first trip to the National Model United Nations conference.
For an event that lasted March 18 through March 22 in New York City, 18 of those
students represented Kazakhstan in various committees. The remaining two acted as the United Kingdom in the separate Security
Council simulation.
“Kazakhstan was only represented on certain committees, as it is in real
life,” said Mike Cutino, Frasier senior and acting head delegate at this year’s conference.
He said that each student participating in NMUN chose their committee within
the first week of this semester, in order to prepare their representation of Kazakhstan.
“That’s pretty much the first thing we do,” Cutino said. “That
way people have an immediate idea and can begin to research right away.”
CMU’s delegates acted in pairs in their chosen committees, such as the
Organization for the Islamic Conference and the UN Environment Program.
Preparation for the conference included speaking in their model UN class and
even a trip to Muskegon Community College, where a five-hour practice simulation was held, Cutino said.
“Preparing for the course, the students really have to do intensive research
on the issues that are on the agenda,” said Assistant Professor of Political Science David Jesuit. “They become
experts…knowledgeable of their country.”
CMU’s involvement in model UN has been active since the mid-1970s, Jesuit
said, and though for nearly a decade the program went into hibernation, students have attended the American Model United Nations
conference the last four years since his arrival in 2003.
There are many differences however, between AMUN and NMUN, said Royal Oak junior
Eric Schulz, mainly the international aspect which is literal at nationals because nearly half the delegates are foreign to
the United States.
“The two (delegates) I worked closest with were from Switzerland and Germany,”
he said. “To get their point of view on the world and the way that they see things was just an invaluable situation.”
Schulz said the rest of the world seemed to fade away while he was there, as
if he saw the experience through tunnel vision.
“The week that you’re there, you eat, sleep and die for model UN,”
he said. “A lot of times you’ll get two/three hours of sleep…You’re giving everything you have to
this conference.”
Everyone brought something of their own to the table, and for Elizabeth Cornish
as part of the Commission for the Status of Women, it was her love of language and the few Kazakh phrases she learned.
“I’m not as educated in International Relations and such, but I
definitely learned a lot,” the Ypsilanti senior said. “Hopefully someday I can make it o Kazakhstan.”
Topic: Preview of a Benefit Concert
By Jackie Smith
Staff reporter
The Student Diversity Advisory Council has set out to inform students of their
goal to make Central Michigan University a more welcoming environment.
The group is hosting an open house and welcome reception Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
in the Park Library Baber to present their idea of diversity to campus.
“When people see we’re about diversity, they assume it’s a
black thing,” said council member and Muskegon senior Jesse Vance. “Diversity isn’t just black and white,
it’s uniting people.”
At 6:30 Tuesday, the council will introduce their key points during the brief
program which outline their purpose. Vance said these points include unity, diversity education, service, communication and
networking.
“We would like to educate people about diversity,” said Troy junior
and council member Valerie Edwin. “It’s really an informal program.”
She said that the brief program will not only include the talking points, but
also council introductions, in order to network with attendees.
Earlier in the academic year, Edwin said she received an advertisement for the
council. She said it “sounded interesting,” so she applied for a committee position.
The reception idea emerged in late February, during the group’s second
meeting, Vance said, and no other possibility really existed for the group’s first event. Since then, they have met
once or twice a month to discuss issues.
“The whole committee had an input on the planning,” he said. “Everyone
needs to be apart.”
Edwin said that the group formulated ideas together to create the council’s
goal of a warm atmosphere on campus, and this could be done by promoting cooperation and further networking.
In order to spread awareness for the occasion, she said, some members sent out
invitations and setup table tents.
“We’re there to initiate our own diversity unification,” Edwin
said. “Hopefully we can get the word out.”
Sparta junior Kyle Hulett said he has never heard of the Student Diversity Advisory
Council, and is unaware of Tuesday’s reception, but he still has his own idea of what they might represent.
“(Diversity is) the little differences everybody has,” he said.
Like Hulett, Katie Michaels said she has no idea what the council is, but the
Lansing freshman maintains that diversity goes beyond skin color.
“It’s accepting
everybody for who they are,” she said.
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