UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Human Resources

Thrive Across America Is Back!

Thrive Across America is back, and if you didn’t participate in this online physical activity program the first time, now’s your chance to join in the fun. Start or join a team of 4-10 coworkers and rise to the challenge. Each day you record 30 minutes or more of exercise, you earn a Thrive Across America star. The more stars you earn, the higher your score.

Look for these important dates:

  • Monday, January 21 to Sunday, February 17: Team formation takes place. You’ll need to start or join a new team for the second team competition; previous teams will not carry over.
  • Monday, February 18: Start recording activity for second team competition.
  • Sunday, April 14: Competition ends, but continue logging activity through October 14, 2013.

Those who signed up last year do not need to sign up again. You can also download the TIA app for iPhone or Android from the App Store (http://tinyurl.com/azxcsjk) or Android Market (http://tinyurl.com/bjvjget) and log time as you go. For more information go to http://up.thriveacrossamerica.com or contact Welch at 7461 or welch@up.edu.

Flex-Plan Grace Period

Employees who participated in Flex-Plan for the 2012 calendar year have a grace period of January 1, 2013 to March 15, 2013 that will allow employees to maximize their 2012 benefit. Employees have until March 31, 2013 to submit claims for expenses incurred on March 15, 2013 or before. Claims can be submitted online at www.flexplan.com or through a paper form available up.edu/hr, Employee Benefits, Flexible Spending Account Information (http://tinyurl.com/b7xha33). Contact hr@up.edu with questions.

Employee Christmas Luncheon

The staff holiday party, held annually in the Bauccio Commons, will take place this year on Thursday, December 20, at 11:30 a.m., with the formal program beginning at 12:45, according to HR director Bryn Sopko. The party will feature a holiday selection of fare from Bon Appetit’s food stations, annual employee award presentations, prize drawings, recognition of employees’ service to the University, and words of holiday cheer from Fr. Beauchamp. All current University staff members are invited to attend, as are retired staff. All are encouraged to come early for drinks and hors d’oeuvres with your friends. Employees who cannot come are asked to RSVP to university events at 7523 or events@up.edu.

Brown Bag Lunch Session, Dec. 6

The next human resources brown bag lunch presentation will take place on Thursday, December 6, starting at noon in Buckley Center room 163. Matt Rose from Reliant Behavioral Health will speak on “Managing Stress in a Changing Environment.” Human resources will serve fruits and veggies to go with everyone’s brown bag lunches; they would love to have a full house so please plan to attend, everyone can use a little stress management at the holiday time. For more information contact Carol Welch at 7461 or welch@up.edu.

Don’t Be Remiss

Faculty and staff applications for tuition remission are now accepted via online forms only and can be accessed through the HR website at www.up.edu/hr/, according to HR director Bryn Sopko. In addition to this easier access, HR has updated the application dates for remission to match the deadline in student accounts, so please keep these dates in mind:

  • Spring term: November 15
  • Summer term: April 5
  • Fall term: July 1.

Since the spring term deadline has passed, all faculty or staff who wish to apply for spring 2013 remission should do so as soon as possible. Please note that there are separate tuition remission application forms for undergraduate and graduate course work, and that any graduate level tuition remission benefits will be taxable to the employee on the value above $5,250 for attempted credits and subject to applicable withholdings, and will be reflected on the W-2 form of the tax year the remission was applied. A summary on tuition remission and links to the online forms are available at http://tinyurl.com/c8f6j2x.

For more information contact human resources at 7461 or hr@up.edu.

Flex Spending Year End Reminder

Faculty and staff who signed up for Flex Spending accounts for 2012 are reminded that the 2012 balance on their Benny Cards can be used through December 31, 2012. Any remaining funds may be accessed through the normal claim reimbursement process from January 1 to March 15, 2013. All claims for 2012 must be filed by March 31, 2013. For more information contact HR at 7461 or hr@up.edu.

Position Open

The human resources office is recruiting for a new benefits administrator, according to director Bryn Sopko. Carol Welch will be transitioning to the university events office in January. The position is posted on the UP job listings site at https://up.hiretouch.com/. Applications will be accepted through January 7, 2013.

Flex-Plan Grace Period

Employees who participated in Flex-Plan for the 2012 calendar year have a grace period of January 1, 2013 to March 15, 2013 that will allow employees to maximize their 2012 benefit. Employees have until March 31, 2013 to submit claims for expenses incurred on March 15, 2013 or before. Claims can be submitted online at www.flexplan.com or through a paper form available up.edu/hr, Employee Benefits, Flexible Spending Account Information (http://tinyurl.com/b7xha33).

Contact hr@up.edu with questions.

2012 University Staff Awards

Employee awards for 2012 were presented at the annual employees’ holiday banquet on Thursday, December 22. The winners are:

Sandy Galati, physical plant, won the MargaretW. Henzi Award for outstanding office/clerical employees, and was cited as “the primary conduit through which literally thousands of work orders pass every year…by virtue of the nature of her job, she has the task of fielding what are often urgent and demanding calls from customers who may be understandably frustrated or experiencing difficulty and yet—without fail—she is always cheerful, helpful, and friendly.”

Anthony Torres, physical plant, won the TedDeiss/Joyce and Virgil Dodson Outstanding Physical Plant Employee Award. He was praised as one who “demonstrated his versatility and proved himself to be a team player by stepping up and playing an extremely critical role when the university had to re-key every room in our residence halls…in July 2012 he was promoted to foreman and given the additional responsibility of supervising the athletics/events crew.”

The winner of the Hooyboer Outstanding Professional Staff Award is Heidi Keller, student accounts. The Hooyboer Award honors the sort of dedication and commitment that drives and infuses the University’s best and most creative and visionary staffers, the sort of men and women who take the University utterly to heart, and work brilliantly for its success, which made the choice of Heidi nearly a foregone conclusion. She was cited in part as “someone whose inspirational spirit causes her employees to hail her as a University treasure.”

A new honor, the President’s Team Award, was presented to the Office of Admissions. The award was established in 2012 by University president Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C. to honor staff teams whose collective effort demonstrates unwavering commitment to the mission and goals of the University.

Winning the Father Charles Miltner, C.S.C., Award was Jason McDonald, admissions. He was lauded as “among the most cheerful, trusted, admired, and accomplished employees in modern University history…in his fourteen years on The Bluff, he has played a crucial part in the University’s amazing rise in national renown, respect, and popularity.” Beginning with the late Fr. John Hooyboer, C.S.C., the first recipient, the award has been presented to diligent and creative men and women who have gone to sometimes extraordinary lengths to further the mission of the University. It is the highest employee honor bestowed by the University.

Employees were also honored for milestone years of service to the University, including Mary Beebe, Leah Teixeira, Cynthia Blanding, Brian Toole, Kurt Bottcher, Maria de los Angeles Vega, John Carleton, Christina Wall, MingXia Chen, Jack Welch, John Donato, Gregory White, Jonathan Down, Gwen Guderjohn, Sharon Hogan, Joseph Houck, Cathleen Kelley, Bradley Kerr, Paul Le Clercq, Mary Louie, Shizuko Madsen, Bryce Majors, Elisa Majors, Kelly Margheim, Matthew Ortiz, Debra Schwartzkopf, Bradford Scott, Russell Seidelman, Mary Beth Snell, Kimberley Spir, Malathi Sundramurthy, and Mary Virnig (5 years); Pat Alderman, Jim Axling, Maureen Briare, Matthew Gerber, Vinci Halbrook-Paterson, Jeromy Koffler, Michael Kranyak, Colin McGinty, Andrea Nelin-Roth, Khiet Nguyen, Natalie Shank, Sheila Smith, Bryce Strang, and Patricia Wood (10 years); Carol Bruce, Lori Coulson, Tim Crump, Teresa Freemont, Joann Jeffers, Jim Ly0ns, Arja Nelson, Scott Pitka, Chris Sperry, Melissa Thongtan, and No Vo (15 years); Rayne Funk, Meridee Kaiel, Paul Luty, Patty Rubin, and Carolyn Strong (20 years); Bill Irwin, Shaun Shepherd, and Cindy Sturm (25 years); Stephen Hafer, Jim Haines, Ron Scott, and John Soission (30 years); and Virginia Asuncion (40 years).

For more information contact Bryn Sopko, human resources, at 8987 or sopko@up.edu.

Christmas Break 2012

Staff offices are scheduled to be shut down for Christmas Break from Monday, December 24, through Tuesday, January 1, 2013, with employees returning to work on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. For more information on employee holidays contact HR at 7461 or go to www.up.edu/hr/.