FYI June 9, 1999

June 9, 1999

FYI Home

Appointments fill
vice-presidential
positions
Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees June 14, two vacant vice presidencies have been filled.
President Bernie Machen appointed Arnold Combe as vice president for Administrative Services, effective upon approval. There were more than 60 candidates for the position. Combe has been serving as interim vice president. Before that, he was assistant vice president for Financial and Accounting Services, and director of Finance. He is a certified public accountant, and holds an M.B.A. degree from the U.
David Pershing, senior vice president for Academic Affairs, appointed Barbara Hancock Snyder as vice president for Student Affairs, effective Aug. 1. With a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Iowa State University, Snyder comes to the U from the position of vice chancellor for student affairs and associate professor of educational administration at the University of Nebraska. Snyder is noted for her involvement with national student affairs organizations, concern for students, and professional development of staff. Pershing says Richard Weigel, who has been interim vice president, will fill an administrative leadership position within Student Affairs.

Health insurance
contracts change,
choices reopen for '99-00

Through June 18, University employees have the opportunity to reconsider their selection of a health insurance plan for 1999-2000. This is due to three 11th-hour changes in contracts between insurance companies and health care providers:

(1) Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ValueCare, and HealthWise no longer have a participating/preferred-provider arrangement with Columbia Utah Hospitals. In these plans, you receive a lower level of benefits at non participating hospitals. The Public Employees Health Plan is not affected, while the University of Utah Health Network Health Plan does not use Columbia. The Columbia system hospitals include St. Mark's, Lakeview, Timpanogos, Mountain View, Ogden Regional Medical Center, and Brigham City Community Hospital.

(2) Contrary to prior published summaries, the University of Utah Health Network was unable to complete a contract with Lakeview IPA Physicians, so Lakeview physicians will not be participating in the UUHN plan after all.

(3) Two Intermountain Health Care facilities, McKay-Dee Hospital Center and Cottonwood Hospital Medical Center, are now included as preferred providers in the ValueCare plan, with LDS Hospital providing temporary backup for overflows.

If you decide to change your plan selection, do so by mailing or faxing the Benefits Health Enrollment Form to the Human Resources Benefits Office, 121 Annex (fax ext. 5-7375) by June 18. You may print the form from your computer screen at www.personnel.utah.edu, or request it by e-mailing benefits@personnel.utah.edu or by calling ext. 1-7447. Forms are also available in the Human Resources lobby, 101 Annex, and at the Hospital Employee Services Center, A009 University Hospital.
Human Resources does not have all the details of specific coverages, or preferred providers. It's best to call the health plans themselves for such information. Customer service numbers: Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ValueCare, and HealthWise, 333 2100; PEHP, 366-7555; and UUHN HP, 741-8900.

Use paycheck stub
to verify benefits
deductions
It's a good idea to double-check the benefit deductions on your paycheck stub following the conversion to 24 paychecks per year. Use the June 7 paycheck to verify Flexible Spending, MetPay, and tax-deferred annuities, and the June 22 check for medical-dental premiums, life insurance, accident insurance, long-term care, and long-term disability premiums. Contact MetPay at 800-438-6381 for information on Metropolitan auto insurance, or contact Benefits with questions at benefits@personnel.utah.edu, ext. 1-7447. Medical and dental premiums are lumped together into a single deduction on the new paychecks.

Research Park
building will
serve U departments
The first building constructed in Research Park, located at 520 Wakara Way west of the Marriott University Park Hotel, is now the property of the University, under the new name of "Health Professions Education Building." For the foreseeable future, the building will be the home of the divisions of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy in the College of Health, and the Body Donor Program and anatomy lab of the School of Medicine Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. University Dining Services by Chartwells will also place a snack bar in the building. The campus shuttle GREEN routes will serve the UTA stops located in front of the building, and use Arapeen Drive to come and go from the East Village rather than Komas Drive. There is also a PURPLE route stop at Wakara Way and Arapeen Drive.
Bryan Romney, project manager for Campus Design and Construction, says minimal remodeling will be required, so the building will be ready for use by fall semester. Vacated space in the Annex will be reallocated to the Graduate School of Education's Education Research Center and to the College of Health. Plans call for the various barracks buildings left vacant, eventually to be torn down.

COBRA protects
insurance; Private firm
will handle claims
COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, guarantees continuation of health insurance benefits for employees who lose their jobs or full-time status for reasons other than "gross misconduct," and for spouses or dependents who would lose coverage because of death of the employee, divorce, or other "qualifying event." Effective June 1, the University turned over administration of COBRA claims to CobraServe, a private contractor.
New employees and those subject to qualifying events will receive notification of COBRA rights from CobraServe. CovraServe (not Income Accounting) will also process COBRA benefits payments. Information about COBRA can be found at www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/COBRA/cobra95.htm.

Certify your
student-dependents
for insurance
Normally, University health insurance coverage for your eligible children ends at age 26. However, you may cover a child past age 26 if you certify him or her with the Benefits Office at the 26th birthday, and then each October. To be eligible for coverage, the child must be your dependent, not married, not working full time, and enrolled full time in an accredited college, university, or vocational school. Signed, registrar-certified official documentation to verify full-time student status at the institution in which the dependent is enrolled must accompany the application. Certification forms are available from Benefits, ext. 1-7447, 101 Annex.

HHMI Web site
teaches safe
science
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute now offers its online employee laboratory safety course to anyone who wants to use it. It can be found at www.practicingsafescience.org, on a Web server at Yale University. The course, "Knowing How to Practice Safe Science" uses drawings and text to take you through the many hazards that can be found in laboratories‹from chemical waste to human blood‹with pop quizzes and an optional final exam to see how well you learn the material. The May 18 Chronicle of Higher Education called attention to the site. The Howard Hughes Institute employs 3,000 researchers at 300 campuses, including the U of U.

New Copy Center
Fort Douglas
bookstore will serve
housing, HSC
One of the buildings in the new housing complex at Fort Douglas will become the site of a Health Sciences/Student Housing branch of University Bookstore and a University Copy Center. The new bookstore will replace the health sciences branch now located in a barracks near the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics. The Copy Center will become University Printing Services' primary copy facility. However, a copy center storefront and self-service copy facility will still be maintained in Orson Spencer Hall.
Norm Chambers, director of Auxiliary Services, says the new facilities will double the size of the bookstore branch, and of the Copy Center, both of which need the extra space. The two facilities will be located in the northern building of the housing cluster just east of the new Heritage Center, in basement space originally intended for storage. The entrances will face the Heritage Center. These changes will not take place until Phase II of the housing project is complete, in late spring 2000.

FORT DOUGLAS HOUSING ON SCHEDULE
Planning, setting will create a 'jewel'

Granted, construction will create inconvenience for another year, but when it's done, the new University student housing will be "a jewel," says Randall Funk, project manager. The work is on schedule, which means that the entire complex will be in use by students by fall semester, 2000.
Consisting of almost two dozen buildings grouped in clusters to create neighborhoods, the housing is designed to blend with the Victorian gothic buildings of Fort Douglas in scale, as well as style and color. "Keep in mind that the 2002 Winter Olympics will be using University housing built for students, not the other way around," says John Huish, director of Campus Design and Construction. "That's why we refer to it as Fort Douglas, not as the Olympic Village. This will be among the best student housing in the nation."
Here's what to expect:

PHASE I
Graduate student apartments (to be called "Shoreline Ridge")‹Occupancy will begin fall semester this year in the cluster of buildings located where the University baseball field used to be.
University Guest House‹Also available this fall will be the 130-bed facility for visiting faculty, guest lecturers, VIPs, and other temporary residents. This is located near the Fort Douglas Chapel.
Single student apartments (Benchmark Plaza)‹The first housing for undergraduates will be available for occupancy during the 1999-2000 school year, between Connor Road the former baseball field.
PHASE II
Heritage Center‹located between Officers' Circle and Connor Road, the central service building of the entire complex will include dining facilities and the living learning center.
Gateway Hall‹a cluster of housing units will be located between Officers Circle and the Heritage Center, providing special programs for first-year students, including unique living-learning experiences and a cohort academic program.
Lower-division housing (Chapel Glen)‹Special housing for first-and second-year students will be located north of Officers Circle, providing for general uses, and specialty floors and wings for students with common interests.
Upper-division housing (Sage Point)‹Suites for juniors and seniors will be located on the 11-acre site on the south side of the complex.
Bookstore and copy center‹After the buildings are completed, basement space in the single student housing area will be devoted to a Health Science/Housing branch of University Bookstore and athe University Copy Center. (See related item, this issue.)
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
-- The Olympics will pay $28 million of the $120 million cost, but no state taxpayer funding is being used.
-- Phase II used an unconventional performance-based bidding process that places greater emphasis on quality and time scheduling, along with price.
-- Unexpected problems have been confined to resolving situations with utilities created by 100 years of occupancy.
-- No Native American prehistory sites have been discovered, but a historic archaeological firm conducted a careful dig of the remnants of a blacksmith shop and wheel-making shop, dating back to the Civil War, discovered in the 11-acre site.
-- A scale model of Fort Douglas is on display in the Park Building foyer, to which architecture students add models of the new buildings as they are designed.
-- Planning is under way to involve faculty in academic programming for residents to fulfill the promise of a living-learning center.
-- Also in planning are refurbishment of the many residential duplexes that were part of Fort Douglas to create small living-learning centers on the model of the Kennecott House.