August CLAS Shared Services Updates

August 21, 2024

Below is a roundup of important announcements and reminders from the Business Center. If you have a question or there is something that you'd like to include in the next roundup, please feel free to reach out to the Business Center via bsc@uconn.edu.

Announcements

Welcome New Faculty to CLAS

  • Communication, events, and processing for assisting your new faculty:
    • Communication:
      • Welcome Announcements
        • Send a message to your department (re)announcing your area’s new hires (TT and NTT).
        • Send a directed message to your new hires informing them:
          • Important department/CLAS events.
          • Helpful resources and guides such as the Travel policy.
          • Points of contact information (breakdown of staff roles and who to go to).
      • Listserv/SharePoint
        • Add them to department SharePoint/OneDrives and listservs.
    • Processing:
      • Update your department’s website.
      • Ensure office needs and general supplies are met, work with CLAS Facility Services and CLAS IT if necessary.
      • Help identify any access issues and add administrative delegation (if applicable) to system profiles.
    • Events:
      • University Events
      • CLAS Events
        • CLAS New Faculty Orientation: Aug. 23, 1:30-3:30 p.m., IPB Building. Original email sent by CLAS on 8/9.
        • CLAS New Faculty Reception: Aug. 26, 4:30-6 p.m., SU 304 AB. Original email sent by CLAS on 8/9.
        • CLAS Teaching Conversations
          • Sept. 30, virtual: Topic TBD.
      • Department Events
        • First department meeting and schedule.
        • Committee meetings (if applicable).

FLSA Updates for Fall 2024

  • Salary minimums for FLSA status will be increasing:
    • July 1, 2024: Increasing to $844/week and $43,888 per year.
    • Jan. 1, 2025: Increasing to $1,128/week or $58,656 per year.
  • Generally, all positions at the University that are at or below the new minimums will be converted to Non-Exempt status.
    • Positions where the primary duty is teaching are excluded from this change, including graduate assistants (teaching and research titles).
      • UCPEA and Confidential Exempt employees – effective 8/23/24, these titles accrue comp time.
      • AAUP, Post Docs, Research Asst/Assoc., and Special Payroll – effective 9/20/24, these titles are paid out in the pay period when time is submitted.
  • Employees working > 40 hours/week may request approval for submitting overtime hours and should not work overtime hours until approval is officially in place.

Core-CT Blackout Update

  • Any separations and continuations effective 8/23/2024 or before that do not have an impact on pay (including non-tenure track faculty with 8/22/2024 end dates) should continue to be submitted ASAP.
    • These transactions were due to be approved by 8/16.
    • If these transactions are not submitted in CORE and approved by the Business Center by 8/30 they will be need to be deleted entirely from the system and resubmitted on 9/2.
  • Continuations that are effective 8/23/24 and later, that do impact pay, should be submitted between 9/2 and 9/5. Most of these transactions will be processed by the Business Center, but if you think you have any transactions for an FTE or pay change, please contact bsc@uconn.edu.
  • If you have any other questions and concerns regarding the above, please contact bsc@uconn.edu.

Regional Faculty Payroll Updates

  • Email announcement sent on 7/30/2024 called: Updates for Regional Campuses/PageUp Workflows.
  • The Provost’s Office has drafted a new set of Offer Letter templates to be used for faculty hires on the regional campuses.
    • The new offer letter templates are available in PageUp and include suggested language regarding expectations for teaching load (first year and then standard), service/advising, and equipment funding.
  • New approval workflow in PageUp for regional campus faculty letters.

Save the Date: Employee Appreciation Week

  • Employee Appreciation Week takes place on Monday, Sept. 9 to Friday, Sept. 13.
    • There will be activities throughout the week including meditation, yoga with Officers Carson and Tildy, an ice cream sundae competition, and more!
    • The main event will take place in Gampel Pavilion on Thursday, Sept. 12 from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
    • You can view the full schedule of events and RSVP for the main event on the HR website.

Monthly Meetings

  • Monthly meetings will take place between CLAS Shared Services Management and the following:
    • Controller’s Office will take place on Thursday, Sept. 26.
    • Procurement will take place on Wednesday , Aug. 21.
    • Procurement and A/P will take place on Monday, Sept. 9.
    • Payroll will take place Friday, Aug. 30.
  • CLAS Business Center Monthly Topic Overview will be held on Thursday, Sept. 12. This month's topic will be grants and grant management. Please reach out to bsc@uconn.edu with ideas for future topics.
  • Please feel free to reach out to bsc@uconn.edu with any areas of concern to be discussed at any of these meetings.

Professional Development Opportunities

  • LinkedIn Learning is now available at no cost to all UConn staff on Storrs campus as an e-learning resource.
    • LinkedIn Learning offers an opportunity to develop professional skills through a digital library of over 6,000 courses.
    • Visit the Microsoft App store and navigate to the LinkedIn Learning application to activate your license.
  • CLAS Shared Services has a lending library with a variety of books on professional development and self-improvement.
  • Academic Impressions offers professional development resources for higher education professionals. Resources include hundreds of hours of trainings in topics such as Academic Leadership, Advancement, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Faculty Success, Leadership Development, Compliance, and more.
  • The Lexington Group, Inc is UConn’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The Lexington Group provides confidential face-to-face counseling, or in certain circumstances video counseling, to assist employees in identifying and resolving personal problems no matter how unique and diverse they appear. Examples include family and marital conflicts, stress, substance abuse, depression, and other emotional issues. The Lexington Group also assists with referrals for eldercare support, childcare, as well as legal and financial guidance through our Life Care program.
    • Employees may call The Lexington Group for immediate and confidential assistance at 1-800-676-HELP (4357) or access their website. The Lexington Group is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Trainings

  • New Title IX Training Requirement
  • Sex-Based Discrimination & Harassment: Updated Employee Rights and Responsibilities course
  • Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) Mini Refresher Courses
    • Pre-Interview Evaluations – Wednesday, Oct. 2 from 10-11 a.m. in Austin 247.
    • Post-Interview Evaluations – Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Austin 434.
  • Kognito: Supporting Students in Distress
    • This interactive simulated training allows faculty, staff, and students to practice having important and life-saving conversations with students who are experiencing distress.
    • Kognito and other resources can be found on the Student Health and Wellness website.
  • PageUp Regular Payroll: Sign up for the training.
    • Sept. 12 from 9 a.m.-noon.
    • Oct. 21 from 9 a.m.-noon.
  • PageUp Special Payroll: Sign up for the training.
    • Sept. 13 from 9-11 a.m.
    • Oct. 22 from 9-11 a.m.

Foundation Report Updates

  • Foundation reports were sent out on Wednesday, Aug. 14 still on FY24 data. There was an improvement to the report and the text of the email included the following:
    • We are pleased to inform you that we have updated the summary report to include additional information. We believe these enhancements will offer you more valuable insights into your Foundation accounts. We hope you find these improvements beneficial.
  • Please review these reports and provide any feedback to bsc@uconn.edu as appropriate.

CLAS Shared Services Grant Management

  • For the month of July, CLAS faculty submitted 42 grant applications with a total requested amount of $40M.
  • For the month of July, CLAS faculty were awarded 18 new awards with a total funded amount of $4.7M.
  • GMS created and posted on the CLAS Grant Management website a guide for new faculty.

CLAS Shared Services Information Technology

  • UConn has a contract with Connection (formerly GovConnection) that enables the University to buy devices (e.g., Apple computers, iPads, Dell laptops) and peripherals at discounted prices. While this contract pricing was previously only available for university-purchased products, it has been extended to faculty, staff, and student's personal, non-UConn purchases. You access the full catalog by creating an account on Connection’s UConn page. Detailed instructions are available at the ITS UConn Knowledge Base.
  • The University also has a product and support contract with Dell. Through this partnership, our community may participate in the Dell Member Purchase Program (MPP). You validate your eligibility on the MPP portal page with your @uconn.edu address. Dell will email you a coupon for personal purchases. Detailed instructions are available at the UConn Knowledge Base.
  • Just a reminder that students’ email has changed. Gmail was available to UConn student accounts created before Spring 2024. All new accounts are created in Outlook.
  • Note from Michael Werchadlo:
    • If we haven’t had the chance to meet yet, I’m Mike Werchadlo, the CLAS-IT Service Delivery Manager. I’d just like to send a friendly reminder that for your IT service needs, the best place to get started is to submit a request to us at CLASIT@uconn.edu – this will create a ticket in our system for accountability and tracking. Responses will come from the following email address: jira@uconn.atlassian.net. Please note that requests from both CLAS-IT and UITS use this address. Please make sure to add it to your safe senders list so you receive updates on your requests. If you have an urgent request, or have a request that needs management escalation, please feel free to reach out to me directly via phone @ 860-486-0713. Wishing you a great fall term!

Welcome and Congratulations

  • Welcome:
    • Rachel Bobadilla, Educational Program Assistant 2, HIST.
    • Jahn Landrigan, Laboratory Technician 2, PNB.
  • Congratulations on new adventures:
    • Cate Reid, Director of Development, CLAS UConn Foundation.
    • Liam Thomas, Educational Program Assistant 1, CLAS Dean’s Office.