At Michigan State University, diversity and inclusion are more than just words. We are leaders and innovators in every aspect of diversity and inclusion, including our work to create a welcoming and accessible campus for all faculty, staff and students. October is National Disability Awareness Month and this year’s theme is #InclusionWorks. Inclusion is a core value of MSU and as a higher education leader in “connecting persons with disabilities into all aspects of university life,” we celebrate the contributions of our employees with disabilities for the role they play in workplace diversity.
Recruiting, employing, advancing, and retaining faculty and staff with disabilities is taken seriously by MSU. We cannot do this work without committees and programs like that of the President’s Advisory Committee on Disability Issues (PACDI), the Council on Students with Disabilities, and the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities that work diligently to make MSU a space for all. Please join fellow Spartans in celebrating disability inclusion and supporting a culture that embraces individual differences.
It’s that time of the year again; time for Open enrollment for 2017!
The Open Enrollment application has been updated with the refreshed EBS Portal. So starting October 1, log in to the EBS Portal to enroll until October 31. You will be able to add, change or remove your MSU benefits plans, but must do so in the month of October. You also must complete the Health Plan Affidavit if you cover a spouse or Other Eligible Individual (OEI). New instructions, including a video tutorial, are provided in the Open Enrollment guide and on the website.
Even with these changes, there’s no need to stress. The Benefits Fair will be held in the Breslin Student Events Center. The event will take place October 11, noon to 6 p.m., October 12, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and October 13, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. MSU Human Resources staff will be available to answer questions and help with enrollment. There will be numerous vendors from health, dental, retirement, life and AD&D, Flexible Spending Accounts, MSU Benefits Plus and MSU units attending. The MSU Health Team will also be providing flu vaccines for eligible faculty, staff, retirees and their dependents. The MSU Health4U program will offer chair massages.
Working for a university as large as Michigan State, it may be difficult at times to find the resources that you need to succeed both in your career and in your personal life. The new MSU WorkLife Office was created to address this problem and provide one location for faculty and staff to obtain answers and resources pertaining to both career and family life.
We had a chance to sit down and talk with Dr. Barbara Roberts, the executive director of the WorkLife Office, in order to learn more about this new resource. Dr. Roberts described that the WorkLife Office “is here to ensure that faculty and staff have what they need to do their jobs as productively as they can.”
The office has five main focus areas: Family Care, Career Transitions, Workplace Assistance, Relocation and Community Connections, and Research. If you are a faculty or staff member with questions in any of these areas, be sure to head to their website for more information.
The MSU WorkLife Office is located in Linton Hall.
The WorkLife Office also sponsors many events throughout the year. One of those events, “Reflect and Connect: Navigating Life and Work Effectively in Challenging Times,” will take place next Friday, September 16. The WorkLife Office is co-hosting this event with the Employee Assistance Program and the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives. “Reflect and Connect is an opportunity for people to come together and share what’s going on in the larger world beyond the campus and sometimes on the campus,” Dr. Roberts said.
Another upcoming event is the Fatherhood Forum, which will be held on Friday, September 30, at the Kellogg Center.
Since this is a brand new office, many people may have misconceptions about its purpose. “We are not replicating the services that other people are already doing,” Dr. Roberts said. “We are helping get people to those services. So we want to be the one-stop shop where you can come in and find out about everything on campus, put together your palette of resources that you need, and go out and paint your picture of work-life balance with the resources that are already here.”
The WorkLife Office strives to ensure inclusivity, she said. “One thing that we feel makes our office unique is our ability to focus a lens of diversity on work-life practices. So we look at, and we want to hear about, how concurrent work-life practices and benefits and resources on campus affect people from different populations. So sometimes things that we take for granted as being useful to everyone aren’t as effective in a certain population, a cultural group, or faculty of color, or international faculty, or any group that wants to draw on those provisions but maybe they weren’t designed with those folks in mind necessarily. And so you say, well wait a second, this doesn’t work for me in my culture or faith tradition or whatever it is, and we want to hear about those gaps so that we can be sure that the provisions that we put in place to help you are helpful.”
The WorkLife Office is located in Linton Hall. Parking is available across the street at the Grand River ramp or in any of the staff parking lots around West Circle. Contact the office at 517-353-1635 or worklife@msu.edu. A tour of the WorkLife Office will be available on October 3 as part of their Open House to kick-off Work and Family month. Learn more about the Open House.
As the new academic year kicks off, many of you may already be wondering what days the university will be closed. We’re here to help! MSU HR has compiled a list of the important dates to keep in mind for this year.
If you want more information than we provide below, be sure to check out the full academic calendar, which is available on the Office of the Registrar’s website.
MSUÂ is closed Thursday, November 24, 2016 and Friday, November 25, 2016
MSUÂ is closed Friday, December 23, 2016 and Monday, December 26, 2016
MSUÂ is closed Friday, December 30, 2016 and Monday, January 2, 2017
MSUÂ is open, but classes are cancelled Monday, January 16, 2017
Spring Break is Monday, March 6, 2017 – Friday, March 10, 2017
Getting answers to your HR questions has never been easier. We are excited to announce that our new feature on the MSU Human Resources website has launched. Ask MSU Human Resources, also known as “Ask HR,” is an instant answer service found on multiple pages of our website. The service offers answers to hundreds of commonly asked questions. Simply type your query in the search bar and receive answers, along with links to supplemental information that could assist in your understanding of the issue. Ask HR also offers links to the top 10 most frequently asked questions to further simplify your experience.
To ensure users are getting the most out of this experience, the program uses widespread data analytics to track and monitor the types of questions being asked. We will be able to add and update answers as we receive questions from you. If Ask HR doesn’t have an answer for your question yet, it will provide contact information to our HR Solutions Center. We hope this service makes life a little easier for everyone. Get your questions answered today with Ask HR.
The Ask MSU Human Resources service found on hr.msu.edu.
The Go2Gateway project began more than a year ago, and now, as all employees have transitioned to the refreshed EBS portal, it is coming to a close. We would like to thank everyone involved in Go2Gateway, from the Human Resources IT team to all of the MSU employees that provided essential feedback. We also had great participation in our in-person and online road shows. The support of the MSU community for the project has been instrumental in its success. Continue Reading… Go2Gateway coming to a close
The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams in July 2016. Photo courtesy of FRIB.
Chances are, you’ve passed by the ongoing construction on the corner of Wilson Road and Bogue Street. You might have been curious about research taking place in National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, or what the under-construction Facility for Rare Isotope Beams has in store for the future. Now, you have the opportunity to get a sneak peek inside these state-of-the-art facilities.
The FRIB and NSCL will have an open house on Saturday, August 20, from 1 to 4 p.m. People of all ages are welcome. During the open house, you can expect the following:
Explore the fields of FRIB research with several hands-on activities and demonstrations.
Meet nuclear scientists as they talk about their work on the frontiers of rare-isotope research.
Tour the FRIB linear accelerator tunnel and surface building.
Tour the currently operational experimental areas in the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory that will be used in FRIB experiments.
Enjoy some educational videos in the “FRIB Theater.”
This is the chance to step inside a facility that will be instrumental in the advancement of scientific knowledge; it’s a place for important research and discovery in the areas of rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics and more.
No RSVP is required, through you can RSVP at the open house Facebook event. Both admittance and parking are free.
MSU depends on its employees to support its myriad of operations and initiatives that continually advance the university as a top-tier research and education institution. Performance Excellence provides the tools and structure to aid employees’ continued development. Throughout the Performance Excellence process, supervisors and employees need to have conversations that can be difficult on both ends if they involve differing opinions or pointing out unmet expectations. It takes specific skills to navigate these conversations effectively.
Freshman fall move-in. Photo courtesy of Communications and Brand Strategy.
Hopefully you have enjoyed these past quiet summer months, but it’s nearly time to get back into the swing of things. The essence of the university, students, arrive in the thousands just before classes begin on Wednesday, August 31. You have the opportunity to help MSU and the local community in a big way: by volunteering to help move students in and donating to Fill the Bus.
Last year, more than 500 people signed up with the Alumni Association to come back and help new Spartans move in to their residence halls. You can choose when and where to volunteer; pick a residence hall and a shift on Saturday, August 27 through Monday, August 29. Sunday will have the most need for volunteers.
Volunteers get a free T-shirt and a complimentary meal in one of the dining halls. Learn more and register here.
