February 8, 2019
Dear Colleagues:
I write to share a few highlights from today’s meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Paaige Turner, Dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media, shared an update about the college, highlighting its recent accomplishments, award-winning faculty, and nationally-recognized programs.
Ro-Anne Royer Engle, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, presented an overview of our new “skills infusion” program, which introduces career concepts and strategies into academic coursework. The program pairs faculty, designated alumni, and Career Center representatives in a partnership formed for the purpose of propelling our students towards fulfilling careers and meaningful lives.
The Board also authorized Board Chair Rick Hall to execute an amended memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University, the Foundation, and the Alumni Association. The MOU strengthens the strategic alignment among the three organizations.
In other business, Bernard Hannon, Vice President for Business Affairs and Treasurer, made a presentation about the University’s ongoing process of evaluating whether to make some changes to retirement benefits for future employees.
The first change under consideration is closing the current post-retirement health care benefit to new employees. Our research indicates that we are an outlier in providing this benefit to new employees. It is a costly expense, but there is no data to indicate that this benefit is a determining factor in a person’s decision to accept an offer to work at Ball State.
The second change under consideration is enrolling all future employees in a University managed defined contribution retirement plan, rather than enrolling them in the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF), which is available for staff and service employees, and the Teacher’s Retirement Fund (TRF), which is an option available for professional staff and faculty. Both PERF and TRF are administered by the State of Indiana.
Once again, we are an outlier in providing PERF and TRF benefits to new employees. Only Ball State and Indiana State continue to enroll new employees in PERF and TRF; all other Indiana public colleges and universities have already made the change that we are considering. We believe that enrolling all future employees in a University managed defined contribution retirement plan will provide a greater level of stability and predictability.
We do not expect that these potential changes will have any impact on current employees or retirees.
Visit
bsu.edu/retirementchange to read a Q&A with more information. There will also be a PDF link to the slides Vice President Hannon used during his presentation.
At the end of today’s Board meeting, I made a few additional comments. If you would like to read my remarks, please
visit the website.
