Campus Community,
I wanted to make you aware of an item that will be on the Board of Trustees meeting agenda this Friday. Proposed ASU System Resolution 18-43 would revise the Early Retirement Benefits Policy. More specifically, the proposed change would eliminate early retirement medical and life insurance benefits for employees hired into a benefits eligible position after December 31, 2018. This change would not affect current employees. Additionally, while automatic eligibility for early retirement benefits would not exist for new employees, nothing would preclude the Board of Trustees from offering special eligibility windows in the future.
This proposed change results from increases in Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB) liabilities on our campuses. These OPEB liabilities are adversely impacting our financial statements and could have a negative impact on our Composite Financial Index. Our current OPEB liability is near $18 million system-wide. This proposed change was reviewed and approved through the appropriate campus shared governance processes and was recommended by the ASU System Benefits Committee.
While this change will address long-term OPEB issues, it is possible that additional revisions may be necessary to impact the liability in a more timely manner. The System Benefits Committee will review actuarial calculations and revision scenarios over the course of the next year, and any other proposed revisions would go through the full shared governance process.
While this change does not impact any current employees, I do feel it is important to be as transparent as possible any time we seek to make revisions to our employee benefits policies. If you have any questions about this proposal, please do not hesitate to contact your campus HR office or me directly.
Chuck
Dr. Charles L. Welch
President
Arkansas State University System