October 2015

Open Enrollment and Wellness Fairs Underway; Health Screenings and Flu Shot Clinics Also Available

Kent State University faculty and staff are invited to attend the annual Open Enrollment and Wellness Fairs being conducted on each campus through Oct. 20. The fair is an excellent opportunity for individuals to get the information they need to make their decisions for Open Enrollment. The benefit election period for open enrollment is Oct. 11-23, 2015.

As part of this year's Open Enrollment and Wellness Fairs, free annual health screenings will be available for all full-time, benefits-eligible employees (employees do NOT need to be covered by a university health plan). Registration for the health screenings is required at www.bewelldata.com. Information on how to register for your appointment with Be Well Solutions, Kent State's wellness partner, can be found at the OneWellU website. In addition to the free health screening, a free MOVband will be provided to each employee who participates in the health screening for the first time. For those employees who participated last year, a Dick's Sporting Goods gift card in the amount of $25 will be given.

Each campus fair will include a free flu shot clinic by University Health Services. Employees must complete the flu shot registration in order to receive their flu shot at the fair. Employees covered on the university's insurance plans will be able to receive the flu vaccine at no additional charge; otherwise the charge will be $30.

Employees are free to attend the Open Enrollment and Wellness Fair at the time and location most convenient for them. For a complete list of dates and times, please visit the Open Enrollment and Wellness Fairs website.

During the Open Enrollment and Wellness Fairs, employees will be able to meet with representatives from the university's various benefits providers for 2016, find out more about the voluntary insurance options available to employees and learn more about the numerous wellness resources offered at the university. In addition, a financial advisor will provide an overview of Kent State's Traditional and Roth 403(b) and 457 plans, which allow employees to make contributions on a pre-tax or after-tax basis. These sessions are scheduled at 10 a.m. on each of the Regional Campuses. At the Kent Campus fair, sessions will be held at noon and 1 p.m. And, as always, there will be opportunities to win prizes.

Questions regarding open enrollment or your benefit choices should be directed to the Benefits Office at 330-672-3107 or benefits@kent.edu.

Steam Shutdown Notice

A one-day steam shutdown is needed in order for the Power Plant to perform a repair task. The steam shutdown is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 11, beginning at 4 a.m., and all systems are anticipated to be at normal operating conditions by 2 p.m. During the 10-hour time period, steam will not be available for heating, hot water, air conditioning, or for other purposes.

If the steam shutdown has to be delayed for any reason, the back-up date will be Sunday, Oct. 18, and departments will be notified of the change.

If you have any questions, please contact Frank Renovich, associate director, energy operations, at 330-672-0775 or frenovi2@kent.edu.

Save the Date to Honor our Veterans

All are invited to come and honor America's veterans at this year's Veterans Day program, Honoring All Who Serve, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 11 a.m. on the Student Green at Risman Plaza.

The outdoor program will include a flag-raising ceremony conducted by a joint color guard from the Army and Air Force ROTC programs, and remarks from Kent State President Beverly Warren.

All are invited to come and pay tribute to America's veterans. A special invitation is extended to Kent State faculty, staff, students and community members who are veterans, active service members or who have family members in the military.

A reception in the Kent Student Center Kiva lobby will follow the brief program. In the event of inclement weather, the rain location will be the Kent Student Center Kiva.

Title IX Trainings for Faculty and Staff

The Office of Compliance and EOAA will be conducting a series of customized Title IX* trainings for faculty, staff and students.

The monthly sessions will consist of topics such as:

• What is Title IX? Defining sexual harassment/sexual misconduct;
• How and where to report issues related to Title IX;
• Statistics on sexual violence;
• The university's responsibility; and
• What happens after you report a Title IX issue?

Advance registration is required for these facilitator-led trainings, and dates are subject to change or cancelation if an insufficient number of participants sign up. All sessions will be held at Heer Hall in Room 107.

Please choose from the sessions below by selecting the audience (Faculty and Staff or Student Only) and date you are requesting. All sessions can also be found by searching the Human Resources Training Catalog, facilitator-led training, under Title IX Faculty/Staff Training and Title IX Student Training sessions.

*Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions such as Kent State University. Sex discrimination includes sexual harassment and sexual assault, which will not be tolerated at Kent State.

For questions, you may contact the Office of Compliance and EOAA at 330-672-2038 or via email at aa_eeo@kent.edu.

Beyond Compliance Training Available

Moving forward, all Beyond Compliance courses will be flagged with the letters "BC" after the title, along with the number of hours. Doing so will make courses easy to identify when registering and entering into training records.

To review the Beyond Compliance page, visit www.kent.edu/hr/training/beyond-compliance. There you will find a registration icon at the top right of the page that will take you to a list of offerings. Courses will be added throughout the year as we coordinate with subject-matter experts.

If you have additional questions regarding Beyond Compliance, please contact the Human Resources Training and Development Office at 330-672-2100 or hrd@kent.edu.

Summit Street Project Update

The Summit Street: Building a Better Way project is designed to transform a one-mile stretch of East Summit Street that runs through the heart of Kent State University's Kent Campus. East Summit Street has been identified by the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study as the most congested roadway in Summit and Portage counties.

The city of Kent is overseeing the project, and the construction bid has been awarded to Kenmore Construction. While the preliminary utility work is slated to begin this fall, the majority of the construction work that will disrupt the normal traffic flow is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2016. The project is expected to be complete in 2018.

Please share this information with your staff and direct them to the project website for more information. Questions can be sent to summitst@kent.edu.

Dates to Remember

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Disability Employment Awareness Month

Tell Us What You Think

This e-newsletter is designed to keep you, the managers and supervisors, informed. Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think of it, along with any comments or suggestions. You may contact us at managersfeedback@kent.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.

For information about events and programs for university employees, please check out the Faculty and Staff calendar and share the information with your staff.