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Employees could foot $6.2m health care shortfall by Miriam Belin
mbelin08@unm.edu UNM employees may have to foot a projected multi-million dollar shortfall in the University’s health plan. Employees could experience an 8 percent increase in insurance premiums if the administration decides to make them pay the $6.2 million shortage. During the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, Vice President of Human Resources Helen Gonzales said the projected cost for employee health care in FY 2013 is $61.7 million. Current funds from employee contributions, interest earnings from the fund and the Early Retirement Reinsurance Program total only $55.5 million. Gonzales said the University is looking at different ways to meet the difference, and that may mean faculty have to pay more for the rising costs of health care. “It isn’t a shortfall at this time, but if we experience claims utilization at the expected trend, we will need to have the funds to pay it,” she said. Gonzales said health care costs have risen steadily in recent years, increasing 117 percent from FY 2000 to FY 2009. In FY 2010, UNM dropped its private insurance partnership and became self-insured. Since then, employee premiums have increased once in FY 2011 by as much as 2 percent. Gonzales said increased lifespan, health care reform laws and the increasing average age of UNM employees, which now stands at 50 years, have driven costs higher. Faculty Senate President Timothy Ross said the employees will most likely be the ones who have to pay to close the shortage. “There’s a reality here that health care costs are going up, that people are living longer and so, how are we going to pay for it?” he said. “We don’t really have any mechanisms for that other than employees’ pay. The University is already paying a sizable percentage of those costs: 50 percent or more of our premiums are paid for by the University, but when the costs go up, the employees are going to have to pay a little more.”
Jessikha Williams / Daily Lobo Vice President of Human Resources Helen Gonzales said UNM employees could experience an 8 percent increase in insurance premiums if the administration decides to make them pay a $6.2 million shortage.
Also at the senate meeting: honors college Plans for a new degree-granting honors college at UNM, eventually replacing the honors program, could be a reality by this spring, Ross said. He said the Senate could begin the process right away with two steps. The first calls for a Senate vote to begin the formation of the college. He said Policy A88 of the Faculty Handbook allows the Senate to establish the college by Senate vote
and approval of the provost. Ross said the second step — the development and approval of the curriculum and degrees — will take more time. “That’s a longer process because of all the forms that have to be signed and debated by various committees that have to see these forms,” he said. “That process will take a little bit longer and may not be concluded until the end of summer.” Senior Vice Provost Michael Dougher said it would cost $1.5 million to get the college running, but that it is expected to generate $1.9
million in additional student enrollment and residence-hall fees. In the more distant future, he said the University might build a new facility to house the new honors college, the projected cost of which would be about $79 million. “That money would come from something like a (general obligation) bond and maybe the (UNM) Foundation would be able to generate some donors who could contribute to the support of the honors college,” he said. Dougher said a benefit for UNM students with an honors degree is the
edge it gives them in the employment market, and would also allow students flexibility in choosing classes to fit their needs. “It would be a degree that the student could design,” he said. “Interdisciplinary is something that is increasing in all fields, the sciences or the arts or humanities, so taking a multidisciplinary approach to a topic makes that person more effective in dealing with that. We will have to name these degrees that would convey the discipline subject matter that the students master as they go through the honors college.”
(un)Occupy undeterred by ban from Yale Park by Jacob Hall
jhall03@unm.edu
Daily Lobo file (un)Occupy flags and banners wave outside Yale Park on Sunday. The group has left the park after more than a dozen UNM police officers made four arrests and prevented the group from occupying the park without a permit on Sunday.
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After a brief reoccupation of Yale Park by (un)Occupy Albuquerque protesters this weekend, the park is now empty of signs and protesters. About a dozen police officers have kept protesters from protesting on campus since Saturday. UNM Operations Lieutenant Trace Peck said protesters have not applied for a permit and will not be allowed on campus unless they do so. Jessica Farrell, who was arrested for criminal trespassing in Yale Park Sunday, said she made a conscious decision to step onto Yale Park in defiance of University police. “I had the realization that I could no longer put any faith into the system that was supposed to not only protect,
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but empower me as a student and as a person,” Farrell said. “I wanted to support the people that were being arrested, not only ideologically and emotionally, but physically as well.” Peck said UNM police are under direct orders not to allow any protestors, specifically (un)Occupy Albuquerque members, into the park. (un)Occupy Albuquerque member Andrew Beale and Daily Lobo alumnus said the University is disregarding protesters’ right to free speech. “It seems to me that it’s a pretty clear violation of the First Amendment,” Beale said. According to local statutes, the government is allowed to place restrictions on First Amendment rights. For example, if a students create danger for others in the park, UNM can prevent students from
being there, or close the park itself. Beale said the permit issue is irrelevant as there are gatherings in the park all the time by people who are not protesting. He said if a group of students decide to play a soccer game or have a study session in the park, UNM would not make them apply for a permit or arrest them. Despite the arrests made this weekend, (un)Occupy Albuquerque continued to protest around the city, picketing in front of the PNM building downtown on Wednesday. Beale said the protest targeted the cooperation between legislators and big business. “It was in response to a call from Occupy Portland to shut down the corporations, specifically corporations connected to ALEC (American Legislative Exchange
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