Faculty Assembly Personnel and Benefits Committee Minutes

March 7, 2005
Attendees: Carole Flint, Mary Ann Kluge, John Richardson, Charlie, Shub, Judith Rice-Jones,
Ted Baldwin, Tom Zwirlein, Jackie Berning
Charlie Shub debriefed the committee on the activities of the System Faculty Council Personnel
and Benefits Committee
1. The committee is looking at compensation principles.
2. Faculty Council Personnel and Benefits Committee is making progress on a
tuition benefit proposal for faculty.
3. Several issues with the Great West pharmacy subcontractor are being resolved.
4. Open enrollment will be next month. Charlie expects the faculty to see some
pleasant surprises on the Ultimate and Catastrophic plans.
Jackie Berning was a guest speaker at the meeting. Jackie informed the committee of some
recent research she has been working on with Jim Hill from Health Sciences.
Their work is on obesity in America and Colorado. The mid-west has a high incidence of
obesity. The problem spreads to the south-east and to pockets in Texas. Not even
California is immune. Colorado at the current time is the leanest state in the country.
However, there are questions whether we really are all that lean since Colorado is 5 years
behind in contributing to the survey data being collected. As more data are collected,
Colorado may lose its status as the leanest state.
Jackie and Jim are working to figure out how to keep Colorado lean. Their funded
programs “Colorado on the Move,” “America on the Move,” and “Freshman on the
Move” are intended to encourage people to walk more steps each day. 2,000 more steps
per day will burn 100 calories and stabilize the weight of most individuals. Doing this to
a freshman will change behavior throughout life and help keep off the “freshman 15.”
People who walk the extra 2,000 steps and reduce calorie intake by 100 per day will
begin to loose weight. What a simple and effective idea.
Jackie, with the concurrence of the Personnel and Benefits Committee, wants to promote
“Faculty on the Move” and to restart the idea of wellness for all faculty. A healthier
faculty will lower the cost of health care.
We encourage the faculty to obtain a pedometer and start making the extra 2,000 steps.
Jackie has pedometers available for $12.00 as part of their program. They are also
available at many retailers.
Further, we encourage the PBS to do more to promote health and wellness. A good first
start is to redo the PBS newsletter to add a section(s) on wellness.
Ted Baldwin has found that there are 1,104 total retired faculty in the CU system. UCCS has 46
retired faculty. Five of the 46 are actually surviving spouses so the actual number of faculty
retirees is 41. Tom will contact Michelle Dahlin to see whether there is any activity occurring in

terms of establishing a set of system-wide non-pecuniary benefits for retired faculty.
Steve Chambers will be invited to the next meeting in order for us to turn our attention to the
salary compression issue.
Next meeting will be Monday, April 4, 2005.