Benefits

Health Benefits

COBRA
In the event of termination of employment or a qualifying event that ends dependent coverage, continuation of coverage may be elected through our COBRA provider, Optum Financial. Employees will receive notification directly from Optum Financial upon benefit termination, including rates and information on how to enroll in COBRA Continuation benefits.

Health Insurance
All benefits eligible employees of Henderson State University are eligible to participate in the group health dental, and vision insurance with the university.

Life Insurance
Group life insurance coverage is provided at no cost to all benefit eligible employees. The amount of coverage is based on the employee's annual salary. Group life insurance becomes effective on the first day of the month following the hire date regardless of the month in which you begin employment. Additional life insurance is available to purchase for you and your family.

Long Term Disability
Long term disability is 100% paid by HSU, and is effective the first day of the month following 90 days of employment. Long term disability is provided for all benefit eligible employees. The benefit of the plan assures employees of receiving up to 60% of their contract salary up to $6,000 maximum per month. There is a 180-day elimination period before you are eligible for benefits if you become disabled. There is a two-year pre-existing condition clause.

Prescription Drug Plan
As a part of the Health Insurance plan, a prescription drug plan is provided by Medimpact.

Supplemental Benefits

Retirement Plans
Participation in one of the plans is mandatory.

Alternative Retirement Plan (ARP)
Alternate Retirement Plan was established by Act 436 of the 1967 legislature. It authorizes Teacher's Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) to provide an alternate plan of retirement for teachers, administrators, and staff. Participants and the University contribute to this system in accordance with state law. Additional deductions (above the mandated employee contribution) to TIAA-CREF may be requested under the SRA plan. TIAA-CREF is a defined contribution plan.

Voluntary Annuity
All employees (full-time and part-time) may exercise the option of carrying a voluntary annuity. This option will be unmatched and may not exceed the federally established limitation. This is voluntary and the University does not match contributions. Please see the Office of Human Resources if you are interested in setting up a voluntary annuity.

Miscellaneous Benefits

This section describes for you the many benefits you may receive as an employee of Henderson State University. Read this section thoroughly, and consider how these benefits give you a “hidden paycheck” each payday.

Campus Operating Procedure - Retirement

Children’s Educational Activity Leave
Full-time employees are granted eight (8) hours of children’s educational activity leave per calendar year to participate in their children’s educational activities. “Child” means a person enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 12 (preK-12). “Educational activity” means any school sponsored activity.

Full-time employees shall be entitled to eight (8) hours of leave during any one (1) calendar year for the purpose of attending or assisting with the educational activities of a child. Leave that is unused may not be carried over to the next calendar year; and is not compensable at the time of retirement.

Full-Time Employee Discounts

HSU Bookstore - 10 percent employee discount
HSU Dining Hall - $6.35 per meal
Microsoft Office - free while employed

Tuition Discount
Arkansas State University regular, full time employees, retired employees, their spouses and their unmarried dependent children (dependent children must be 23 years of age or less, unmarried, living at home or in a residence hall, and must be an identified dependent for IRS tax purposes on the annual tax form, or some other form of dependency documentation, such as divorce decree) may enroll for undergraduate studies for credit or for audit on a space-available basis at a 75% discount of tuition. For graduate level studies, these persons are eligible for a waiver of one-half tuition. As of January 1, 2021, full-time employees (not dependents) are eligible for 50% discount on all A-State Online courses.

Dependent tuition discounts will continue to be available after the death of a current full-time employee or retiree of the university.

Persons who receive the tuition and fees discount will have any university sponsored scholarships adjusted accordingly. Persons who choose to accept a full-fee grant-in-aid or assistantship will be charged regular tuition and fees.

A Tuition Discount Form must be submitted in order for the discount to be applied.

Educational Benefit for Employees
The university policy states that full-time and part-time (20 or more hours per week) faculty/staff remission will be granted for one graduate or undergraduate class during the employee's regular working hours. Employees who elect to take a class must reduce their lunch hour to thirty (30) minutes five days a week. This policy will be strictly enforced. Faculty/Staff remission will be granted for additional undergraduate or graduate classes outside of the employee's regular working hours with supervisor's approval.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Henderson State University will grant up to twelve (12) weeks of family and/or medical leave during any twelve- month (12) period to eligible employees in accordance with the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The leave may be paid, unpaid or a combination of paid and unpaid, depending on the circumstance and policy. Any absence for an FMLA purpose, whether paid or not (including absences paid by worker's compensation or short- term disability), will automatically count against the employee's 12-week FMLA allowance if the employee is otherwise eligible and has not exhausted his/her FMLA leave. In order to be eligible to take family and/or medical leave you must meet all of the following conditions:

You must have worked for Henderson State University at least twelve (12) months or fifty-two (52) weeks. You must have worked at least 1,250 hours during the twelve-month period immediately before the date when the leave would begin.

You must work in an office or work site where fifty (50) or more employees are employed within 75 miles of that work site.

In order to be eligible for family or medical leave, you must be taking the leave for one of the reasons listed:

The birth of your son or daughter and in order to care for that son or daughter The placement of a son or daughter with you for adoption or foster care
In order to care for your spouse, son, daughter, or parent, if such spouse, son, daughter, parent has a serious health condition, and you are needed to care for the family member
Because of a serious health conditioncondition, you have that makes you unable to perform the functions of your position
For military caregiver leave

New Qualifying Reason for Leave – Eligible employees are entitled up to 12 weeks of leave because of “any qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that the spouse, son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty, or has been notified of an impending call to active duty status, in support of a contingency operation.

New Leave Entitlement – An eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered service-member who is recovering from a serious illness or injury sustained in the line of duty on active duty is entitled to up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for the service-member. This military caregiver leave is available during “a single 12-month period” during which an eligible employee is entitled to a combined a total of 26 weeks of all types of FMLA leave. Additional information on the amendments and a version of Title I of the FMLA with the new statutory language incorporated is available on the FMLA Amendments website at https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/fmla.

Governor Declared Holidays
The Governor, by Executive Proclamation, may grant additional days in observance of special events or for other reasons at his/her discretion. Eligibility for Holiday Pay: All “regular salaried” employees are eligible to receive holiday pay only if they are in pay status on their last scheduled workday before the holiday and at least one hour on the first scheduled work day after the holiday.

Holiday Policy
Full-time non-faculty shall be granted time off to observe regularly scheduled state holidays (which include the employee’s birthday).

IRS Section 125 Plan
A 125 program is an opportunity to increase your spendable income by reducing your taxable income. When you authorize HSU to include you in the plan, certain expenses will be withdrawn from your check before taxes rather than after taxes. This lowers your federal, state, and Social Security withholdings and, thereby, increases your spendable income.

Jury Duty and Court Appearances
No deduction shall be made from the salary of an employee for required appearances in court, including jury duty, when the reasons for such appearances are not personal to the employee.

Leave
Most full-time faculty work a ten (10) month schedule and the rate and type of leave granted are contained in this section. Those Faculty that work a twelve (12) month schedule accrue annual, sick and holiday leave at the same rates as all full-time professional employees.

10-month faculty starting in August have 240 sick leave hours deposited in his or her leave bank each academic year. 10-month faculty starting in January have 120 sick leave hours deposited in his or her leave bank. Sick leave rolls over each year to a maximum of 960 hours. Sick leave is to be used as outlined below. Sick leave is granted not earned. Accrued, unused sick leave will not be paid at time of termination, resignation, or other action by which a person ceases to be employed by the university. Except in the case of FMLA sick leave, leave is not to be taken in the final two weeks of employment with the university. For full-time employees (both staff and faculty) a “day” of sick leave equals 8 hours regardless of the number of hours the employee was scheduled to be on campus.

Absence due to illness or disability is charged in the following order: (1) Earned Sick Leave, (2) Compensatory Time, (3) Earned Annual Leave, (4) Leave without Pay (LWOP). Maternity leave is treated the same as any other sick leave or disability. With Maternity Leave in the State of Arkansas, you are not required to exhaust all your leave prior to taking Leave Without Pay (LWOP). In addition to the time designated above, 10- Month Faculty receive Fall Break, Christmas Break, Spring Break and Summer Break. Vacation or Personal Leave are considered to be a part of this pre-scheduled time off.

Full-time, non-faculty accrue leave at the rates shown below:

Arkansas State Employment	Monthly Accrual	Annual Accrual
through 3 years	8 hours	12 days
3 – 5 years	10 hours	15 days
5 – 12 years	12 hours	18 days
12 – 20 years	14 hours	21 days
more than 20 years	15 hours	22.5 days

Employees must submit requests for annual leave in advance, by at least the number of hours for which annual leave is requested. The supervisor will approve requests for leave at such a time that will least interfere with efficient operation of the university. Leave requests will be returned to the employee within 48 hours. Leave without pay in excess of 40 hours must be approved by the President or his designee.

A maximum of 30 days annual leave can be accumulated by December 31 of each calendar year. During the calendar year, accrued leave may exceed 30 days. Days in excess of 30 will be lost if not used by December 31 of each year. The minimum annual leave an employee can use is 15 minutes. Employees continue to earn annual leave at the normal accrual rate while on annual or sick leave.

When an employee is separated from the university by reason of resignation, termination, or dismissal the unused annual leave credit as of the last day of duty worked will be included along with the final pay. This payment cannot exceed thirty (30) days of annual leave.

Years of service shall include the total number of years of full-time employment with any agency or institution of higher education of the Arkansas state government system, whether such employment is continuous or interrupted. Employees with previous state service will be required to furnish written proof of service prior to any advanced accrual rates. Written proof must be sent to the university for inclusion in the employee’s personnel records.

Sick Leave
A full-time 12-month employee earns sick leave credit at the rate of one day a month for each complete month of service. Sick leave credit begins to accrue immediately with the start of employment. Sick leave must be accrued before it can be used. Sick leave accrues only when an employee is in the pay status, and does not accrue while an employee is on personal leave-without pay for ten or more days in a calendar month. For full-time employees (both staff and faculty) a “day” of sick leave equals 8 hours regardless of the number of hours the employee was scheduled to be on campus.

Maximum Sick Leave Accrual
Accrued sick leave may exceed 120 days (960 hours) during the calendar year, but those days in excess of 120 will be forfeited if not used by December 31 or each year.

Reasons for Using Sick Leave
Sick leave may be used for the following purposes: When the employee is unable to work because of sickness, injury, or for medical, dental, or optical treatment. Sick leave may also be used for a death or serious illness of a member of the employee’s immediate family. Immediate family is defined as the father, mother, sister, brother, spouse, child, grandparents, in-laws, or any individual acting as a parent or guardian of an employee.

The use of sick leave is contingent upon the occurrence of one of the events listed above. If the event never occurs, the employee is not entitled to sick leave benefits. When possible, requests for sick leave for purpose of medical, dental, or optical examination, hospital stays, funerals, etc. should be made in advance.

Reporting Sick Leave
When an illness occurs, the employee must report his or her absence to his or her supervisor as soon as possible. A leave form is to be filled out within two days after the employee returns to work. If the employee does not make proper notification for use of sick leave, such absences can be charged to annual leave (classified employees) or leave without pay. Such determination will be made at the Vice President’s recommendation and the President’s discretion.

Sick Leave at Resignation or Termination
Sick leave is granted not earned. Accrued, unused sick leave will not be paid at time of termination, resignation, or other action by which a person ceases to be employed by the university.

Sick Leave at Retirement
Upon retirement or death, any full-time classified employee or beneficiary of any full-time classified employee of the University shall receive compensation for accumulated unused sick leave at retirement if accumulated days of sick leave are greater than 50 days up to a maximum of $7,500 according to the schedule authorized under the sick leave policy. Compensation for accumulated unused sick leave under this section shall not be used by the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System in the calculation of final average salary under ACA §24-7-202(14). The University reserves the right to change or stop the Sick Leave at Retirement Compensation Program if the need is determined by the Board of Trustees.

Group life insurance coverage is provided at no cost to all benefit eligible employees. The amount of coverage is based on the employee's annual salary. Group life insurance becomes effective on the first day of the month following the hire date regardless of the month in which you begin employment. Additional life insurance is available to purchase. Employer paid group term life reduces to 65% at age 65.

Long term disability is 100% paid by HSU, and is effective the first day of the month following your hire date. Long term disability is provided for all benefit eligible employees. The benefit of the plan assures employees of receiving up to 66.7% of their contract salary up to $7,500 maximum. The waiting period for eligibility, after a physician's certification is six (6) months or 180 days.

Military Leave
Military leaves of absence will be granted in accordance with applicable federal law. A copy of your military orders must be presented to your site/department director. You may use accrued annual leave if you so elect. Full-time employees who are members of the National Guard or any of the reserve branches of the U.S. Armed Forces are granted paid leave at the rate of fifteen (15) working days per calendar year, plus necessary travel time for annual training purposes.

Medical and Industrial Leave of Absence
Upon successful completion of probation, a medical leave of absence may be granted for temporary medical disabilities (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions) for up to twelve (12) weeks with a physician's written certificate of disability. If you have accrued paid leave, you must use paid leave first (except in the case of maternity leave) and take the remainder of the twelve (12) weeks as unpaid leave. Requests for leave should be made in writing as far in advance as possible.

A medical leave begins on the first day your doctor certifies you are unable to work and ends when your doctor certifies you are able to return to work or upon expiration of the leave period approved by the university, whichever occurs first. You must supply a physician's statement verifying the need for the leave and the estimated duration of absence. While on medical leave, you may be required to provide the University with a periodic physician reports on the status of the disability. Failure to do so may result in termination of your employment. While on industrial leave you may be required to attend in-service training, meet with an employee health representative, and keep scheduled physician appointments. Failure to do so may result in termination of your employment.

Retirement Plans
There are several retirement plans available to employees. Participation in one of the systems is mandatory.

Alternative Retirement Plan (ARP)
Alternate Retirement Plan was established by Act 436 of the 1967 legislature. It authorizes Teacher's Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) to provide an alternate plan of retirement for teachers, administrators, and staff. Members are vested in this plan immediately. Participants and the University contribute to this system in accordance with state law. Additional deductions (above the mandated employee contribution) to TIAA-CREF may be requested under the SRA plan. TIAA-CREF is a defined contribution plan.

Recreation - Duke Wells Gym - Pool
Staff members and their dependents may use the Wells HPR Center facilities for recreational purposes in the Recreation Service Program (RSP) subject to two conditions. They are: (1) a faculty/staff or dependent identification card must be presented; and (2) the established hours of access and priorities must be honored.

Wells HPR Center (Gym and Pool), located on M.H. Russell Drive. The times available for faculty/staff use during regular school terms are 3-6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 3-5 p.m. on Friday. Recreational Service Program (RSP) hours of operation are 6-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Department staff can provide information concerning summer hours. In all cases remember Classes have priority. Activities available include swimming, basketball, track, weight room, and intramural fields. Also, there are ten lighted courts in the Wells tennis complex located on M. H. Russell Drive opposite the Wells HPR Center. They are available most hours subject to the same limitations of above priority use.

Charles Dunn Recreation Center
Employees (faculty and staff) of Henderson State University may use the Charles Dunn Student Recreation Center. Employees are encouraged to sign up due to their FREE employee benefit. The faculty/staff of Henderson State University has the same rights of usage as the student population and must follow the same guidelines that are stated in the policy and procedures manual. Employees must present their VALID HSU ID card at the front desk every time in order to gain entry.

Employee (faculty and staff) Spouses: Employee must accompany spouse to the front desk of the Student Recreation Center to purchase the spouse membership plan. The employee must present a valid HSU identification card and the spouse must present a drivers’ license or other government issued ID. The discounted spouse rate is $200 for one full year (365 days) may be paid in full as a one-time yearly payment or spouse may

have the HSU employee set them up on a monthly payroll deduction option. For classified employee’s (monthly) the rate is listed as $16.67 per pay period and for non-classified employee’s (bi-weekly) the rate is $7.69 per pay period.

Review of Salaries
The administration regularly evaluates the salary schedules of university personnel to determine that amounts are adequate to attract, hold, and fairly compensate the caliber of faculty and staff essential to an educational program of excellence.

Fringe Benefits Committee
A Shared Governance Committee, the Fringe Benefits committee serves in an advisory capacity to the President on issues related to the fringe benefits of the employees of the University. This Committee receives recommendations from Faculty and/or Staff Senates. The chairperson is appointed by the Committee on Committees. Personnel:Director of Human Resources, ex officio; one representative from the Office of Finance and Administration; an administrator (an Associate Dean or higher); three faculty members who holds no administrative role above chair or director, representing each college; three at-large faculty members; and five staff members.

Social Security
Social Security is an important part of every employee’s retirement benefit. The employee’s contribution for Social Security and Medicare is matched by the university.

Time Off To Vote
In the event the polling place is not open to allow an employee to vote before or after his/her regularly scheduled shift, an employee may be granted time off in accordance with state law. Any full-time employee may request and receive one hour off with pay to vote. Those requesting leave must complete a Request for Leave form for his/her supervisor no less than (2) two working days before the date of election so that the department work schedule can be adjusted.

Vision Plan
VSP Signature Plan is available for full-time employees and their dependents. This is a voluntary benefit and is 100% Employee paid.

Worker’s Compensation
Workers’ Compensation provides all necessary medical, surgical, and hospital treatment following an injury on the job. New claims are reported to the Company Nurse Injury Hotline 1-855-339-1893; Henderson State University – QR105; see Injury Hotline Card

Non-Emergency Injury Reporting
Injured worker who needs medical attention notifies his/her supervisor.

Prior to seeking treatment, employee (and the supervisor, if he or she is available) immediately calls the Company Nurse Injury Hotline which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Minor injuries should be reported prior to leaving the campus/job site when possible.

Emergency Injury Reporting
Injured worker who needs immediate emergency medical care goes directly to the closest hospital Emergency Room (ER) or call 911 if ambulance is needed.

Injured worker notifies his/her supervisor.

Supervisor immediately calls the Company Nurse Injury Hotline to report the injury.

Injuries Requiring No Treatment (as determined by the employee)
Injured worker notifies his/her supervisor.

Supervisor and employee complete a Workers’ Compensation Incident Report Form to record job injuries that do not require medical treatment, as determined by the employee.

Employee and supervisor need to contact Henderson State University’s Police Department to file an accident report. The employee must bring a copy of the accident report to Human Resources.

All reports must be delivered to Human Resources within 24 hours of incident. HSU shall not be responsible for disability, medical, or other benefits prior to receipt of the employee’s report of injury.

Employees who are absent from work due to an occupational injury or illness will be subject to Arkansas Human Resource Management System policy statement, section 105, subsection 4.0 Workers’ Compensation.