This newsletter is brought to you by Human Resources.
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Open Enrollment in October |
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Endowed Retiree Health Open Enrollment Dates:
Monday, October 18 through Friday, November 5th
On or before October 11th, Endowed Retirees on Aetna retiree health plans will receive an Open Enrollment (OE) Guide mailed directly from Aetna. Please review your health plan options and any contribution changes effective January 1, 2022. Please read the material carefully, to ensure your current health plan continues to meet your needs. If you are eligible for Medicare, please review the Health Plan Comparison Charts for the Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan (MAPD) and the Retiree 80/20 plan.
OE Meetings for Fall 2021: Cornell Benefits and Aetna Representatives will hold virtual presentations on the 2022 benefit plans and answer any questions you might have. The presentations will be available in both a video/Zoom presentation or via dial-in on your telephone.
Important Reminder: You can log in to AetnaRetireeHealth.com/Cornell at any time to review your current benefit information, watch videos, read articles, and use tools to help you with your healthcare decisions. In addition, from this site, you can manage your bills and make payments, or you can choose to ‘go paperless’ and ask Aetna to email you when your bill is ready to view and pay online.
If you are unable to attend a presentation, Aetna’s dedicated Retiree Service Center is still here for you:
Contact the Aetna Retiree Service Center
1-800-338-4533 (TTY: 711)
8:00 am to 6:00 pm ET, Monday – Friday
Prescription Drug Plan Questions
(if you have the Retiree 80/20 Plan or the RPHP Pre-Medicare Plan), use the contact info below:
OptumRx: 1-866-533-6977, available 24/7
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Meet Your New Retiree Employee
Assembly Representatives
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Cornell HR has appointed Alan Mittman and Pamela (Stacey) Coil to the Staff Retiree Representative seat of the Employee Assembly (EA) for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years. It’s such a big job, it takes two retirees to fill one seat! They also serve on EA subcommittees and the HR Retiree Engagement Advisory Committee as a further way to share information with HR about critical issues impacting retirees.
Stacy began her career at Cornell in 1980 as an administrative assistant, and later became Administrative Manager in Neurology and Behavior. From 2016 through 2019 she served as Administrator in the Economics Department. During this time, she joined in many endeavors including the development of the original College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Web Financials (which eventually moved to DFA and the PeopleSoft Bursar system). Since leaving the University in 2019, she and her husband enjoy spending time in Florida and at home in Lansing. Stacy continues her affiliation with the University through temporary positions in the financial realm.
This is an encore appearance on EA for Alan (Arts ‘71) (Berkeley Law ‘74) who served four years as the Employee-Elected Trustee representative to the EA. You may remember him from his service in HR from 2002 - 2016, first with Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Life Quality and then Workforce Policy and Labor Relations. He now serves as a Professor of Law and Trustee at Cal Northern School of Law in Chico, California, where he and his author and stained-glass-artist wife, Stephanie, retired in January 2017 to be near their two children and three grandchildren. He is a volunteer legal advisor to the non-profit Chico Housing Action Team where “We never stop moving people from homelessness to housing.”
Stacey and Alan attended the Employee Assembly Retreat on August 30, where they met their EA colleagues and heard inspiring opening remarks from Mary Opperman, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Reginald White, Sr., Director, HR Research Division, Employee- Elected trustee and Chair, Men of Color Colleague Network Group, facilitated an energetic discussion about how the EA can be leaders in creating an environment in which all of us can thrive.
Stacey and Alan will generally alternate attendance at the twice-monthly EA meetings and will send you periodic updates on retiree-related EA activities, events, and initiatives. Feel free to contact them via email with any questions/concerns or to welcome them! Alan can be reached at almittman@gmail.com and Stacey at psc1@cornell.edu.
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Starting Sunday, October 24, 2021, it will be necessary to use the area code when making a local telephone call throughout New York State and thirty-five other states and territories. Members of the Cornell community and other New York State residents who live in the 607 and other affected areas should check their contacts and speed dials to make sure stored local numbers include the area code. (Many large cities in New York State, like New York City and Rochester, already require a ten-digit number when calling locally.)
This change is happening to accommodate a new nationwide three-digit telephone number, 988, created to contact the National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline. Because the affected states have local exchanges that use 988, the area code requirement is being implemented to ensure the phone system distinguishes between calls to a 988 local exchange and calls to the Lifeline. Dialing 988 on a cell phone has connected cell phone callers to the Lifeline since July, and will become effective for landline phones in July 2022.
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Free Flu Vaccines Available |
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On-campus flu vaccine clinics have begun!
Getting vaccinated each year is one of the BEST ways to protect yourself – and others – against seasonal influenza. Vaccine types – regular dose, high dose, and thimerosal-free flu shots available (learn more about flu vaccine types); no FluMist is not available.
Sign up for a timeslot to get your annual flu shot at one of Cornell’s flu vaccine clinics, scheduled at various campus locations through mid-November. Flu vaccination is FREE for Cornell staff, faculty, retirees, other community and family members (age 3+). Learn more on Cornell Health’s website.
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Local & Virtual Offerings |
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Selecting and Planting Spring Blooming Bulbs
Tuesday, September 28, 2021, 6:00-8:00 PM
Fall is the time to plant bulbs that flower in the spring. In this Zoom class, we will teach you how to plan for 3+ months of spring bulb bloom. The class will cover different bulb varieties, planting and growing tips (including planting in specialized conditions or with deer in mind), and a design exercise to help you plan a spectacular bulb display.
Instructor Mila Fournier is a garden designer and educator with two decades of design experience that started with guerilla gardening in Brooklyn and has moved her through designing some of the most sophisticated gardens in NYC. In Ithaca, Mila has worked as an educator, designer, and horticulture consultant, including managing Ithaca Children's Garden and helping large developers create beautiful landscapes and habitats to offset new construction
Classes are recorded so if you cannot make the live class, preregister now and receive the link to the video within 48 hours after the class ends. Class fee is $0-$40/person, self-determined sliding scale, pay what you can afford.
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Museum Book Club: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 4:00 PM
In conjunction with the Johnson Museum's fall exhibition Women Making Their Mark, the club will explore one of the many arts that women have historically used for self-expression in the United States -- quilting.
Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad is the fascinating tale told by quilter Ozella McDaniel Williams of Charleston, South Carolina, to author Jacqueline L. Tobin. Williams. The book describes the encoded messages woven within quilt patterns that helped fugitives navigate the Underground Railroad. Assisted by Raymond G. Dobard, an art historian and well-known Black quilter, himself, Tobin makes the story—part history and part adventure—come to life.
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Saving for 17
An original play by Owen Reynolds ’25
Saving for 17 is a 30-minute, semi-autobiographical, tragicomedy about one family’s experiences in Miami and the Florida Keys during Hurricane Irma in 2017.
The play explores the journey that a teenager endures surrounding his canceled birthday, learning how to love himself and to become comfortable being alone at a young age.
Show dates and times at Black Box Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts (430 College Ave, Ithaca, NY):
- Thursday, September 30 at 7:30 PM
- Friday, October 1 at 5:00 PM
- Saturday, October 2 at 2:00 & 7:30 PM
Free and open to the public. Seats are limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.
Compliance with the university's mask mandate will be required for all audience members.
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On José Montoya with Ella Maria Diaz
Thursday, October 7, 2021, 4:00 to 5:00 PM
Artist, poet and musician José Montoya (1932–2013) was a leading figure of the Chicano movement, producing iconic works in many genres, cofounding the art collective Royal Chicano Air Force, and helping to organize for the United Farm Workers, while also teaching at California State University, Sacramento.
In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk, Assoc. Prof. Ella Maria Diaz (Latina/o Studies and Literatures in English), will discuss her recently published book, José Montoya, on his life and work. Utilizing oral histories, archival, and digital humanities research, Diaz examines Montoya’s long and diverse career while proposing a new model for the study of Latina/o/x artists who transcend boundaries between art, education, and activism.
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Friends of Tompkins County Public Library Fall Book Sale
Saturdays-Mondays, Oct 9-11 and 16-18; Saturday-Tuesday, Oct 23-26, 10:00 AM-8:00 PM each day (unless noted below)
509 Esty St, Ithaca
Shop over 250,000 gently used books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles, games, and other items donated by community members -- organized into 70+ subject categories. The Collector's Corner offers rare books, works of art, and other unique items.
Prices drop daily on the second and third weekends, starting Saturday, October 16.
Special shopping days:
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Senior Day (people age 60+ and anyone with a disability): Wednesday, October 20, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
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Dime Day (everything on the main floor is just 10 cents each): Monday, October 25
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Bag Day (BYO standard size reusable bag and fill it for just $1 total): Tuesday, October 26
Free parking lot across the street from our warehouse, and on surrounding streets. Please bring your own reusable bags, boxes, or bins. More information is available on the Friends of the Library web page.
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Fall Seasonal Cooking Demo
Wednesday, October 13, 12:00-1:00 PM
Join Erin Harner, Cornell Wellness' RDN, in an engaging cooking demo that features local fall produce. Follow along as she cooks three healthy, wholesome recipes in her kitchen so you can cook them in yours. These yummy, savory dishes include Root Veggie Fritters, Rainbow Slaw, and Creamy Green Dipping Sauce (with dairy-free and vegan options).
Please register to receive the ingredients/supply lists and recipes.
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Cornell Cinema Now Open to Cornell Retirees
Although the Cornell Cinema is not yet open to the public, Cornellians can now enjoy movies in person on campus. Buy an All-Access Pass now. Since the cinema has no guarantee when they will be able to welcome back the outside community, your purchase will help support them and their mission.
The films continue to be of the same high-caliber you’ve come to expect from Cornell Cinema. Once you buy your Pass, you can reserve tickets for all of our regularly-priced film screenings. Please note: the All-Access Pass is currently available only digitally, and sales must be completed online; we cannot sell Passes at the Box Office.
Check out a pair of films, documentary hybrids, that were celebrated by film critic Richard Brody in a 2017 article in The New Yorker. The films are Georges Rouquier’s Farrebique, or the Four Seasons (1946), showing Monday, Oct 4 at 7:00 PM and Wednesday, Oct 6 at 8:45 PM, and the follow-up film, Biquefarre (1983), showing Thursday, Oct 7 at 7:00 PM. Both films are set on a family farm in the south of France.
Individual tickets will still be sold at the door but skip the line and reduce congestion by purchasing your ticket online.
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New Cancer Center Support Group
Virtually Together, the newest support group at the Cancer Resource Center meets by Zoom and is open to everyone of all genders – cancer patients, survivors, loved ones, and those affected by any type and stage of cancer.
The COVID pandemic taught us that virtual meetings have many advantages and are especially important for those unable to get to an in-person group for any number of reasons. Further, virtual groups often allow for deeper and more focused conversations. And while most of our groups will continue to be gender or disease-specific, we recognize that our commonalities are greater than our differences, so we wanted to begin a group open to all.
The group will meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 5:30 – 7 PM and will be led by retired CRC executive director, Bob Riter (who’s had both breast and prostate cancers).
The Cornell Cancer Support Group meets virtually the second Wednesday of each month from 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM. This group is for Cornellians who have been diagnosed with or have had cancer.
To register for either of the groups and to receive the Zoom link, please contact bobriter@gmail.com.
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Volunteer/Job Opportunities |
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Temporary Undergraduate Coordinator Opening
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering is seeking a temporary Undergraduate Coordinator (Student Services Assistant V) to back up an employee who is on leave until at least the end of the calendar year. We would expect the position to work at least 20 hours per week, and perhaps more if needed and if the successful applicant wishes. Some of the work may be performed remotely. We would prefer someone with experience in the UG Coordinator role, and experience with CCI and PeopleSoft.
Position responsibilities include:
- Oversee the maintenance and security of the permanent records of all students matriculated; maintain course and grade records.
- Advise faculty, staff, and students on undergraduate degree requirements, and verify student-submitted graduation checklist for accuracy.
- Counsel students that might involve difficult or sensitive situations that could involve working with Professional Counseling services (CAPS).
- Coordinate with tenured, tenure track, and visiting faculty members to schedule classes, make room assignments and update course rosters for graduate and undergraduate courses which change topic, faculty, time, and location every semester.
- Provide course support to faculty, this includes working with Canvas, Faculty Center, and submitting course proposals on the course proposal site; do course balancing which requires a look at each student record on people soft and notify all students that are dropped for lacking the class pre-requisites.
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Meet International Graduate Students from Around the World
Do you like working with international students and learning from others who may have different life experiences and backgrounds? Are you interested in learning about other cultures? Join the English Language Support Office’s Speaking Groups Program (SGP) this fall as a Discussion Facilitator! It’s a great way to connect with new people on campus and offer support to others.
Facilitators commit for 8-weeks of a semester to help lead and organize small weekly 1-hour discussions with international, multilingual graduate, and professional students. This program brings together international graduate students and fluent English speakers for language support and conversations about culture, academic interests, and campus life.
For Fall 2021, groups will begin meeting online, on campus, or a combination of both the week of September 27 and continue until November 21. To be a facilitator, you need to be a Cornell undergraduate student, staff member, graduate student, post-doc, alumni, retiree, or faculty; should be fluent in English; and have knowledge of US culture. Facilitators determine the weekly hour they will meet (anytime!) and then participants sign-up for groups.
For more information on the SGP, visit their web page. For any specific questions or concerns, contact Melissa Myers.
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Advocacy Hotline Volunteers Needed
Hotline Volunteers help staff our 24-Hour Hotline and provide crisis counseling, advocacy, support, and referrals to adult and youth victims of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse.
Volunteers are required to make a minimum one-year (two-semester) commitment that includes four hotline shifts per month. Forty-hour comprehensive training will begin in early 2022 and includes evenings and weekends.
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Miscellaneous Articles & Webinars |
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