Wendy Jones's Archive

As a participant in the Abilene Christian University 403(b) Retirement Plan, we want to make you aware of the options available to you as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. ACU has chosen to adopt the following CARES Act provisions for our retirement plan:

• Penalties and withholding are waived for qualified distributions from retirement plan accounts
• Optional suspension of required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2020

In addition to these CARES Act relief measures, the deadline for 2019 Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contributions has been extended from April 15 to July 15, 2020. Read important details here.

With the worldwide concern over the Coronavirus, we are all understandably anxious about our health, job and family security. These are difficult times and want to provide you with resources to help ease your employees’ minds. Cigna created an on-demand webinar, Managing Anxiety: Coronavirus Fears & Concerns that offers helpful guidance on practical steps we all can take to protect our emotional health.

Student employees who are currently working should be logging their hours as normal. Those who were not able to work during March 16 – April 9 should log their normal work schedule on the “Campus Closure” line on their timesheet. Beginning April 10, only students who are completing work should be logging those hours on their timesheets. It is critical that student timesheets are actually verified and approved by the supervisor. 

Several of your colleagues are putting together ACU’s first virtual choir. We hope you’ll choose to be part of this amazing project as we sing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” in unison around the world. Information on how to participate can be found here. Production team members are Dr. Jonathan Camp, Dr. Nick Tatum, Dr. Jeff Goolsby, Samuel Cook, Courtney McGaha, Omar Ortiz and Dr. Kyle Dickson.

ACU will host its first virtual Chapel at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 25th. You can watch it at acu.edu/livechapel. Chapel will be held this way each Wednesday until the end of the semester. It’s just one way we’ve chosen to stay connected during this time that so many of us are apart. This week’s speaker will be Randy Harris. All students, parents and alumni have also been invited to join us.

Alliance for Women and Children will be opening childcare centers for employers in essential industries at AISD campuses beginning March 30th. Applications for both paid and volunteer positions will be posted to their website on Monday.

The state has asked Abilene to ramp up its 2-1-1 Call Center to meet the demands of increased calls related to Covid19. This is a great volunteer opportunity for people who have experience in dealing with the public via phone calls. The location is the 2nd floor of the United Way building at 240 Cypress. Shifts are 7-11, 11-3, and 3-7. Each shift begins with training and regular 211 staff are floaters to assist volunteers. For more information or to sign up email Mary Cooksey at mary@unitedwayabilene.org

Please take a minute to look at your pay stub in myACU Banner so that you are aware of your earnings and deductions. Your elections from open enrollment for your 2020 benefit deductions will be seen for the first time on the Jan 10th paycheck. It’s important that you verify your deductions were set up as you expected. Failure to notify HR of a discrepancy in a timely manner could result in our inability to process a change.

Effective January 2020, ACU is making the transition from running monthly and semi-monthly payrolls to running a bi-weekly payroll for all employees. Details regarding the transition and FAQ’s can be found here. Additional information and FAQ’s will be added to this document as needed. Please email your questions to humanresources@acu.edu. Please share this information with your student employees and anyone in your household who needs to be aware of the payroll transition.

Staff are allowed to roll over up to 80 hours of vacation each calendar year. Beginning in 2020 the rollover date will move to January 4th. (Previously it was January 15 for nonexempt and January 19 for exempt). If you have more than 80 hours of vacation, you should plan to use the overage prior to January 4th so that you do not lose that time. Due to the short notice of this change, if this presents a problem for you, please email humanresources@acu.edu and we will be glad to manually adjust your leave.