PROMISE at UMB invites all to a special Fall Kick-off & Social Hour.

Friday, September 4, 2015, 3 pm

University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB)

Bressler Building, Hostick Lecture Hall

Featuring Dr. Nirmal Joshi, MC Chief Medical Officer for Pinnacle Health System

Transportation

Driving:

Google Directions

(Additional information will be placed in the comment section of this post.)

By bus:

A shuttle leaves at 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM from UMBC  and arriving at UMB 1:50 PM and 2:50 PM

More about PROMISE at UMB:

http://www.graduate.umaryland.edu/Current-Students/PROMISE-Program/

https://umbconnect.umaryland.edu/organization/promise

F. Chris Curran, a new assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, recently wrote a letter to the editor about including teachers in overtime pay discussions that was published in Education Week. In the letter, Curran referenced President Obama’s announcement of plans for changes in overtime-pay regulations, noting that provisions of the proposal would prevent teachers from seeing benefits from the policy.

“While teachers hoping for an extra paycheck may be disappointed, the national conversation on what President Obama calls a ‘fair day’s pay’ should not be allowed to pass the schoolhouse by. It is an opportunity to recognize, and remediate, the fact that teachers in this country are underpaid relative to the requirements and importance of their jobs,” Curran wrote.

He added: “The call for increasing teacher pay is not new, but if policymakers are ready to acknowledge that a salary below $50,000 necessitates compensation for overtime hours, then we should also recognize that teachers are no exception. We know that who is in front of the class has important implications for student outcomes.”

Curran joined the School of Public Policy faculty this month, and he conducts research on education policy with an emphasis on improving educational outcomes for underserved and disadvantaged youth. His research interests include early childhood education, school discipline and safety, teacher labor markets, and politics of education. Read more on the School of Public Policy website. Curran also published an op-ed earlier this month in The Tennessean in which he outlined future opportunities for NashvilleNext, a strategic plan for Nashville’s growth that was recently adopted by the Metropolitan Planning Commission.

A new study by Christelle Viauroux, an associate professor of economics, found that requiring recreational boat operators to wear life jackets would increase the odds of surviving a boating accident by 80 percent. Viauroux conducted the study with Ali Gungor of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Standards Evaluation and Analysis Division and the findings were published in Risk Analysis.

The researchers used data from 2008 to 2011 from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Boating Accident Report Database (BARD) and compared life jacket use to other factors affecting fatalities in recreational boating.

A major goal of the research was to assess the impact of a mandatory life jacket policy on the recreational boating fatality rate. “However, such a major and controversial policy cannot be implemented without a thorough investigation of life jacket effectiveness. A lot of the work focusing on reducing recreational boating fatalities lacked the availability of life jacket use data,” the authors wrote in their published findings.

The research recently received news coverage in U.S. News Health. The story noted that from 2008 to 2011, making life jacket use mandatory would have likely led to a 20 percent increase in life jacket use by recreational boaters and “the researchers estimated the increased life jacket use would have saved more than 1,700 boaters and more than 1,200 drowning victims.” Read “Mandatory life jacket laws could reduce boating deaths” in U.S. News.

Read more about Christelle Viauroux’s research and a press release announcing the findings of the study.

Great news!  The 2015 State Benefits Wellness Program healthy activities deadline has been extended to December 31, 2015!  If you haven’t already done so, you and your covered spouse now have an additional 90 days to complete the activities for 2015: 

1.    Select a primary care physician (PCP)

2.    Complete the health risk assessment

3.    Review the results of the health risk assessment with your PCP

A post card will go to all medical plan participants announcing Open Enrollment: October 15, 2015 to November 16, 2015.  Additional information will be available during the Open Enrollment health fairs, and the medical plan carriers will send additional information as well.  Please note, this does not apply to Graduate Assistants on the Student Aetna plan.

PCP copays will be waived once the activities are completed and will continue through 12/31/15. 

The $50 surcharge for not completing the wellness activities will be delayed until the first pay period in April 2016.

Complete information regarding the State Wellness Program, including links to the medical carrier’s website to complete the activities, can be found at:

http://dbm.maryland.gov/benefits/Pages/WellnessHome.aspx

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Human Resources at 410-455-2337 or hrbenefits@umbc.edu

Thank you!