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Friday, December 1, 2000

  • Memo's advice on flexible pensions
  • UW signs pact with Russian school
  • Computing courses this month
  • The last weekend of the term

Memo's advice on flexible pensions

A booklet and web site explaining the "flexible" feature of UW's pension plan have been updated, and a memo to staff and faculty members last week warned that December 15 is the deadline for contributions to the "flexible" plan for the year 2000.

The "flex feature" was added to the pension plan in 1998, said the memo from David Dietrich, director of pension and benefits in the human resources department. He explained: "The Flex feature allows you to make additional voluntary tax-deductible contributions without affecting your RRSP room. Each year you decide whether or not you wish to contribute. If you do, your contributions go into a personal Flex Account and earn tax-sheltered interest at the same rate as the UW Pension Fund. You use the balance in your Flex Account to improve your UW pension by purchasing Flex Options at the time you retire."

In most cases, said Dietrich, "the maximum amount you can contribute to your Flex Account in a calendar year is 9% of T4 earnings minus the amount you are required to contribute to the UW Pension Plan. Pension Plan contributions remained at reduced levels in 2000, and as they return to normal over the next few years, Flex contribution limits will decrease. Unused Flex contribution room cannot be carried forward to future years."

The letter explains that there are "three principal Flex Options that you can purchase, singly or in combination, at the time you retire:

  1. Improved early retirement pension. You can eliminate some or all of the reduction in your UW pension due to early retirement.
  2. Bridge benefit. This replaces CPP and Old Age Security payments from your early retirement until you are 65.
  3. A larger joint and survivor pension if you have a spouse, or a longer guarantee period if you are single.
"If you plan to work at UW to age 65, only the third option will be available to you, and you will need to be especially careful not to accumulate too large a Flex Account." That's especially true, it adds, since changes that were made last spring, allowing people to retire at age 62 with a full pension -- reducing the need for "improved" early retirement pensions.

"The money in your Flex Account," the letter warns, "must be used to purchase Flex Options and cannot be withdrawn for other needs or emergencies. Revenue Canada limits the total amount that can be paid to you from the Pension Plan, including your Flex Account. If your Flex Account contains more than you can spend on permissible Flex Options when you retire, the excess is forfeited and must remain in the Pension Fund.

It is important for you to plan ahead and monitor your Flex Account balance carefully. . . . Because of the Use It or Lose It Rule and the inability to withdraw funds except as retirement income, most Plan members will want to make full use of their RRSP room before contributing to a Flex Account."

UW signs pact with Russian school

A memorandum of understanding will be inked today between UW and the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics to foster "cooperation in education and research."

According to the office of research, three departments at UW -- Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures, economics, and statistics and actuarial science -- will participate initially in the exchange, with the door open to the future involvement of others.

Founded in 1907 and located in Moscow, the academy is recognized as "one of the leading business and technical post-secondary institutions in Russia," says Germanic and Slavic professor Zina Gimpelevich, who has been named UW coordinator of the exchange program. Her counterpart at Plekhanov is Tamara Danko, vice-rector (education).

Among the areas of cooperation anticipated between the two schools:

"It is anticipated that World Bank funding provided to the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics will facilitate these joint initiatives," says a clause in the agreement, which is being initiated for a three-year period.

A delegation from Plekhanov has been at UW for the past several days meeting with faculty members and others who are interested in the relationship. Plekhanov currently holds affiliations with 70 partner institutions in 42 countries, and has offered full degree programs in English since 1992.

Computing courses this month

The Information Systems and Technology department (IST) is offering the following courses in December as part of the Skills for the Academic e-Workplace (SAW) program. These courses are available to faculty, grad students, and staff with instructional responsibilities: The library is also offering the following two courses to graduate students and faculty: More information about the courses, and a registration form, are available on the web. New courses will be taught every month, and advertised at the same web location.

Corrections

Well, I managed to make a few mistakes in yesterday's Bulletin:

  • The energy conservation seminar by Daniel Scott was being given yesterday at noontime, not today. (Some Bulletin viewers did see an emergency correction on that one.)

  • The women's basketball team was not, as I claimed, playing last night; it had played Wednesday, beating Windsor 68-54. The one varsity game last night was in hockey, and the Warriors clobbered Guelph 9-2.

  • The chamber choir concert is not Saturday night, it's Sunday afternoon -- details are below.

    I do apologize for what was obviously a very bad day.

    • The last weekend of the term

    The earth sciences department presents this year's Farvolden Lecture at 2 p.m. today in the Humanities Theatre. The speaker is William Woessner of the University of Montana; his topic, "conceptualizing groundwater exchange at the floodplain and channel scale". The annual lecture honours Bob Farvolden, long-time groundwater researcher at UW and dean of science 1977-1982, who died in 1995.

    Jillian Scott McIntosh of the University of Western Ontario will speak in the philosophy department today (3:30, Humanities room 334). Her topic: "Function, Malfunction, and Intentional Explanation".

    "A Service of Carols and Lessons for Christmas" will be offered at 4:00 this afternoon in the Renison College chapel, led by the college choir.

    "Reading the Bible: Hope and Jubilee" is the title of a lecture tonight at St. Jerome's University. The speaker is Lee Cormie of the University of Toronto, who "will look at biblical texts (especially Leviticus 25 and Luke 4) for insight into what the Bible teaches about hope."

    Engineers will celebrate tonight -- a little early, but what the heck, it's Friday -- with an end-of-term pub in POETS in Carl Pollock Hall. (Another engineering social note: I learned yesterday, a little late to spread the word, that the TalEng talent show was held Monday.)

    The music continues on Saturday afternoon with a free concert at Conrad Grebel College, directed by Elaine Sweeney. A number of chamber groups will be performing music by Mozart, Dvorák, Telemann, Schubert, Giuseppe Tartini and others, on violin, piano, clarinet, trumpet and other instruments. The concert begins at 2:30 p.m. in the Grebel chapel.

    Sunday afternoon, there's more music, this time at St. John the Evangelist Church on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener. The UW Chamber Choir presents "Tidings of Comfort and Joy", including some excerpts from Händel's "Messiah" as well as works by Arthur Sullivan, Johann Pachelbel and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Richard Cunningham conducts. Tickets for the concert are $8, students $5. And despite some publicity that mentioned an evening starting time, this one really is an afternoon event; it starts at 3 p.m.

    Meanwhile, the staff association's annual Winterfest pre-Christmas party will be taking place at the Columbia Icefield, as those who bought tickets are aware.

    Sunday evening, there's a service of "Candles, Carols and Lessons" at 9 p.m. in Wesley Chapel, St. Paul's United College. All are welcome.

    Sports this weekend: not a whole lot. The men's basketball team is at Daemen College in Amherst, New York, for a tournament tonight and tomorrow; the hockey team plays at Wilfrid Laurier (in other words, at the Waterloo Recreation Complex) Saturday at 2 p.m.; the women's basketball team plays Saturday night at Western.

    CAR

    Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
    Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
    credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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