Faculty Benefits & Housing

reviews and makes recommendations with regard to faculty benefits; discusses issues related to housing for faculty; monitors University policies and practices that affect faculty in University housing

Co-Chairs: David Stokes & Sewin Chan
Members: Adam Becker, Nick Economides, Magued Iskander, Wen Ling, Allen Mincer

N/C-FSC Representatives: Tommy Lee, Susan Stehlik, Ethan Youngerman

Report from the Committee Co-Chairs: January 2015

 

General Agenda Items for 2014-2015

Benefits:

  • Tuition remission for dependents
    Our plan is to gather data about the existing tuition remission program at NYU, including the benefits offered to NYU faculty and staff at the different schools, the use of these benefits by these various constituencies and the overall cost. We will also seek data to compare the NYU tuition remission benefits with similar plans at other academic institutions. Our goals will be to try to make these programs more attractive to NYU faculty and, specifically to investigate how portable tuition options might be enhanced.
  • Health care plans for 2016
    As in the last few years, we will review the existing health care plans offered by NYU in terms of coverage and cost, both to the institution and to employees. Based on this data and on forecasted changes to the health insurance landscape related to the ACA legislation, we will make recommendations for the health care plans for 2016. We laid the framework for these discussions last spring and summer through an intensive set of meetings with Andrew Gordon, Director of HR.

Faculty housing:

  • Analysis of budget and costs
    Our goal is to obtain a balance sheet for Faculty Housing and to understand the nature of individual expense and revenue categories. An understanding of the scope of the operation and associated budgetary constraints provides essential context for any recommendations by the committee for the prioritization of existing programs or initiation of new programs (such as the apartment improvement program launched this academic year).
  • Dissemination of data on housing operation: T-FSC meeting on 12th March 2015
    We plan to host a presentation from the administration discussing the housing operation, including financial information described above, at the March 12 meeting of the T-FSC.
  • Survey of faculty residents
    We seek to develop recommendations for two related issues: 1) the extreme difficulty in obtaining larger apartments for growing families and 2) unattractive housing options for retiring faculty. The first issue reflects the small number of available 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, which is exacerbated by continued occupancy by older faculty even after their children have grown up and moved out. The second issue reflects the current policy of requiring retiring faculty to move into a studio apartment. In order to develop recommendations for incentives and alternative policies, we have decided to launch a survey of current faculty tenants to understand what their current needs are and what alternative housing scenarios would be attractive. We hope to develop and implement this survey over the spring semester.
  • Increase faculty involvement in WSV tenants association
    The governance of the WSV tenants association is quite opaque and participation by NYU faculty is almost non-existent. We seek to understand the governance and to encourage the participation of NYU faculty in WSV in order to facilitate communication between these faculty and the NYU Housing operation team.
  • Provide feedback to the Superblock Stewardship Advisory Committee
    The Superblock Stewardship Advisory Committee is charged with monitoring quality-of-life for faculty living in WSV and Silver Towers and therefore has substantial overlap with our committee. We plan to share relevant information on the housing operation and work together towards common goals.

Meeting dates

Fall Term

  • Oct. 2 - with Alison Leary (Operations), Andrew Gordon (HR), Ann Kraus (Comp & Benefits)
    Review of goals for the year. Review of Health Plans
  • Oct 16 - presentation of Health Plans to full T-FSC
    Review of Health Plans
  • Oct. 30 - with Alison Leary (Operations), Erin Lynch (Housing)
    Review of Housing Operations data
  • Dec 4 - with Andrew Gordon (HR)
    Review of data on Tuition Remission

Spring Term (planned so far):

  • Jan 22 - continue review of Housing data in preparation for presentation to T-FSC
  • Feb 26 - Housing &/or Tuition Remission
  • March 12 - presentation of Housing Data to full T-FSC
  • March 26 - Health Plans