Category: News Flash

Our previous customer experience survey helped MSU Human Resources understand what areas it needed to improve in order to better serve faculty and staff.

We need your input once more in our new customer experience survey, which will be sent out Monday, September 14 to your MSU NetID email address. The survey features questions such as which area of HR is contacted the most, how employees contact HR for questions, how fast our response time was and how easy it was to have questions answered. It should take about 15-20 minutes to complete.

Since the completion of the survey in 2013, HR has opened the Solutions Center as a central point of contact for all faculty and staff questions. Your honest feedback is vital in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our reorganization.

You can read the results of the 2013 customer experience survey here.

Thank you for helping MSU Human Resources in our pursuit of excellence.

Children deserve high-quality education, and that requires basic educational resources such as pencils and notebooks. Unfortunately, families and schools cannot always afford these essential tools.

You can help students in Greater Lansing by participating in the 7th annual MSU Fill the Bus event, which runs from August 30 to September 4.

If your department has already registered as a team, donation bins should be set up where you work. Other donation sites are already placed in all of the residential neighborhoods and at the Union.

The following items are needed the most: crayons, pens, pencils, dry-erase markers and erasers, notebooks, loose-leaf paper, pencil sharpeners, glue sticks, folders, rulers, protractors, compasses, tissues, hand sanitizer, backpacks and colored construction paper.

Show your Spartan spirit by making a positive difference in your community!

End the summer right with a day off work and in the sunshine. Labor Day falls on Monday, September 7 this year. Regular working hours resume the next day.

At MSU, classes always begin the Wednesday before Labor Day, so prepare for the return of thousands of students as well.

If you haven’t already, make fun plans for the long weekend to celebrate all the hard work you do!

Enjoy the day off!

MSU offers award-winning meal options all across campus, perfect for lunch meetings, family dinners and on-the-go food grabs. Load up on meals now with the Faculty and Staff DineOn 10+ plan. This plan allows employees to purchase a minimum of 10 meals at a time for the price of $5.99 plus tax per meal. Effective August 22, 2015, the price will increase to $6.25 plus tax.

Buying a dining plan saves you over $3 per meal compared to public or walk-up pricing. Each meal grants access to one of MSU’s 10 residential dining halls. Remember, you can always look up the menu for each dining hall beforehand. It can also be used as a Combo-X-Change at one of Sparty’s 21 locations, the Union Food Court, UP Pizzeria at Crossroads, Riverwalk Market , the Eat at State ON-THE-GO food truck or as take-out from the dining halls. The meals do not expire as long as one is used between July 1 and June 30 each year. Find purchasing information here.

Fall hours of operation for all units begin Sunday, August 30. View the current summer hours here.

If you have any questions or concerns, please visit the Eat at State website or contact info@eatatstate.com.

At the end of August, more than 7,800 Spartans will be entering the campus to begin a new chapter of their lives.

That first day at MSU is exciting and memorable, and you can be a part of this important Spartan experience by volunteering to help move in new students! The MSU Alumni Association is organizing volunteers to assist with the move-in, with flexible 3.5-hour shifts between 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 29 through Monday, August 31. Sunday is the busiest day and has the most need for volunteers.

You can bring your children to help out as well, but they must be over 13 years old. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt that identifies them as volunteers, as wells as a free meal in one of MSU’s award-winning dining halls at the end of their shift. Parking and contact information will be sent to volunteers before August.

Register here by August 15 to sign up for volunteering!

If you have further questions, please contact the MSU Alumni Association at (877) MSU-ALUM or (517) 884-1000.

If you are a student employee, you’re in luck.

Effective August 9, 2015, current student hourly employees will receive a 4 percent pay raise. The raise was approved by the Board of Trustees, and will be processed in the HR/Payroll system starting July 27 through August 7.

Students who have an active record as of August 9 will receive a 4 percent increase to their current hourly wage. Please note, Retroactive pay increases that are effective earlier than August 9, and are received after the raise has been applied, will cause a recalculation of the 4 percent raise.

This is the first raise since minimum wage increased to $8.15 in September 2014. Student supervisors can view the Student Employment Manual for more information about working with student employees.

Please contact MSU Payroll at 517-355-5010 or payroll@ctlr.msu.edu if you have any questions.

Paper checks are expensive, less secure and less environmentally friendly than electronic payment systems, which have the additional benefit of immediate delivery. For these reasons and more MSU has been working on a university-wide payroll debit card program for employees that still receive paper checks. There will be no change for those already signed up for direct deposit.

Beginning August 1, 2015, employees that receive paper checks will choose between receiving payment through PayCard or direct deposit. Either of these payment options can be requested through Employee Self Service in EBS. After a request for the PayCard, MSUFCU will contact the employee for further information, instructions and the out-of-office delivery of the PayCard. These employees will continue to receive paper checks until a PayCard account has been set up and processed through Payroll, which can take 2-3 weeks.

After August 1, new employees will not have the option of paper checks.

The PayCard program works similarly to direct deposit, except money is deposited onto a single card instead of in a bank. This card is a VISA debit card – it can be used as payment at stores and can withdraw money from ATMs. There is no fee for starting the PayCard account or withdrawing from an MSUFCU or other CO-OP ATM.

MSU Payroll will communicate with all employees currently receiving paper checks and will support them in their transition to either direct deposit or the PayCard.  This process will occur over the course of a few months in order to best serve transitioning employees.

The most recommended form of payment is direct deposit, which is the most secure.

More specific information related to the PayCard is available from the MSU Payroll Office website. Questions or concerns can be directed to the MSU Payroll Office at 517-355-5010 or via email at payroll@msu.edu.