Now Your U Card is an Employee Transit Pass

For Twin Cities Campus Employees

All Twin Cities benefits-eligible faculty and staff will receive unlimited access to all transit systems in the Twin Cities metro area (rides on the NorthStar require a small supplemental fare for each ride beyond a certain point). 

Employees with 75-100% appointments will receive ETP at no additional cost. Employees with 50-74% appointments who are eligible for benefits, but no contributions from the University, will be able to opt in at their cost via a pretax payroll deduction later this fall. 

The ETP program provides low-cost, equitable, and accessible transportation for eligible employees and helps the University meet its sustainability goals in support of the Climate Action Plan. 

How to activate your Employee Transit Pass

1. If you have a 75-100% appointment, complete the ETP Request Form.  
2. After you receive the activation email, you will have 12 days to tap your U Card at a light rail or bus rapid transit station or at Coffman Memorial Union or St. Paul Student Center activation stations. That should generate a loud beep and flash a "GO" message on the machine screen.
3. If you don't see the "GO" message, tap the U Card twice at least one hour apart at any Metro Transit light rail or bus rapid transit station or at the activation stations. The station should display an "Invalid" message. The second tap should generate a loud beep and flash a "GO" message on the machine screen. 

After activating, the U Card will work on any bus or light rail train.

Per the IRS, the annual deferral limit for 2023 is $22,500, and the 2024 limit is rising to $23,000. This limit applies separately to contributions to the 457 Deferred Compensation Plan and 403(b) Optional Retirement Plan. This limit does not apply to any contributions to MSRS pension plan or the Faculty Retirement Plan. 

If you participate in separate 401(k) or 403(b) plans, any contributions to those plans are combined with contributions to the University’s Optional Retirement Plan when determining your yearly contribution limits. You can only contribute the annual limit in total across all of your 401(k) and 403(b) plans.

Likewise, any contributions to another employer’s 457(b) plan will be combined with contributions to the University’s 457 plan to determine the contribution limit. You can only contribute the annual limit in total across all of your 457(b) plans.

Catch-up contributions (ages 50+)

If you are age 50 or over by the end of the calendar year, you can make additional “catch-up” contributions of $7,500 for a total of $30,500 in 2023. This limit is staying the same ($7,500 for a total of $30,500) in 2024. 

For example, if you are 50 or over in 2024, you can contribute a total of $30,500 across any 401(k) and 403(b) plans. You can also contribute a total of $30,500 across any 457(b) plans, for a total of $61,000 across all 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans. 

Where should I go if I have questions?

Please contact Fidelity at 800-343-0860 with any questions. You can also set up a free one-on-one meeting with a Fidelity financial planner to discuss your situation in depth.

The Wellbeats digital platform offers on-demand video fitness, mindfulness, and nutrition classes. Part- and full-time University employees can access Wellbeats for free! Watch this 90-second video to learn more: 

How to Join Wellbeats

1. Sign up for the Wellbeing Program platform.
2. Log in to the platform via browser window. Note: To access Wellbeats for the first time, you’ll need to use Virgin Pulse through the web portal, not the app. You can do this by logging on with your computer or using the browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.) on your phone. 
3. Click Programs at the top center of the page. 
4. Search for Wellbeats.
5. Click Start Now to be logged in through your Virgin Pulse account.

Ideas to Get Started

Once you’ve signed up, you can browse classes, save favorites, view your watch history, and more. Classes for all abilities, genders, and ages (including kids!) are available. Ideas to get you started: 

• Try a barre, dance, or strength-training workout
• Learn how to sharpen your knife skills to reduce food prep time
• Find exercises to reduce common aches and pains that can come from working at a computer
• Get injury prevention exercise routines for your back, shoulders, knees, and more
• Take a meditation break
• Edit your profile to get personalized class recommendations

If you have any difficulty accessing Wellbeats, please reach out to our U of M-specific Virgin Pulse customer service line: 1-833-996-1870 (Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–8 p.m. CT; accepts TTY services) or email Virgin Pulse at support@virginpulse.com. 

Wellbeing Points

Watching 20 minutes of Wellbeats videos in a day earns 70 Wellbeing Points. So if you do a 20-minute workout one day and watch a mindfulness video and a cooking video that total 20 minutes the next day, you’ll earn 140 points (70 each day). 

University vendor LSS offers several resources to help employees prepare:

• Preparation resources. Read the “Get ready for student loan repayments resuming” post on LSS’s blog.
• Repayment plan guidance. Read the “Is the new SAVE Plan for student loan repayment right for you?” post on LSS’s blog. 
• Financial counseling sessions. Did you know that you can access six free sessions of financial counseling with LSS? Counselors are available to help you budget for making student loan payments, pay off other debt, plan to buy a house, and more. Learn more.

It's important to note that some Regents Scholarship benefits are taxed, but some employees can apply for working condition fringe benefit to have the tuition benefit excluded from their taxable income. Read this message from the Tax Management Office for more information.

Undergraduate-level tuition benefits provided to employees can be excluded from taxable income. By default, graduate-level tuition benefits are included in taxable income if their value within a calendar year is over $5,250. Employees may find that their paycheck decreases because of the extra withholding to cover that income.

The good news is that if a graduate course is job-related and meets certain IRS criteria, the tuition benefit can be excluded from income as a working condition fringe benefit. The even better news is that the Tax Management Office has a process to determine whether an employee can use that exclusion—and it has been updated!

Our new exclusion form and instructions are available on our home page or in the Regents Scholarship section of our Tax Topics page. If you have used this process before, the form will look familiar. Some key requirements remain:

• A separate application for each course
• A clear description of how the course content relates to the employee’s current job
• IRS criteria questions

What’s new:

• Certification from HR lead is no longer needed 
• The application can be submitted by the employee after supervisor approval
• Instructions include more frequently asked questions and examples

We hope that these changes will make the application more user-friendly.

Applications should be submitted ahead of the billing due date for the term. Submit applications and any questions to taxhelp@umn.edu.

As part of the University of Minnesota’s commitment to help you meet your retirement savings goals, Fidelity has added a Roth In-Plan Conversion feature to the University of Minnesota Optional Retirement Plan (ORP), a 403(b) plan. This will become effective on September 1, 2023. 

What Is a Roth In-Plan Conversion? 

An opportunity to convert non-Roth assets such as those currently in your plan or rolled over from a former employer's plan into a designated Roth portion of the ORP, which allows you to withdraw tax-free dollars from your account when you are eligible.

How Do I Use an In-Plan Conversion?

Call Fidelity directly at 800-343-0860. Fidelity associates are available Monday through Friday between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. CT. 

Learn More

To learn more about Roth contributions and how a Roth In-Plan Conversion may affect your savings, you can sign up for a free consultation with a Fidelity consultant here.   

The decision to add Roth within your plan depends on several factors that you should weigh carefully. We encourage you to consult your tax advisor before making a decision if this type of account is right for you. 

Boynton Health is offering mental health training as a free professional development opportunity for University of Minnesota faculty and staff. Participants will learn up-to-date information about UMN students on their campus and essential skills for supporting the needs of today’s students. The program is made up of eight, 20-minute-long modules available through the Training Hub. Morris and Twin Cities modules are currently live with Crookston, Duluth, and Rochester available in the fall of 2023. Modules content includes:

• Student mental health at UMN-TC – prerequisite module
• Making effective referrals
• Listening effectively to student mental health concerns
• Responding appropriately to student mental health concerns
• Situations of student suicidality
• The impact of identity and oppression on student mental health
• Beyond the individual: Promoting mental health for groups of students
• Taking action to promote student mental health: Applied project

The fully-asynchronous series of training allows participants to access the content proactively as their schedule allows. Supported by the President's Initiative for Student Mental Health (PRISMH), faculty and staff can self-enroll at any time through the Training Hub.

Forbes recently named the University of Minnesota a Best Employer for Women 2023. To identify the top-rated 400 companies, Forbes conducted an independent survey of 60,000 employees in the U.S. working for U.S. companies with at least 1,000 employees. 

This award recognizes the University’s demonstrated and longstanding commitment to supporting women employees. For example: 

• Founded in 1960, the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Center serves employees and students and was the first campus-based women’s center in the U.S.
• Employee affinity groups include University Indigenous Women & Women of Color, Morris’s Commission on Women and Gender Equity, and Duluth’s Commission for Women. Additionally, the Women in Technology group seeks to advance women’s careers in technology.
• The Women’s Faculty Cabinet recommends guidelines and policies to the Provost, Faculty Senate, Deans, and Departments on issues affecting women, gender equity, and campus life.
• Boynton Health, which serves employees and students at our Twin Cities campus, is named after Dr. Ruth Boynton, former director of University health services. She was the first, and for many years, only woman in the country directing a co-educational health service.

Additionally, the U of M offers comprehensive benefits, including low-cost medical insurance, parental leave, and robust primary and secondary retirement plan options. 

Thank you to our women employees for everything you do to ensure the long-term success of the University!
 

Due to recent Minnesota state legislation, a $34 million appropriation to the Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS) pension plan will reduce employee contributions from 6% to 5.5% for two years (July 1, 2023–June 30, 2025). Employer contributions will remain at 6.25%. 

The first paycheck affected by this change will be July 26, 2023. 

Additionally, the vesting period will change from five years to three years for any Civil Service or Labor-represented employees who are active as of July 1, 2023, or hired after this date.

Learn more on the MSRS website (under “General Plan/Unclassified Plan”) and contact MSRS directly with any questions.