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May 29, 2003

Faculty Senate


The Faculty Council on Retirement, Insurance & Benefits (FCRIB) is responsible for “all matters of policy relating to faculty retirement, insurance and benefits” (UW Handbook, Vol II, and Sec 42-44). In fact, this faculty council operates as a true University partnership with active participation from central administration via the Provost’s office, Human Resources/Benefits Office and the UW Retirement Center, professional staff, librarians, ASUW and emeritus faculty/staff through the UW Retirement Association (UWRA).

Current faculty representation is broad and includes at present classics, law, family & child nursing, medicine, economics, health services, dentistry, botany, social work and English.

Much of the council’s present work flows from the recommendations of the UW Retirement Plan Task Force appointed by former President William Gerberding in 1994. A primary focus of the council’s work is to ensure the maintenance and improvement of a high-quality benefits package for faculty, librarians and professional staff as they work to implement the University’s threefold mission of research, teaching and service.

Recent activities have included: (1) Development of a proposal for a UW Fund Review Committee to review the performance of fund sponsors and funding vehicles available through the UW Retirement Plan (UWRP) and Voluntary Investment Program (VIP). The Funds Review Committee received approval of the Board of Regents in November and will soon be appointed by the executive vice president with a wide University representation; (2) Working in close collaboration with the vice provost, a subcommittee of FCRIB recently assisted in redrafting the University’s Faculty Retirement and Partial Re-employment Policy, which provides a vehicle for simultaneously retaining a core of seasoned and committed senior faculty for classroom teaching, while providing for the introduction of new faculty who constitute the University’s future strength and excellence; (3) Work in progress includes an effort to benchmark UW’s current benefits package against that of peer institutions and development of a common report format to facilitate the comparison of various benefit options.

A long-term objective for the council is the creation of a seamless path between new and old, active and retired employees where personal wisdom and experience around key life choices concerning retirement, health and other benefit-related issues can inform personal decision-making.

Nowhere is the need for this shared knowledge more pertinent than in issues surrounding self and dependent care-giving in general and long-term care insurance in particular. The title of a lead article from Consumer Reports in the late 1990s captures what is for many the key question: “How Will You Pay for Your Old Age?” A cascade of follow-up questions flow from this central query:


  • Who will need “long-term care”?

  • Where will it be received: In a nursing home? Own home? Other facility?

  • How much will it cost and who will pay?

  • For whom does long-term care insurance make sense?

  • By what criteria can one judge a good policy?

These and related questions illustrate that the issues surrounding long-term care insurance involve a complex and multi-variate decision process. For many of us, our life portfolios reflect earlier concerns and are in need of updating to better reflect future needs.

Like a young couple who trade the sports car for a minivan when their first child is born, families with grown children need to re-evaluate their life insurance requirements to see if they’ve outgrown their coverage.

You may be better off using the cash to buy protection against the potentially devastating costs of long-term care.

Fortunately, for those of us at the UW, two new resources are available to aid employees in navigating the confusing terrain of long-term care:


Benefits staffer Marita Berg, who coordinates the UW-King County SHIBA (Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors) program, has an extensive background working with long-term care issues at Group Health and has taken leadership with the project.

Berg can link UW faculty and staff with trained SHIBA volunteers, some of whom specialize in counseling on long-term care insurance. The King County SHIBA Helpline number is 206-616-2435.

The new Web site is a good place to start gathering information about long-term care issues generally and also has ready links available to the full range of benefits available to UW employees.


  • The UW Retirement Association (UWRA) is sponsoring an extremely timely workshop on long-term care insurance (“Wondering About Long Term Care Insurance?”) on Thursday, June 5 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The workshop features two local consultants who bring a wealth of expertise on long-term care issues and is open to all interested members of the UW community. The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required, as space is limited. Please send e-mail to retiremt@u.washington.edu  by June 2 to register. The Seattle campus location will be given via e-mail confirmation. For questions about the workshop call the UWRA at 206-543-8600.

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles written by representatives of Faculty Senate councils and committees. James Whittaker is chair of the Faculty Council on Retirement, Insurance and Benefits.