TheWord

December 2020

FYI: Highlights from the Executive Council and other news of note

FA awards & recognition celebration will be on 1/28 at 6 pm

January 28—Save the date! The FA's first annual awards and recognition celebration will be held on Thursday, January 28, from 6 to 8 pm. We will honor this year's retirees as well as announce and applaud the very first recipients of the FA's four new awards. Don't miss this!

Save the date for our big January 28 awards and recognition celebration: This year the EC approved hosting a member awards and recognition celebration in January in lieu of the annual December holiday party.

Thus we ask that you mark the big day on your calendars: Thursday, January 28, from 6 to 8 pm.

This year our event will have to be virtual, but not even a pandemic will stop us from honoring this year's retirees and celebrating the recipients of the FA's four brand new awards. You are not going to want to miss this event! It'll be a wonderful way to ring in a bright new year.
Virtual Making Strides was a success: Under the continued able leadership of Joan Cook, our annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign had to be conducted virtually this year. That didn't impact our members' generosity, though! Joan reports that we have once again surpassed our annual $1,000 fundraising goal and there's still time to donate to this worthy cause before year's end.
FA brings Thanksgiving donations to three campus food pantries: With so few students on campus, the FA knew that we couldn't make our usual $400 worth of grocery donations to each of the three campus food pantries. So this year we did the next best thing: We purchased and delivered supermarket gift cards that students can use to keep themselves nourished and healthy.


FA President Dante Morelli delivers gift cards to each of the three campus food pantries. At left, he is seen with Tom Law; center, with Denny Teason and a student worker; and at right with Mary Ann DeCostanzo.

Distance ed updates and information: Here are a few items of interest from the world of distance education. Also, don't miss reading the online teaching column by Murph Kinney (History, Grant Campus), "Teaching online: Getting better gradually."

Blackboard date management tool—Did you know that you can automate the changing of your content and assignment due dates for spring 2021? You can adjust them automatically or individually (by certain numbers of days). Watch this instructional video and save a little time prepping for the spring term!

SUNY expands definition of online courses—You should know that SUNY now considers fully asynchronous, real-time online and combined online courses as online modalities. So if your department is talking about developing online curricula, the courses could be any of the above or blended/hybrid.

New federal regulations for regular, substantive interaction in online classes—Be aware that the U.S. Department of Education released new regulations on how to measure faculty-student interaction in distance education courses this semester. New guidance on how this impacts us continues to come out, and we will provide more information for our members in the coming months.

Professors on Wheels seeks volunteers and ideas: Do you have a talk or presentation you'd like to share with the community? Consider being part of the upcoming FA YouTube channel. Have family or a friend at a nursing home or assisted living facility who would appreciate an enrichment box? Please suggest a location for the next set of enrichment boxes. Email Christina Bosco to volunteer to create a Professors on Wheels video or to participate in the enrichment box project.
Faculty Association and Benefit Fund closings: During the holiday season, both the FA office and FA Benefit Fund office will be closed on December 24-27 and December 31 as well as January 1. In addition the FA office will be closed December 21-23.

Wintersession 2020 checks: According to payroll, faculty who teach during the wintersession will receive one check on January 28.

Finding your total annual dues for your taxes: There's a new way to find your total amount of dues paid from January to December 2020 for tax filing purposes: In MySCCC, click the Employees tab, then click into the Employee Dashboard. There you'll find a Deductions History link with the information you need.

Prescription drug claim forms: Prescription drug claims for 2020 must be received by Daniel H. Cook by April 30, 2021. The form is available at the Benefit Fund office, Southampton 224D (Ammerman).

EMHP claim forms: Faculty must submit all unpaid 2020 medical claims to Empire Blue Cross by March 31, 2021, to receive reimbursement for covered out-of-pocket expenses. Forms are on the EMHP website: www.emhp.org/members.aspx.

January 28—Save the date! The FA's first annual awards and recognition celebration will be held on Thursday, January 28, from 6 to 8 pm. We will honor this year's retirees as well as announce and applaud the very first recipients of the FA's four new awards. Don't miss this!

FA President Dante Morelli delivers gift cards to each of the three campus food pantries. At left, he is seen with Tom Law; center, with Denny Teason and a student worker; and at right with Mary Ann DeCostanzo.