Practical Matters: The FA's Prescription Copay Benefit

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Welcome back, new faculty, to a new semester! I hope you're all having a relatively smooth introduction to the new year, too, and that your holidays were merry and peaceful.

This is the time of year when many of us try to restore order to our lives after the chaos of the holidays. We do this also because it's the beginning of tax season -- W2s are coming in, 1098s, all of those various forms and pieces of paper that we need in order to figure out how much we've paid to the government over the past year and whether or not we still owe money or whether we'll be receiving money instead.

It's always more enjoyable to be the latter, of course, and to have more cash in hand. To that end, I want to make you aware of a way to recoup some of last year's expenses via a benefit the Faculty Association provides. And since this is the season of paper-and-form gathering, it makes sense to do this alongside or maybe even before you get to doing those taxes. 

The Prescription Copay Benefit allows you to receive up to $500 back for prescription copays you shelled out for medications prescribed during the previous year (to you, and to eligible dependents). That's money worth doing some extra work for -- and really, the work is not intense.

You'll find this at fascc.org under Benefit Fund forms.

First, go to your local pharmacy and ask for printouts of all of the prescriptions you and your eligible dependents received over the past year (usually for the emergency drugs, like penicillin). Also go to the Welldyne Rx web site for any maintenance drugs you may be receiving and print out a list of your prescriptions and copays there, too.

Then add everything up. Write the amount you spent on copays on the claim form (which can be found here on the FA's web site), make sure the rest of the necessary information is filled out, and then mail your form and documentation to the address at the top of the form, which I'll repost here just so it's clear -- the Fund Office is a different location than the FA Office:

Faculty Association Suffolk Community College Benefit Fund

253 West 35th

Street – 12th Floor

New York, NY 10001-1907

Like your taxes, this form is due in April. The good news is that the deadline for your claim is April 30, well after the tax deadline. So you have some time -- but I always think it's better to get that stuff out of the way before the semester gets into full swing, don't you? One less item on your to-do list to worry about.

Practical Matters: How to Access Your Office Computer Files Remotely

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program

Happy Labor Day! I hope you enjoyed your day off, because we don't have any more holidays until October -- and then the Academic Calendar gets a little screwy. But I'll talk about that in another post!

For now, I wanted to share with you one of THE most important and useful tips someone once shared with me -- the fact that we have access to computer files that we create on our office computers. And we don't have to resort to a flash or portable hard drive to do it. 

I know it's been hot, but savor these last summer days.

This means that if you forgot to upload that PowerPoint lecture to Blackboard, and now you're standing in front of your students wondering if they will take the same kind of notes without the usual visuals, you don't have to worry. You simply access your My Documents folder, locate the lecture, download it, and begin class.

OR, maybe you're working on a report at work and the clock hits 5 p.m. -- you have to go pick up kids and take them to soccer, karate, basket-weaving, etc. You think, I'll work on this later, after everyone's in bed. And then that time comes, four hours or so later, and you realize, *@#$?! I didn't save the document to my jump drive!   

No problem. You simply access your My Documents folder, locate the document, download it, and begin working. (For a short while -- you need your sleep, people, and that report can probably wait.)

How do you do that? you ask. Well, I'll tell you (as if you haven't figured that out yet from the title of this post). Far be it from me to encourage laboring over a weekend (and especially a holiday weekend at that) or into the wee hours of the night, but you should know that if you ever forget to email yourself a document or save it to a flash drive, there's still another way to access your files without driving several (or several + several more) miles back to your home campus.

First, type https://roam.sunysuffolk.edu/ into your web browser (or, you know, click the link and then bookmark it). You'll arrive at this:

Then, enter your MYSCCC login information. You'll be taken to this screen:

At this point you're asked to select the link to your home campus. It's important to note that if you were formerly an adjunct who began teaching on another campus, or even a full-time member transferring from another campus, your files are probably located under your original campus. (example: I transferred to the Eastern campus from the Ammerman campus a couple of years ago, and my files are still located under the Ammerman link.)

Click the link and be patient. I find that depending on the amount of traffic on the college server or the strength of the wifi signal at my own home or the coffee shop where I'm working, it can take a minute or two for something like this to appear: 

Use the arrows on the top right of the screen to scroll through the list until you find your MYSCCC Login. When you do, click the link, and you'll be directed to another link for your files ("My Documents").

Once you're in there, you can access anything that you created on your office computer and saved to your My Documents folder. (A word of warning: if you were working on a document and didn't save it to your My Documents folder, you'll be unable to open it up remotely.) You can even upload documents that you create at home to the school's server, and they'll be ready for you to access once you return to the office. All in all, this little tool is a pretty useful one to remember. Remote access to my office files has saved me time and stress on more than one occasion. May it do the same for you!

Practical Matters: The FA's Community Outreach Committee

by Tim McHeffey, Chair, FA Community Outreach Committee

A super way to accelerate your immersion into your new, wonderful position at Suffolk is to meet your extended FA Family! The Community Outreach arm of the Faculty Association is called TEAM-FA (Totally Enthusiastic Members of the Faculty Association). Our FA on-campus events include plant sales for AHRC, food drives, and Fair Trade sales. Many of you already likely do awesome activities in your respective geographic communities; why not help out with ours? To find out how you can help on your campus, email me at tim [at] fascc.org.

Or, you may want to jump on board our nationally acclaimed “Professors on Wheels” program, where we share our expertise in small presentations with nursing home residents and public libraries. Here are some of the topics & presentations our community partners may choose from for the 2015/2016 year:

• American Cinema: Then and Now
• Getting Over the Fear of Public Speaking
• Families and the Juvenile Justice System
• You and Your Culture: What Makes You Who You Are
• How to Grow a Small Business on Long Island
• Soldiers’ Life in the First World War: The Sounds Smells and Taste of War
• Reporting From...(Making Short Videos to Post on YouTube)
• From Beowulf to Rambo: Heroes and Western Heroism
• The Fibonacci Numbers
• Women in Politics
• Renaissance Art and Musical Instruments
• Atmospheric Science
• Connecting with others through E-mail 
• Getting Organized: How to De-Clutter your Life
• Not Just Kids’ Stuff: Understanding Comics and Graphic Literature 

For more information about how to get involved, email Ray DiSanza at rayd [at] fascc.org and/or check out the Professors on Wheels page on the FA's web site.

Community Outreach is part of our fabric as FA brothers and sisters… It’s what we do! So Sunday, October 18^th, consider joining our walking team at Jones Beach for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer; or, if you would like to donate to our team, please go to our TEAM FA web site @http://main.acsevents.org/goto/fascc or you can visit us on Facebook to sign up as well, https://www.facebook.com/events/1044288825615958/. For more information, talk to joanc [at] fascc.org. 

The month of October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Editor's Note: Did you know that the A-form (our application for promotion) specifically asks about your involvement in our community? (To wit: "Professionally related community activities in cultural, educational, and benevolent organizations")

While promotion shouldn't be your primary reason for contributing to your community, it probably helps to know that the college cares about and values your service to our community outside the college. So if you were hesitant to do community service, and wondering about whether or not you could or should sacrifice any of your hard-earned down-time, consider that you will benefit from donating that time -- although I'm pretty sure our community partners will benefit more. And yes, union-organized community service events count.

Also: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Find a ribbon and #gopurple on Facebook,  Twitter, and even during class -- letting students, colleagues, and friends know where they can find support if they need it.

Also also: Alongside Catherine Lipnick and Alyssa Kauffman, tommorrow (10/13) I'll be giving a workshop as one of the Professional Development Day Breakout Sessions on Service Learning and Civic Engagement. If you'd like to learn more about how to incorporate community service into your courses, we'd love to see you.
 

-- SKG

Practical Matters: Student Activities and Clubs

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program
 

On Wednesday of last week, faculty and students here at the Eastern campus gathered on the patio outside the Peconic building for Student Activities Day, a kind of open house for student clubs and organizations. Club officers and advisors were generally on hand to answer questions from students seeking to participate in extracurricular campus activities, and to gain new members in the process. You may have seen something similar occurring on your own campus.

For years now, I've been a faculty advisor to a student organization. For several years while I worked on the Ammerman Campus, I co-advised a student writing group that met to workshop their poetry, short stories, and plays outside of a classroom setting. Then, when I transferred to the Eastern Campus, I began advising the campus literary magazine. From my time as an adjunct to the present, I've always been involved with student activities, and this involvement has kept me engaged and invested in a way that's much different from my experience in the classroom. In fact, I'd say that if anything, it's enhanced my ability to connect with students in a meaningful and productive manner.

I encourage all of you to consider being a student activities advisor as well, and if you’re presented with the opportunity to do so – well, jump at it. All three of our campuses offer our student body a richer, more diverse college experience by providing numerous activities throughout the semester – and by facilitating and supporting a number of different student clubs and organizations. Being an advisor can help you learn so much more about our students than time in the classroom

The super-sophisticated display for the club I advise.

can – and I say this after receiving lots of really personal personal essays in Freshman Comp.

PAs, Specialists, Counselors, Librarians and faculty can become more involved with student life by being an advisor to a student club or organization. Not only is this a wonderful way to mentor students, it’s also a good way to garner some campus-wide service you can cite on your application for promotion.

As an advisor, you’ll need to assist the club officers when necessary (you aren’t required to attend all the meetings, although the presence of an advisor is necessary for any off-campus excursions the club may make). Depending on the campus, you might attend an Officer and Advisor meeting during Common Hour once a month or once a semester. You’ll sign some forms. You’ll be invited to a lovely, catered Student Awards Ceremony at the end of the year. And that’s about all the heavy-lifting that’s involved, unless you’d like to be more active. 
 

The Ammerman Campus in particular needs faculty and staff advisors for student clubs, so if you’re located on the Ammerman campus and you’re interested in becoming involved, contact Frank Vino at x4814. If you are located on the Eastern campus and would like to become involved, call x2531 and let Denny Teason know you’re available to advise; likewise, if you’re on Grant, call Lisa Hamilton at x6260.
 

Lastly, I’ll say this: Because the college is changing constantly to accommodate the needs of our students and community, our roles and requirements as faculty and staff are changing constantly, too. You may find that you’ll join some committees your first year or second year and that by your seventh year, you’ll either be chairing those committees or you’ll find yourself on entirely different committees.
 

Well, I began co-advising The Society of Writers back when I was an adjunct faculty member. Over the years – after being hired as full time faculty and going through the process of two promotion cycles – the one item that’s never changed on my promotion applications is my role as an advisor. I love mentoring students, and I’ve found the experience extremely rewarding, particularly with clubs that are educational in focus, like the honors societies or STEM clubs. It’s a fantastic way for us -- new and “senior” members alike – to connect with our students, and remind ourselves that while academics are (and should be) the primary focus of our energies, student activities further solidify a feeling of solidarity between faculty and students at our school.

Practical Matters: How to Access Your Office Computer Files Remotely

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Mentoring Program 

A Rose of Sharon bloom that appeared on Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day, fellow unionists! I hope you spent your Labor Day relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. I labored a little, despite the holiday -- there was a house to clean after weekend guests, and some prep to do before classes Tuesday. And in order to do that prep, I had to access computer files that I created back in my office last week -- but I didn't have to use a flash or portable hard drive to do it.

How did you do that? you might ask. Well, I'll tell you (as if you haven't figured that out yet from the title of this post). Far be it from me to encourage laboring over a weekend (and especially a holiday weekend at that), but you should know that if you ever forget to email yourself a document or save it to a flash drive, there's still another way to access your files without driving several (or several + several more) miles back to your home campus.

First, type https://roam.sunysuffolk.edu/ into your web browser (or, you know, click the link and then bookmark it). You'll arrive at this:

Then, enter your MYSCCC login information. You'll be taken to this screen:

At this point you're asked to select the link to your home campus. It's important to note that if you were formerly an adjunct who began teaching on another campus, or even a full-time member transferring from another campus, your files are probably located under your original campus. (ex. I transferred to Eastern from the Ammerman campus last year, and my files are still located under the Ammerman link.)

Click the link and be patient: you'll find a redundant screen that asks yet again for your MYSCCC login, and then you may have to wait while a red "LOADING" sign appears in the top right hand corner of the screen.:

I find that depending on the amount of traffic on the college server or the strength of the wifi signal at my own home, it can take a minute or two for something like this to appear: 

Use the arrows on the top right of the screen to scroll through the list until you find your MYSCCC Login. When you do, click the link, and you'll be directed to another link for your files ("My Documents").

Once you're in there, you can access anything that you created on your office computer and saved to your documents folder. (A word of warning: if you were working on a document and didn't save it, you'll be unable to open it up remotely.) You can even upload documents that you create at home to the school's server, and they'll be ready for you to access once you return to the office. All in all, this little tool is a pretty useful one to remember. Remote access to my office files has saved me time and stress on more than one occasion. May it do the same for you!