Friday, May 1, 2015

Benefit changes kick in today

The group insurance contracts that cover the University of Waterloo’s extended health, dental, life insurance and long term disability benefits are renewed May 1 of each year. The corresponding rates are based on the University's claim experience and as a result, the following rates apply effective May 1, 2015:

Extended Health

Extended Health Care premiums remain unchanged for the upcoming policy year:

These rates are paid entirely by the University for full-time employees; part-time employees pay a pro-rated amount based on workload.  Extended health costs paid by the University are not taxable to the employee.

Dental

Dental premiums remain unchanged for the upcoming policy year:

These rates are paid entirely by the University for full-time employees; part-time employees pay a pro-rated amount based on workload. Dental costs paid by the University are not taxable to the employee.

Long-term Disability

Long-term disability premium rates will increase slightly by 3.7 per cent with a rate of 1.109 per cent earnings, including provincial tax (RST) of 8 per cent effective May 1, 2015. Employees pay the entire premium associated with this coverage so that in the event of disability, eligible benefit payments are non-taxable.

Rate History:

The maximum insured salary will change to $168,385 effective May 1, 2015. 

Life Insurance

Life insurance premium rates will remain unchanged for employees with coverage of 1, 2 or 3 times earnings. The University pays the entire premium on 1 times earnings coverage and two thirds of the premium for 2 or 3 times earnings coverage. The life insurance premium paid by the University is a taxable benefit to the employee. 

Optional life insurance premium for employee coverage in excess of 3 times earnings and for spousal life insurance is entirely paid for by employees. The premium rates for this coverage are based on gender, age and smoking status. The optional and spousal life premiums remain unchanged and are as follows:

Anyone with questions regarding benefit rates is invited contact Human Resources at hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca.

Waterloo math team achieves record Putnam performance

This article originally appeared on Waterloo Stories.

The University of Waterloo consistently performs well in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition and the most recent fourth-place finish behind Harvard, MIT and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute means Waterloo has won 19 Top Five titles - more than any other Canadian university.

The Putnam competition is regarded as the most prestigious one in North America. It draws more than 400 teams from universities across the US and Canada, with the biggest winners typically coming from Ivy League institututions like Harvard and MIT.

Waterloo’s achievement is especially notable because the Putnam competition was taking place several decades before the University of Waterloo was founded in 1957. The University of Toronto, which started competing back in 1938, has finished in the Top 5, eighteen times.

This year’s team - Daniel Spivak, Sam Eisenstat and Kangning (Colin) Chen - finished ahead of the California Institute of Technology, University of California-Los Angeles, Duke University, Stanford University and Yale University. Waterloo’s team was coached by Stephen New, a professor in the Faculty of Mathematics.

Left to right: Waterloo Dean of Mathematics Ian Goulden, 2014 Waterloo Putnam team members Daniel Spivak and Sam Eisenstat, with coach Professor Stephen New.

The top University of Waterloo student was Daniel Spivak, who ended up in the Top 25 of 4,320 contestants. Four other Waterloo students, listed alphabetically, were among the top 200 contestants: Sam Eisenstat, Kangning (Colin) Chen, Shouzhen Gu, Paul Musgrave.

Four other students were among the top 300 contestants: Rutger Campbell, Peili Dai, Alexandru Gatea, Ghislain McKay. Five more students finished among the top 500 contestants: Xinle (Clair) Dai, Zhengyu (Jarry) Gu, Zhuan Khye Koh, Ritvik Ramkumar, Kaiyu (Kevin) Wu.

The competition was founded in 1927 by Elizabeth Lowell Putnam in memory of her husband William Lowell Putnam, who was an advocate of intercollegiate intellectual competition. The exam is administered by the Mathematical Association of America. The winning team gets $25,000. The winning individual gets a scholarship to Harvard.

Rohan Jayasudera wins 2015 FEDS Teaching Award

by Katherine Tuerke.

Continuing Lecturer Rohan Jayasudera, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, received the 2015 Federation of Students Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Jayasundera has dedicated many years to teaching undergraduate students – most of which are first-year physics students. His enthusiasm for the job has repeatedly sparked interest in his students and encouraged them to explore their interest outside of class.

His commitment to teaching extends outside of the lecture halls. Jayasundera is routinely available outside of class time and encourages students who come to seek help.

Jayasundera is also the Senior Teaching Fellow in the Faculty of Science. The Teaching Fellows enhance student learning by providing teaching leadership to their colleagues and the Faculty.

His passion for teaching shines through all of his work and Waterloo is a better university for it.

Congratulations, Rohan!