4.18 Services
A. University Health Services Center
Western Carolina University is pleased to make available medical services offered by the University Health Services Center to our employees. The details of all coverages, eligibility requirements and instructions for enrollment are outlined in this policy. Health Services Center will review this policy annually and make adjustments as needed.
1. General Information for all University Employees
a. Services rendered must be paid in full at the time of the visit. The Health Services Center will not bill for services. The Center can only accept cash, checks and the CatCard system for payment of services. Employees will receive official receipts that will allow the employee to file charges on his or her insurance policy.
b. The Health Services Center’s medical staff cannot serve as the employee’s primary physician.
c. Telephone calls and e-mail requests for medical advice, treatment and requests for prescription medicines are prohibited.
d. All employees must submit a medical history form and report any allergies or allergic reactions before services can be rendered.
e. All medical contacts and health records are strictly confidential.
f. The Health Services Center is available to faculty and staff Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. During holidays and scheduled breaks, the Center’s hours are subject to change.
g. Children and dependents of employees and retirees of WCU are not eligible for services.
2. Permanent Full-Time and Permanent Part-Time EPA, SPA (SPA Exempt) Employees, Tenure Track, Tenured, Phased Retirement Faculty Employees
All permanent full-time and permanent part-time EPA, and SPA employees, tenure track, tenured, and phased retirement faculty employees who work on the WCU campus are required to pay a monthly access fee as a condition of employment. The Student Affairs Division will determine the access fee and this information will be forwarded to employees each fiscal year.
The monthly fee gives the employee access to the Center’s services. Additional fee-for service charges are required of employees who use certain services. The Health Services Center will strive to maintain nominal charges for these health care services. However, as health care prices increase or decrease locally, the access fee and other charges may be adjusted annually.
a. The Health Services Center is designed for urgent care assessments, treatments and procedures. This includes, but not limited to, the management of colds, flu, minor suturing of wounds, allergy shots, basic immunizations, brief physicals, and performing basic laboratory and diagnostic procedures.
b. The Health Services Center cannot serve as the employee’s primary physician for acute and/or chronic medical conditions. Employees will be provided a list of local primary physicians upon request.
c. The Health Services Center cannot provide medical advice, treatment, assessment or prescriptions over the telephone or through e-mail. All medical contacts must be done in person at the Health Services Center.
d. Each employee is entitled to three free medical provider contacts per fiscal year (June 30-July 1). The free provider contacts only include the medical contact. Lab work, procedures and some medical diagnostic tools will have a charge. Upon the employee’s fourth medical provider contact, an additional charge will be incurred.
e. Services that do not have an associated charge are as follows: routine blood pressure checks, travel clinic assessment and basic medical assessments by the nursing staff, some over the counter medications and nutritional consults.
3. Temporary Part-Time, Temporary Full-Time and Hourly SPA (SPA Exempt) Employees, Fixed Term, Adjuncts, Part-Time and Visiting Lecturer Faculty Employees
All temporary part-time or hourly employees, fixed term, adjuncts, part-time and visiting lecturer faculty may choose to participate in the services offered by the Center. A monthly access fee will not be charged to the employee. Part-time employees must pay all fee-for service charges. The guidelines are as follows:
a. Employees are not entitled to free medical provider contacts. Services rendered must be paid in full at time of the medical contact. Lab work, procedures, blood pressure checks, travel clinic assessment, and other medical diagnostic tools will be charged to the employee.
b. The Health Services Center is designed for urgent care assessments, treatments and procedures. This includes, but not limited to, the management of colds, flu, minor suturing of wounds, allergy shots, basic immunizations, basic physicals, and performing basic laboratory and diagnostic procedures.
c. The Health Services Center cannot provide medical advice, treatment, assessment or prescriptions over the telephone or through e-mail. All medical contacts must be done in person at the Health Services Center.
d. The Health Services Center cannot serve as the employee’s primary physician for acute and/or chronic medical conditions. Employees will be provided a list of local primary physicians upon request.
4. Worker’s Compensation Claims
Worker’s Compensation medical contacts will be charged directly to the department in which the employee works as outlined in the fee-for-service schedule. Employees are responsible for following university and departmental policies and procedures for reporting these claims and the medical contacts. Further information is available in Western Carolina University’s Safety and Health Program Manual or by contacting the Director of Safety and Risk Management.
B. Speech and Hearing Clinic
The Speech and Hearing Clinic is the primary clinical training site for students in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department. Students in the training program receive supervision by American Speech Language and Hearing Association certified speech-language pathologists and audiologists. In order to accomplish this training mission, the clinic offers speech, language, and hearing evaluation and follow-up treatment for individuals for all ages (birth through geriatrics) with known or suspected communication disorders. The clinic also offers a broad range of consultative services to individuals and agencies in western North Carolina.
C. Faculty Housing
A limited number of apartments are available for on-campus housing. The accommodations consist of one, two, and three bedroom units and are available under the terms outlined in the Faculty Transitional Housing Agreement with new faculty and staff given first priority. Since the intent is to provide transitional housing, all residents will be limited to a maximum stay of two years. Information concerning faculty/staff housing may be obtained from the Department of Residential Living or from WCU’s webpage.
D. Off Campus Partners
The Student Affairs Division has entered into an agreement with Off-Campus Partners to list off-campus housing opportunities. OCP provides a site to link potential tenants with potential landlords/property managers. Users are provided with a variety of online services, including but not limited to the capability to search a database of off-campus properties, to post properties for rent or sale, and to post and search messages on message boards. The link to this service is available at: http://www.wcu.edu/offcampus/
E. Hunter Library
In addition to traditional print materials located within the library building, an array of databases, resources, and services are available through the Hunter Library website http://library.wcu.edu/. Faculty and students can access any of our 100+ databases, search the online catalog, find research guides on most academic subjects, download reserves, or “Ask-a-Librarian” for help.
For information on services provided to all faculty, see our web page “For Faculty and Staff” http://www.wcu.edu/1622.asp, or call 227-7465. You may be especially interested in the section on Teaching support. The Library has knowledgeable subject specialists to help your students find and evaluate information.
F. Information Technology Resources
Faculty members and their students have access to an extensive and diverse array of information technology (IT) resources. The following is an overview. For help with any IT related question, contact the IT Services Help Desk by e-mail at itshelp@email.wcu.edu or by phone at 227-7487 (7ITS) or toll-free at 866-928-7487 (866-WCU-7ITS).
1. EMAIL: Faculty members receive email on the Microsoft Exchange system that is accessed with Microsoft Outlook. This is used for departmental and official university communications. A request form must be submitted to the IT Division. The form may be downloaded from the WCU IT Services web site at http://its.wcu.edu.
Students do not participate in this email system. Instead, they are assigned an account on the central VMS computer system. Many students access their email through the My Cat portal (http://mycat.wcu.edu). Faculty members have access to their students’ VMS email addresses and they can also use My Cat to communicate with them, both individually and as part of a class. There are a variety of tools available in the portal that faculty may use to interact with their students.
2. COURSE MANAGEMENT WITH WEBCT: The University has adopted WebCT as its supported course management system. This system provides a password-protected environment with tools to support on-line communication, assessment, content modules, drop boxes, and calendars. To date, over 800 individual courses and multiple degree and certification programs have been created within the WebCT environment.
3. STUDENT & FINANCIAL INFORMATION ACCESS: Student record and financial information is maintained on the central VMS system. Faculty members must have an account on the central VMS system to gain access to this information. To initiate an account, follow instructions at http://its.wcu.edu.
Faculty members and their students may access student record information online using the Faculty Self Service and the Student Self Service programs, respectively. To navigate to these programs go to the “WIN” (Western Information Network) page at https://www.wcu.edu/wcuwin.
The WIN page also contains a link for “Additional Services” for university personnel. Faculty members who are responsible for administering a budget, e.g., department heads, will find a variety of financial record related tools in this area.
Links to the student record programs and other services are also available on the My Cat page. Please note that some processing can’t be done through the web programs and must be done by logging into the central VMS system.
4. INSTRUCTIONAL FACILITIES: The University supports many electronic classrooms and computer presentation classrooms. In addition, a variety of mobile computer carts are available for faculty to use with their classes. An overview of what is available is found at http://www.wcu.edu/it/edtech/eclass.
There are three general access student computer labs that complement the instructional facilities used by students in their classes. These facilities are managed by the IT division. Information about the labs is found at http://www.wcu.edu/it/edtech/labs. The lab located in the Hunter Library operates 24 hours per day most days during the fall and spring semesters.
Other facilities of interest include:
· The university has video conferencing classrooms - an interactive television classroom (Community Link, seats 30), as well as a distance learning theater (seats 35) and a distance learning conference room (seats 6-12).
· The Hunter Library has an electronic classroom used by the librarians for training. Faculty members may use the facility on a limited basis for class purposes. Contact the University Librarian’s office at 227-7307 for information about this facility.
· The Student Technology Assistance Center, part of the IT division’s Educational Technologies unit, offers technology assistance, skills workshops, and other services that benefit WCU students. They offer computer Jumpstart training to new students and are available to help students with class assignments that require the use of technology.
Some colleges and departments also offer specialized, technology enhanced classrooms and labs.
All on-campus instructional facilities are wired so that mobile computer carts or laptop computers can be used to access network resources. Wireless access points have been installed in several of the classroom buildings and in the Hunter Library. Wireless devices must be registered with IT Services before they attach to the campus network.
5. TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING SERVICES: The Division of IT offers a variety of consulting services:
· Workshops on topics of general interest, some of which are open also to staff and students. Most of these workshops will be held in the IT training room in 406 Belk.
· One-on-one consulting on technology-related projects.
· Walk-in assistance on educational technology needs at the Sandbox area in 184 Hunter Library, adjacent to the Coulter Faculty Center.
To request technology consulting services, contact the IT Services Help Desk or drop by the Sandbox in 184 Hunter Library.
6. HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING: Western Carolina University provides access to High Performance Computing services through a collaborative effort of the University of North Carolina System. While a new grid computing initiative is being developed for higher education within the state, services are available through partnerships among the campuses. Because these services are in transition, faculty with interest in High Performance Computing should contact the IT Services Help Desk for current information.
7. HARDWARE & SOFTWARE: The IT Division provides desktop support for both Windows and Macintosh computers. The campus network connects to the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NC-REN), which provides WCU with access to two-way videoconferences as well as an OC-3 (155Mbps, expanding to OC-12, 622-Mbps) data path to the Internet, including Internet 2.
For the students, faculty, and staff who choose to work and live off campus there are several Internet Service Providers (ISP) for remote network access in the local area. A list of local ISP companies is available on the WCU web server (http://its.wcu.edu/faqs/isp.htm). An ISP account allows off campus users to access a variety of WCU Internet services at home.
The University licenses the MS Office Professional suite and Norton Antivirus for use on any university owned computer. These products are deployed in student labs and computer classrooms. The licenses for MS Office Professional and Norton Antivirus include an “at home use” provision which means a faculty or staff member may install the university licensed software on a notebook or home computer. Undergraduate students are required to own a license for MS Office Professional. The university does not, at this time, provide them with this software. It does, however, license Norton Anti-virus for all student computers. Disks with these licensed software products may be checked out at the IT Service Center in Forsyth B-32.
Other software that is centrally licensed, but with a limited number of licenses available, include SPSS for Windows and Minitab. These statistical analysis programs are accessed over the campus network. The University of North Carolina has a grant from SAS Institute that makes a wide range of SAS software available for faculty and student use, including at home use.
Any curriculum specific software that a faculty member uses for instruction must be purchased through his or her department or college. The faculty member should consult with IT support staff if the software needs to be available in an electronic classroom or the general access computer labs.
8. WEB PAGES: WCU colleges and departments have web pages on the university web site (http://www.wcu.edu/colleges.html). Faculty may post and/or link their own information or class related web pages to their departments’ web pages. Faculty and their students may also publish web pages in their individual account space.
9. IT POLICIES, PLANNING, AND COLLABORATION: Faculty are encouraged to participate in IT planning through the Educational Technologies Advisory Council, as well as through college and departmental IT committees. The University of North Carolina System supports collaboration across its member institutions through the Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative (TLTC). Information about this and other UNC System IT initiatives can be found at http://www.northcarolina.edu/content.php/ir/index.htm.
10 MORE INFORMATION: Information technology changes rapidly. To learn of new initiatives or for more specific information or help, please contact the IT Services Help Desk by e-mail at itshelp@email.wcu.edu or by phone at 227-7487 (7ITS) or toll-free 866-928-7487 (866-WCU-7ITS). You will also find more information at http://its.wcu.edu.
G. Services for Retired Faculty and Staff
1. Parking. Upon request, the Office of University Police will provide parking stickers to retired faculty and staff at no charge.
2. Library. Retired faculty and staff have the same library privileges as active faculty and staff. However, priority is given to students and active faculty and staff. A book checked out by a retired member is subject to recall if it is needed by a student or active faculty or staff member. Carrels are available for annual assignment on a space available basis after the needs of students and active faculty or staff have been addressed. Guidelines are established in consultation with the Library Committee for assignment of these study carrels.
3. Athletic Activities and University Events. Retired faculty and staff are offered two (2) free tickets for the football games. Reservations are required; therefore, the retiree should contact the chancellor’s office for reservation information. All other athletic activities are available on the same basis as to active faculty and staff. For paid events, prices are the same for both retired and active faculty and staff. Free activities are equally open to both retired and active faculty and staff and participation is welcomed.
4. Athletic Facilities. Retired faculty and staff have the same privileges as active faculty and staff. The policies and procedures governing use of the swimming pool, tennis courts, and other facilities make no distinction between the two groups of persons.
5. Personnel Services. The Human Resources staff provides retired faculty and staff with assistance upon request regarding insurance, death claims, and new regulations or legislation affecting retired persons, and with their medical insurance coverage, which continues to be paid (for retiree only) by the state after retirement.
6. Identification Cards. A permanent ID card is available for retired faculty and staff; requests should be addressed to the CatCard Office.
H. CatCard Office
1. The CatCard Office is responsible for producing WCU’s faculty and staff identification card, the CatCard. Faculty members may obtain a CatCard photo ID in the CatCard Office, 135 Killian Annex. The CatCard provides WCU faculty members with proof of employment and access to a variety of campus-wide services and systems.
2. Faculty members use the CatCard for employment identification, to utilize Library services, to receive treatment at University Health Services, and to enter the Fitness Center (once Fitness Center fees are paid). The CatCard can also be used to make purchases (as a debit card) at various locations across campus. These locations presently include: IT Services, Health Services, vending machines, copiers and microfilm reader printers, the University Bookstore, Catamount Clothing & Gifts, all food service locations, and the University Center (tickets, outdoor rentals, copies, faxes, etc.).
3. Faculty members may take advantage of the CatCard’s debit function by depositing money at the OneStop Student Services Center counter located in Killian Annex or online using a debit or credit card at https://amex.wcu.edu/BannerCCPmts/ . Funds may also be added to the CatCard debit account at Add-Value stations in Hunter Library, Hinds University Center, Dodson cafeteria lobby and Brown cafeteria lobby.
4. Value remaining in an employee’s debit account is carried forward until the conclusion of employment. A refund may be requested at any time. A processing fee of $5.00 is charged for all refunds.
5. Cardholders are responsible for safeguarding their CatCard. If a CatCard is lost, either accidentally or by theft, the card owner should notify the CatCard Office at 227-7003 during normal business hours (8 am to 5 pm) Monday through Friday. After 5:00 P.M. and on weekends you should notify University Police at 227-7301. Upon notification, the lost card will be electronically deactivated, thereby preventing any further use. A replacement card can be obtained by paying the replacement fee at the OneStop Student Services Center counter and bringing the receipt to the CatCard Office in 135 Killian Annex. A replacement fee is due when the new card is made. The University cannot accept responsibility for unauthorized use of a lost card prior to deactivation.