HBC August 2019 News Bulletin
Merit Increase – Take action
On June 25, 2019, the Provost announced a 2.5% raise pool for faculty and staff, with the distribution of these funds determined primarily by merit. Raises will be effective in October with the pay period beginning October 20th (reflected in the November 15th paycheck). Information on the merit process and guidelines (including eligibility and merit allocation) can be found on the KU HR website: https://humanresources.ku.edu/merit-increases.
Merit for positions funded with any funds (except 099 & 909 funds), which would include positions funded with salary release funds from 099 funds, are to be self-funded, meaning supervisors and PIs would need to come up with the funding for the raise. For grant funded positions, you would need to ensure that your grant would be able to support and sustain any merit increases.
Supervisors and PIs can expect to receive information about the allocation of the merit pool around Tuesday, September 10th. Unfortunately, we have a short turn around, and would need input and information back by close of business on Friday, September 13th.
If you have any questions, please contact Paula Hinman, HBC Associate Director of Finance & Operations at phinman@ku.edu or 864-0908, or you may contact KU’s Human Resources department.
Equipment Award Competition
In the next few days, the HBC will offer investigators in HBC participating departments a chance to partake in an equipment award competition. Two brand new (one month use) 24 CU FT Nor-Lake scientific flammable storage freezers, with adjustable temperature control from -25° to -10° C, will be awarded to two investigators. The application deadline is September 9, 2019 at 5:00 pm. If you would like to see the freezers before submitting an application, please contact André Faucher.
HBC Equipment Purchase Contribution
Where a special need clearly exists, HBC may contribute matching funds to investigators to enable the purchase of specialized, multi-user equipment items that would enhance the research capabilities of a number of HBC Investigators. Two equipment matches of $10,000 each were distributed during fiscal year 2019. Anthony Fehr, assistant professor of molecular biosciences was the first recipient and Yoshiaki Azuma, professor of molecular biosciences was the second recipient.
DUO Multi-Factor Authentication
To increase campus digital security, the KU information Technology staff started implementing a campus-wide multi-factor authentication system in January 2019 using DUO as a partner. The purpose of a multi-factor authentication system is to confirm the identity of a user by using a second authentication step after he/she enters credentials in a secure site login screen. The second authentication is done through a device belonging to the user (phone, token, etc.). This second step is there to prevent a hacker from login into a user account when the primary authentication method (username and password) has been compromised. The user can block the hacker login attempt by refusing DUO’s authentication request and then change his/her login credential.
KU’s data includes all staff personal and health data and therefore, a security breach could affect individuals’ personal and financial situations. Please take the time to self-enrolled or attend a DUO meeting before the deadline. All KU faculty, staff and graduate to use DUO by October 1, 2019. More information including the self-enrollment guide is available on the ITSO website.
