The Annual Benefits Enrollment period, your opportunity to review your benefits coverage and make choices for the 2017 plan year, is nearing its end. Employees must enroll or make changes by 4:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 11. Enroll through the eBenefits online tool. Changes are effective January 1, 2017. You may be eligible to change coverage for health, dental, vision and life insurance, as well as Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts. FSAs, HSAs and Opt-Out Incentive plans require a new enrollment each year to continue participation. Review the benefit checklist. You can log into the MyUW portal to review your current benefit enrollments under the ‘View Benefits Summary Detail’ tab. The Annual Benefits Enrollment website will show changes in plans and coverage for 2017.

As the end of the year nears, winter holidays are when many employees are thinking about taking a long, well-deserved break. Several upcoming holidays are falling on weekends so be sure to consult the legal holiday list to ensure you are getting approval for and are using floating holidays available to you within the given time frame.

Campus network service will be more secure and reliable due to some behind-the-scenes work underway at DoIT. This work includes replacing existing, open-source software, authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services with a commercially supported system. These updates will also ensure vital sites for relaying messages, such as wisc.edu and alerts.wisc.edu, have additional protection from network disruption. The change will make it quicker and easier to deploy security fixes and new features. It's expected to be complete by late January.

The Office of Child Care and Family Resources is accepting grant applications from university staff employees to assist with the cost of child care. Private UW Foundation funds have been earmarked for employees on the lower end of the pay spectrum. This program helps make high-quality child care more accessible, which benefits the child, the employee and the employer. For more information, contact Teri Stratton at teri.stratton@wisc.edu or (608) 890-0436.