University to switch health insurance carriers Jan. 1
Committee recommends school change to UnitedHealthcare plan

By Wendy Meyer
staff reporter

TCU will change health insurance carriers Jan. 1 to UnitedHealthcare because faculty and staff experienced delays in getting health care from current carrier PacifiCare, said Ken Morgan, co-chairman for the Retirement, Insurance and Benefits committee.

The RIB committee made a recommendation Thursday to administration about which health carrier plan looked most appealing. They had three viable bids to choose from, Morgan said. Besides PacifiCare and UnitedHealthcare, the third bidder was SIGMA.

United Healthcare, a national company with about 40 million members, was chosen to be the new carrier for the medical plans offered to faculty and staff.

Premiums for the new Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) will increase by 14.4 percent and the smaller Preferred Provider Plan will decrease by 0.7 percent, according to a memo to faculty members sent by John Weis, assistant vice chancellor of human resources.

The change will mean an approximate $20.53 monthly increase for a faculty and spouse HMO plan, according to numbers compiled by Carol Campbell, vice chancellor for finance and business. Compared to last year’s prices, the university will pay $34.97 more per faculty member under this plan. For total monthly coverage, the HMO for a faculty and a spouse will cost $440.91.

“I think no one welcomes premium increases, but so far everyone has seemed very pleased,” Campbell said.

The cost to cover the health insurance premiums for the entire university is $4.7 million but the university pays 63 percent of the premium and the employees pay 37 percent, Morgan said.

If the university had kept PacifiCare as its health insurance provider, premiums would have increased by about 17 percent, Morgan said.

“My feeling is that this plan is substantially better in cost and options,” Morgan said.

Prudential, TCU’s dental plan provider, was purchased by Aetna. Aetna’s dental plan will remain the same as the former plan but premiums for dental coverage will increase by about 8 or 9 percent, Morgan said.

Morgan said faculty was elated by the committee’s decision and its recommendation was well-received.
“The bottom line cost is not as important as the quality of care,” Morgan said. “What we are looking for is the best cost we can get for the highest quality of care.”

Faculty members and health care users have lost patience with PacifiCare, not because of rising prices, but due to the lack of attention from primary care physicians and an inability for the company to make referrals, said Morgan.

Though thousands of Tarrant County residents will have to pay more for coverage this year and employers are facing renewals or quotes with increases of more than 20 percent, many health care users at TCU say cost is not the main problem with PacifiCare.

Campbell said TCU also tried to avoid the 20 percent increase.

“We got a good quota and we negotiated hard,” she said.

Marilyn Yates, administrative assistant for physics and astronomy, said her husband developed leukemia while waiting for the necessary bone marrow transplant. He was diagnosed with refractory anemia several months before he died, but the necessary operation was delayed, Yates said.

Yates spent months switching hospitals because the first two were not covered under the plan. Her husband waited an additional month after a hospital informed her on the night before the scheduled transplant that the operation was not approved by her health insurance.

“The longer this went on, the worse my husband was getting,” she said.

Afterward, she began to receive delinquent notices because the insurer had not paid the bills, she said.
California-based PacifiCare took over TCU’s former health carrier, Harris Methodist Health Plan, in February when the company was having extreme financial difficulties.

“What we clearly have experienced in the switchover is a delay in response time from PacifiCare,” Morgan said.

The RIB committee evaluates the university’s health care plan every year and makes a recommendation to administration at the end of September.

Now, like several large corporations insured by PacifiCare in Tarrant County, TCU is switching to a new insurance carrier, Morgan said.

Harris Methodist Health Plan was Tarrant County’s main insurer for the last decade and provided coverage to almost 300,000 people in 1999, including TCU faculty and staff.

Expanding quickly by discounting prices and offering opulent benefits, the Harris Methodist Health Plan satisfied many employers and members, but caused the company to lose $162.3 million, according to figures from the Texas Department of Insurance.

PacifiCare, one of the nation’s largest health maintenance organizations, promised their stockholders during the acquisition that they would cut administrative costs and doctor’s pay to make Harris Methodist more profitable.

Wendy Meyer
w.m.meyer@student.tcu.edu

Key topics to be discussed at luncheon
Commission recommendations include curriculum changes

By Erin Munger
staff reporter

Today’s luncheon for the Commission on the Future of TCU will focus on six key topics ranging from revamping the Core Curriculum to improving internships, Chancellor Michael Ferrari said.

“The undergraduate experience, the Core Curriculum, internships, the honors program, career placement services and graduate education programs are the categories that need shaping to move TCU to the next level of excellence,” Ferrari said.

All commission members and Trustees will attend. Bob Schieffer, chairman of the Commission on the Future of TCU, will speak along with John Roach, chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Ferrari.

Ferrari said the luncheon is a closure to the planning effort of the commission, and it will allow him to give the members of the Board of Trustees and commission members feedback and present the next steps they need to take.

The commission, which began in the summer of 1999, consisted of 17 task forces that examined the university and made recommendations for actions that will take TCU to the next level of excellence. A final compilation of all the task forces’ recommendations will be presented to begin prioritizing the recommendations.

William Koehler, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said improving the undergraduate experience will include facility upgrades, equipment upgrades, scholarships and more faculty members.
David Whillock, interim dean of the College of Communication, said the college needs upgrades in instructional equipment, labs and studios for the speech communications and radio-TV-film programs. He said radio-TV-film needs to switch from analog to digital technology.

“We need an equipment upgrade to link with the upgrades of the work place,” Whillock said.
He said some of the current equipment is over 20 years old and outdated.

Robert Lusch, dean of the M.J. Neeley School of Business, said the school is off to a good start with the recent $10.5 million donation from Stephen R. and Sarah Smith for a new building dedicated to entrepreneurial studies, and that the entrepreneur program will be a key part of the MBA program.

Lusch said he wants to strengthen the quality of the MBA program by recruiting more students and faculty on a national and international basis.

He also said he wants to attract students from different areas to the entrepreneur program.
“If you look at the history of entrepreneurs, they come from all walks,” Lusch said.

Sam Deitz, dean of the School of Education, said one important need for the school is a new education complex.

“We would like to have a facility that included Starpoint School, Rise School, our students and possibly a daycare for faculty,” Deitz said.

He said he sees this as a likely possibility, although it will not happen immediately.

One program in the school is in progress, however. Deitz said the School of Education is teaming up with the business school to combine an MBA and a Ph.D. in educator leadership. He said this would require some funding for faculty, but not a lot.

Rhonda Keen-Payne, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, said various aspects of the college need improvement because it focuses on uniting four professional schools: nursing, kinesiology, social work and speech pathology.

She said the college does not necessarily need to grow in numbers, but it needs to maintain or increase its quality.

To do this, Keen-Payne said the college needs research programs for faculty, scholarships (especially for graduate students), more high-quality faculty and equipment.

The nursing department needs a $450,000 human simulator, a computerized mannequin that would allow students to treat the “patient” and see the results, she said.

The communication sciences and disorders department needs a $30,000 video recording TV system, Keen-Payne said. She said it would allow the professors to record one-on-one sessions between patients and graduate students so they can better assess the students’ abilities.

he Miller Speech and Hearing facility hosts this program, and it allows students to have hands-on experience with patients who are children, she said.

The facility is also closed during the summer because there is no faculty for that time, Keen-Payne said.
“The waiting list is up to one year,” she said. “The facility needs to be open all year.”

Keen-Payne said the kinesiology department needs new equipment because some is 20 years old.

Mark Toulouse, dean of the Brite Divinity School, said the school needs an upgrade in facilities, which is in progress, and to focus on globalization.

Currently the school is searching for a person of Jewish heritage to serve as a chairperson for the school, Toulouse said.

The Core Curriculum, or required classes, is another aspect of TCU that will be highlighted at the luncheon.
Koehler said the administration is forming a committee comprised of faculty members to review the curriculum.

He said the committee members will be asked to consider two aspects: the qualities, characteristics and skills an undergraduate should receive while in college and what they have once they receive a bachelor’s degree from TCU.

The committee chairman will be Robert Seal, the university librarian.

“We decided to begin with the end in mind,” Koehler said. “If we can build a consensus on that, then we can decide the best way to achieve these goals.” He said a report is due Nov. 17.

Another area of concern is internships.

“I have seen some internships that were not even close to what they needed to be,” Koehler said.
Internships require staff members that create internship opportunities, he said.

As for the Honors Program, Koehler termed it the “intellectual heart” of the university.

“We have more opportunity to experiment with learning in the Honors Program than we take advantage of,” Koehler said.

Career development is yet another subject that is of immediate importance. Koehler said this is broken down into two categories: development and placement.

Development consists of helping the student understand where his or her talents are and pointing them in the right direction, Koehler said. Placement functions then take place within the individual TCU colleges.
Ferrari said graduate programs is one of the main concerns for TCU.

“TCU primarily comprises undergraduate studies, but “university” means graduate programs,” he said.
Koehler said they will first examine current Ph.D. and masters programs for areas that need improvement, then they will look at possible new programs.

Both Ferrari and Koehler targeted law and pharmacy as possible new graduate programs.
“If you look at universities with significant reputations, 90 percent have significant law, business, pharmaceutical and divinity programs,” Koehler said.

Adding law and pharmacy to TCU would help place the university into the next level the commission is striving to achieve, he said.

Erin Munger
erebm@netscape.com

Vein of Influence
Blood drive working to increase donor numbers with added publicity, support

By Elise Rambaud
staff reporter

Alpha Phi Omega, TCU Panhellenic Council and Carter BloodCare officials said they hope a change in location, increased publicity and support from administration will make this year’s blood drive a success.
The need for greater donor participation was prompted by a significant decline in last year’s TCU blood drive donor numbers.

This year, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Don Mills showed his support by donating blood. Mills said he has been donating blood for over 20 years.

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Don Mills donates blood in the Student Center Lounge Monday. Carter BloodCare will be taking blood on campus through Wednesday.

“Giving blood is easy, relatively fast and painless,” Mills said. “It’s just part of the gift we can give to the community.”

APO member Justin Galbraith, a junior e-business major, said he asked Mills to participate in the blood drive because students look to him as a campus leader.

“Many people are hesitant to donate blood so (APO) hoped support from the administration would encourage more students and faculty to donate blood,” Galbraith said.

The blood drive has traditionally been held in the Student Center Lounge to attract the attention of potential donors, but last year, the blood drive was held in the basement.

Student Center director Larry Markley said he and Mills implemented a new university policy prohibiting campus organizations from reserving the entire lounge for all-day events last year. The lounge is meant to be a place for students to relax, eat and study, so it is kept open for student use, he said.

Kelly Cowdery, APO service vice president, said the organization has had some difficulties in reserving the lounge for the blood drive because of scheduling conflicts, new policies or other complaints.

“It has all been a headache,” she said. “All (APO) really wants is to get as many donors and save as many lives as we can.”

Aimee Lavoie, APO member and student assistant blood drive coordinator, said she noticed the decrease in donor participation last year.

“Last November when the drive was held in the lounge, Carter BloodCare collected 302 blood units,” Lavoie said. “February’s blood drive was held in the basement and 177 units were donated.”

As a compromise, half of the lounge was reserved for Monday, and the blood drive will be held in the basement today and Wednesday, said Markley.

During the Fall 1998 blood drive, there was a problem with some blood spilling on Student Center carpet, said Markley. Since then, extra precautions have been taken to avoid the risk of contamination, he said.
The blood spill was caused by a minor malfunction in one of the machines used to separate red blood cells from the plasma and platelets, said Cowdery. Carter BloodCare sent a cleaning crew and no parties involved were harmed or contaminated. Since then, every inch of exposed carpet is covered by plastic, she said.

This year, members have put forth more effort to promote the blood drive, said Cowdery. APO and Panhellenic Council members sent out a campus-wide e-mail, distributed car flyers, mailbox stuffers and posters. Letters were also sent out to campus organizations encouraging friendly competition. The organization that produces the most donors will receive a plaque, she said.

Gayle Knutson, Carter BloodCare recruiter and consultant, said it takes 800 blood donors a day to satisfy the transfusion needs of area hospitals. This year the goal is to get about 100 donors each day of the blood drive, she said.

Because of the increasing number of new transplants, transfusions and treatments, there is always a great need for blood donors, Knutson said. In the past two years, the need for blood has increased 10 percent, but donation has decreased by five percent, Knutson said.

Lavoie said the TCU Blood Drive is a unique opportunity to serve others because students can directly impact someone else’s life.

“Other community service projects may be rewarding, but nothing can be as beneficial as knowing something you do is really for a worthy cause like saving a life,” she said.

Elise Rambaud
e.j.rambaud@student.tcu.edu

New hot water boilers installed
Beasley, Sid W. Richardson Building, library left without heat

By Michael Davis
Staff Reporter

The installation of hot water boilers in four buildings across campus has left many students, staff and faculty in the cold — literally. But others have felt no noticeable difference in temperatures since the installations began.

There is still some limited heating being provided by the domestic boiler in Winton-Scott Hall. Beasley Hall, Sid W. Richardson Building and the Mary Couts Burnett Library are completely without heat.
Some students have not noticed any drop in temperature. Juan Martinez, a sophomore premajor, said the library has been warm.

“To me it’s been too hot,” he said.

Rex Bell, mechanical manager at the Physical Plant, said the construction should be finished by Oct. 18.
Construction began on the piping for the new boilers in July after the plan had been finalized by Chancellor Michael Ferrari, Bell said. Heating has been out since the retrofitting began, but workers were trying to beat the oncoming cold weather.

“The program’s schedule has been pretty aggressive, and the guys have been working a lot of overtime,” he said. “But we were hoping the weather would stay warm.”

Bell said the installation is actually two days ahead of schedule.

The boilers needed to be replaced because they were old, Bell said. Upgrading the heating system had been in the long-range plans for the university, he said.

The new boilers should be more efficient in terms of energy cost and production. The boilers were built specifically for TCU and were ordered at the end of July, Bell said.

The biggest difficulty was re-using some machinery of the old system and keeping the new system running for as long as possible, Bell said. They didn’t want to have the heating out for too long, he said.
Bell said they were taking measures to conserve heat in those buildings.

“We have been turning off the air-handlers (units that exchange air within the building) at night,” he said. “The students warm up the room during the day and they are keeping the lights on at night.”

Leo Newland, director of environmental science in the Sid W. Richardson Building, said he didn’t know the heating was out.

Newland said they may have problems if the temperature remains cold, but at the moment there are no complaints. Workers will not be required to work overtime this weekend in order to finish the project by Oct. 18, but the boilers and pipes still have to be flushed out with chemicals to avoid scaling caused by the hard water present in North Texas.

Michael Davis
m.s.davis@student.tcu.edu

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