INDEX
- Vice Chancellor Tull speaks at Central Park vigil
- Campus police investigate vehicle burglaries
- Aggie women out of NCAA basketball tournament
- Look inside the Box ... for a refreshed interface
- New flexibility in flexible spending accounts
Vice Chancellor Renetta Garrison Tull, pictured above, joined other speakers at a Davis vigil held Friday night (March 19) for the victims of the shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors last week. Eight people died, including six women of Asian descent.
The vigil, held under the auspices of the Davis Phoenix Coalition and other community organizations, was held at Central Park.
Tull stood in for Chancellor Gary S. May, who was unable to attend, reading his statement of March 10, six days before the killings, in which he offered his support to the Asian Pacific Islander community. “I have been greatly concerned over the last several months to see that hate crimes are on the rise against the Asian Pacific Islander community,” the chancellor wrote.
He went on to reiterate an earlier message: “I condemn the increased racism and xenophobia directed at the Asian Pacific Islander community. I urge each of you to turn once more to our Principles of Community, which provides us with a roadmap of behavior, attitude and reflection.”
Read coverage of the vigil in The Davis Enterprise.
Don’t make your car a target
A series of vehicle burglaries in recent weeks prompted campus police to issue a crime alert March 10. Five break-ins were reported from Feb. 16 to March 8, and an additional incident was reported the day of the crime alert.
The crimes took place at Hopkins Road/Levee Road and Lot 10, reported on Feb. 16; Lot 25, Feb. 17; Crocker Lane, Feb. 25; Putah Creek Lodge, March 8; and North Sage Street (UC Davis West Village), March 10. In some cases, the break-ins occurred while the vehicles were parked overnight. In one case, the burglary took place within a 45-minute window.
Thieves smashed windows to get to property left in view inside the vehicles, police said. Items reported stolen included wallets, purses and small change. In some cases, stolen credit cards were used at nearby businesses.
“Don’t leave personal or valuable items in your vehicle, or at least lock them out of sight in the trunk or glove compartment, and always lock your vehicle,” Lt. Joanne Zekany said.
Investigators described a suspicious vehicle near one scene as a dark-colored, late 1990s-model Ford Mustang with hard top, no front license plate, rear spoiler and white wall tires.
Anyone with information is asked to call campus police, 530-754-2677.
Aggie women out of the NCAAs
The five-time defending Big West Conference champion UC Davis women’s basketball team bowed out of the NCAA tournament with a first-round loss to Missouri State, 70-51, Monday (March 22) in San Antonio.
UC Davis finished a not-so-ordinary season with a 13-3 overall record and a 9-1 mark in conference play, capturing the conference tournament title to advance to the NCAAs for the third time in the university’s history in Division I. This year, the Aggies earned the team’s highest seed, No. 12, the best by a Big West school since 2004.
Read UC Davis Athletics’ game coverage.
Look inside the Box ...
... and you will see a refreshed web user interface for the cloud-hosted data storage and collaboration service available to students, faculty and staff.
The change, including new functionality to help better organize your Box content, took effect Monday (March 22).
Box has assembled this list of articles to help users understand the new features and functionality:
For more information on Box at UC Davis, see this Service Catalog page.
New flexibility in FSAs
UC employees’ flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent care, or Health FSA and DepCare FSA, just got more flexible, given that the pandemic has upended employees’ use of those personal funds, say, because of inability to keep medical and dental appointments, or no need for child care.
First, you have the opportunity to cancel your 2021 participation or make new elections (how much you want to contribute) for 2021. If you are not enrolled, you have the opportunity to sign up now (instead of waiting for open enrollment). The last date to make changes for the 2021 plan year is Oct. 29, 2021.
Here are the other temporary changes:
- Health FSA — Provided your account has a balance of at least $25, the full remaining balance in your account will carry over from the 2020 plan year to the 2021 plan year — not limited to $550 as announced last year. This may include amounts carried forward from the 2019 plan year that went unused in 2020. Given continuing uncertainty, the full remaining balance of unused Health FSA funds in your account will also be carried over from the 2021 plan year to the 2022 plan year. The carryover from plan year 2022 to plan year 2023 will once again be limited to $550.
- Dependent Care FSA — The grace period to use 2020 DepCare FSA funds is extended through Dec. 31, 2021. This means you can use the money you contributed during 2020 for eligible expenses you incur in 2020 and 2021. You have until Jan. 31, 2022, to submit claims for those expenses. Similarly, the grace period to use 2021 DepCare FSA funds is extended through Dec. 31, 2022. So, you can use the money you contribute during 2021 to pay for eligible expenses you incur in 2021 and 2022. Your claims must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2023.
MORE INFORMATION
Also, there’s been an increase in maximum age of eligible dependents in DepCare FSAs, from 13 to 14. In order to qualify, you must have been enrolled in DepCare in 2020 and have a dependent child who turns 13 during 2020 or 2021. This change applies only to unused funds from the 2020 plan year. This means that claims incurred in 2020 and 2021 for children 13 years old and younger may be reimbursed from funds contributed in 2020. Funds contributed in 2021 may only be used to reimburse claims for children 12 years old and younger.
Because of the work involved in these changes, there will be a “blackout period” when our FSA administrators will be unable to process claims or issue reimbursements for expenses incurred in 2020. This blackout period will begin April 16, 2021, and will end no later than May 31, 2021. Customer service teams will continue to serve participants as usual, but 2020 claims submitted during this period may be denied in error. Claims for expenses incurred in 2021, including debit card purchases, will continue to be processed during this time.
Media Resources
Dateline Staff: Dave Jones, editor, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu; Cody Kitaura, News and Media Relations specialist, 530-752-1932, kitaura@ucdavis.edu.