December 11, 2025
Good Morning! In today’s newsletter, Staff Senate President Stacey Miller provides her latest report, Fike Recreation Center introduces a new training class, Ombuds Tessa Byer provides the latest insights from the Ombuds Office and more.
October 8, 2025
Good afternoon! In today’s newsletter, Open Enrollment and Annual Required Training are underway, Ombuds Tessa Byer provides the latest insights from the Ombuds Office, Compliance and Ethics Week starts October 20-24, and more.
October 8, 2025
Are you a Clemson staff or faculty member who is also a graduate student? Would you like to connect to others in the same boat? Join fellow Clemson graduate students who are also faculty/staff for an afternoon of connection at Kite Hill Brewery. This event is designed for those balancing both roles — graduate study and CU employment — to meet, share experiences, and strengthen our Clemson community.
The social is set for Friday, October 17, from 4-5 p.m. Registration for the event is available.
October 8, 2025
This year’s Annual Required Training launched September 30 and covers two essential areas:
The 2025 annual required training modules are accessible through Tiger Training on September 30, 2025, with a due date of November 18, 2025. The COI and ISA modules will again feature shorter versions for those employees who previously completed training. Faculty and staff will be presented with a knowledge check in both modules. If they pass the knowledge check, they will not be required to take the remaining course content.
Additional resources are available to support your training:
For additional questions regarding this year’s Required Training, please contact the following:
October 8, 2025
Clemson is celebrating its annual Compliance & Ethics Week (CEW) on October 20–24 and we’re excited to celebrate integrity, accountability, and professional growth across our community. Check out the lineup of events for CEW:
October 8, 2025
The annual insurance open enrollment period is now underway through October 31! During open enrollment, eligible employees can enroll in or make changes to insurance coverage to take effect January 1, 2026.
The Open Enrollment deadline is October 31, 2025, at 11:59 p.m.
The South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority (PEBA) is the state agency responsible for administering and managing the state’s insurance programs for South Carolina’s public workforce. PEBA’s 2026 Insurance Summary (PDF) is a helpful resource for detailed information about open enrollment options.
Where to Begin
Eligible faculty and staff should review their insurance elections and benefit deductions annually, even if they don’t plan to make changes.
If you are satisfied with your current insurance elections and want them to continue in 2026, you don’t need to make any changes during Open Enrollment, unless you wish to continue your MoneyPlus flexible spending account. Medical Spending Account (MSA), Limited Medical Spending Account (LMSA) and Dependent Care Spending Account (DCSA) participants must re-enroll each year using the instructions below.
More information about insurance options and how to make open enrollment elections is available on the 2025 Open Enrollment Webpage.
October 8, 2025
Are you interested in learning more about Clemson’s MBA Options and the ETAP benefits available to you as a Clemson employee? Join us for an upcoming Admissions event to learn more, or if you’d prefer a virtual one-on-one meeting, please email mbaprogram@clemson.edu to get scheduled!
Clemson MBA Open House
Join us for our Fall Open House and meet with MBA staff, tour our beautiful Greenville ONE campus, and meet with a member of our Admissions team.
Tuesday, October 28th
10:00am-1:00pm (drop-in)
October 8, 2025
It has been a long few weeks. There is a lot going on globally, nationally, locally, and across Clemson. Our departments are dealing with financial changes, increasing workloads, and new systems to learn. Our people are encountering more that threatens to divide us, and I fear some of it is. My phone recently suggested to me an article with a title like, “Civility is Dead.” I chose not to read it (partly because who has time to read right now?), but the title stuck with me because I wholeheartedly disagree.
The halls of a university are the place where disagreement is not only possible; it is encouraged. When students are taught critical thinking, the implication is that they make up their own minds about the bigger questions of the day; they don’t just accept what professors or other students or scholars of the past have concluded. And when their conclusions differ from other’s conclusions, that disagreement is not ignored or catastrophized. Disagreement is just another participant in the classroom and in the research lab, a fixture that is always allowed but not allowed to take over.
Civility, then, is being able to keep working together and collaborating even when disagreement is present and when the topic is difficult and personal. You can hate a colleague’s take on current events and still greet them in the morning, ask about their sick dog, and work with them to complete a project. Civility is saying, “I’m not going to relinquish my beliefs, and I’m not expecting you to relinquish yours. But I’m going to see you as human first.”
I was recently working with some undergraduate students as they processed recent events. In this group, they had different takes. They had different heroes and villains in the narratives they told. They disagreed about a lot. And they listened. They pointed out where they agreed with each other. They acknowledged that they did not know everything and while they felt strongly, they made space for each other to argue the other side. They were civil, respectful, sometimes kind. It was an emotional meeting, and it was a productive one.
So amidst all this division, how do we stay civil? It is not easy, but it is simple:
Civility is hard. Sometimes it might not be possible for you. But it is not dead. In fact, we are the ones who have to keep it alive.
Box #1:
What is the Ombuds Office?
The Ombuds Office is a confidential, independent, neutral, and informal space for staff to process concerns, get information, and develop options for how to move forward in a difficult situation. I can provide education, conflict coaching, mediation, and facilitation as well as referrals to other resources across Clemson. If you are unsure how to move forward in any way, I can help you work through it.
Tessa Byer
Phone: 864-656-5353
Email: tbyer@clemson.edu
Address: 135 Old Greenville Hwy, Ste. 203 (Next to Esso!)
Box #2:
Save the date for upcoming trainings offered by the Ombuds:
Cultivating Resilience
November 3, 2025, from 9-11 a.m.
Location: University Facilities Center
Emotional Intelligence at Work
November 14, 2025, from 9-11 a.m.
Location: Virtually only
September 11, 2025
Good afternoon! In today’s newsletter, CCIT Research Computing and Data is hosting its inaugural High Performance Computing (HPC) Day, Michael Scott provides the latest insights from the Ombuds Office, Campus Recreation provides the latest on their well-being resources and more.
September 10, 2025
It’s time for Celebrating All Abilities, formerly known as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM); this university-wide initiative serves to raise awareness of disability-related issues, honor the varied contributions of individuals with disabilities, and equip the campus community with knowledge and strategies to advance accessibility. Student Accessibility Services, The Division of Civil and Individual Rights, The Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, The Office of University Compliance and Ethics, and Computing and Information Technology have all partnered to host several events in October.
Events for the initiative include an in-person keynote speaker and eleven virtual “Let’s Break to Educate” events. The keynote speaker for this year is Adam Gorlitsky, who founded the non-profit organization called “I Got Legs,” which works to reenable para-athletes to walk by expanding exoskeleton accessibility and supporting innovative paralysis research. Join us as he shares his story of resiliency and achievements while he debuts a new manual exoskeleton in his partnership with CU’s Biomedical Engineering Department.
We will also be hosting virtual “Let’s Break to Educate” events that are open to the public that feature faculty and staff presentations on a multitude of disability awareness topics ranging from digital accessibility and comprehensive instructional practices to Deaf culture, neurodiversity, and effective approaches to accomodation. Visit the National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) website for a full list of events and to register.
