*These services are subject to change at any time and should not be considered a contract between the employee and Winthrop University.

Why join the Winthrop family?  The following are some of the amenities and services available to Winthrop employees:

Arts and Entertainment

The university hosts numerous performances and exhibits during the school year that are free or offered for reduced admission with a campus I.D.  Classes are offered for a fee to employees and their families. 

• Art exhibitions and lectures  www.winthrop.edu/vpa/galleries
• Dinkins Student Union events – comedians, musicians, dancers, poets, and lecturers www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/dsu
• Foreign film series
• Music, theatre and dance productions www.winthrop.edu/vpa

• Readings by poets and authors.

Banking Facilities

Automatic teller machines are available for use on the main level of Dinkins Student Center, in Thomson Cafeteria, and in the Tillman/Margaret Nance passageway.

Bookstore

The Bookworm at Winthrop University sells school supplies, textbooks, imprinted clothing and gifts, general books and faculty-authored books. Faculty and staff may place special orders for general books or supplies not in stock.  The Bookworm offers a 30 percent discount every day on The New York Times best sellers.  Faculty may order/rent graduation regalia from The Bookworm.   Faculty and staff receive a 10 percent discount on most items purchased at The Bookworm.

Community Activities

Winthrop coordinates and joins area community agencies to host the following events:

• Black History Month – including events to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Convocation and Community Picnic – the opening of the academic year

• Festival of Carols – tree lighting ceremony and holiday musical performance

• Kwanzaa - celebrating the “First Fruits” tradition of agricultural people in Africa

• Olde English Madrigal Feaste – Renaissance holiday festival and dinner

Credit Union

Owned and operated by its members, the Winthrop Credit Union may be joined by any employee on Winthrop’s payroll.  The union offers competitive earned savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer loans and two on-campus teller machines.

Educational Opportunities

• Winthrop sponsors an Employee Educational Assistance Program which grants tuition waivers for eligible employees.  www.winthrop.edu/recandreg/services/EEAP.htm. 
• The university’s New Start program assists returning adult students with the admission process and provides an ongoing source of support and information. www.winthrop.edu/newstart/ 
• The Teaching and Learning Center sponsors professional development seminars as well as an ongoing reading and computer skills program for staff.  www.winthrop.edu/tlc/
• Vocational/career guidance is available to employees and their immediate family members through Winthrop’s Center for Career Development and Service Learning.  www.winthrop.edu/careers
• Faculty and teacher education candidates in the Riley College of Education provide tutoring in reading and language arts for approximately 50 school-aged children for seven weeks each semester.  Mathematics tutoring is available in the summer.
• The Academy of Music provides music instruction in piano, guitar, percussion, voice, violin, viola, and wind instruments to children in pre-K to 12^th grade.  Pre-school children can participate in Kindermusik, a national curriculum designed to stimulate a child's cognitive, social, language, physical and emotional development through music.

Employee Benefits & Services

• Winthrop offers direct deposits to off-campus bank accounts and payroll deductions for approved loans at the Winthrop Credit Union and various 401K, 403B and 457 retirement plans.
• Flexible spending accounts are available for medical and dependent care expenses.  A Health Savings Plan is offered with a high-deductible health insurance plan.
• The State of South Carolina offers sick and annual leave to eligible state employees.  Bereavement leave and military leave are also available for eligible employees.
• Eligible Winthrop employees can participate in the South Carolina Retirement System, www.retirement.sc.gov/, and/or optional retirement plans such as TIAA-CREF, AIG VALIC, MetLife and the Hartford.
• Eligible employees can obtain state health and dental insurance, www.eip.sc.gov/, life insurance, dependent life insurance, long-term care insurance and long-term disability insurance.
• Winthrop observes 12 paid holidays each year.

Employee Discounts 

Many hotels offer a discounted rate for government employees while on university business travel.  Eligible employees can receive a Perkscard from the State of South Carolina.  This card provides savings at an assortment of national retailers.  In addition, a variety of discounts are offered to Winthrop employees from local businesses.

Food Service

ARAMARK, Winthrop's dining service partner, operates four on-campus food courts/restaurants:  Thomson Café (all you care to eat for one price), The Courtyard, Dinkins Food Court and the Eagles Nest Food Court at Winthrop Coliseum.  ARAMARK also operates on-campus convenience stores – C3 Express in the West Center, the Eagle Port in Dinkins and Eagle Express in Thomson, as well as the Java City coffeehouse. 

Employees can purchase Café Cash, which works the same as a debit card by having a declining monetary account balance on your Winthrop I.D. Café Cash saves you sales tax on all food purchases and is convenient to carry.  Once you add Café Cash to your account, you can make purchases at any dining service location by simply presenting your I.D. card to the cashier. Café Cash can be used in any dining location on campus.

All campus dining locations also accept cash and credit cards (MasterCard or Visa).

Locations, hours of operation and menus may be found at the Dining Services website:  www.winthrop.edu/dining

Guest Lodging

Elegantly appointed, but reasonably priced, suites are available on campus for your guests at The Inn at Winthrop.  The Inn offers the conveniences and amenities of a modern lodging facility, but in a historic, traditional setting.  www.winthrop.edu/inn

Library

Ida Jane Dacus Library houses all of the university's library holdings and archives, and offers a wide range of services to faculty and staff including reference, interlibrary loan, library instruction, laptops, online database searches and closed carrels (with Internet access) for faculty research projects. In addition to the Dacus Online Catalog (DOC) the library also supports wireless access throughout the building and offers Internet accessible study carrels.  More than 80 databases are available electronically, and more than 600,000 volumes are housed in the building.  Employees are permitted to borrow books, subject to recall, for extended periods.  Employees’ immediate family members may receive loan privilege cards to borrow books for a two-week period.  Free term paper counseling for employees’ high school-aged students is offered.  The library also hosts a number of free exhibits and displays, some with accompanying lectures.

International Travel Opportunities

Travel abroad programs are offered by academic programs and the International Center, mainly during semester breaks and summer months, and some are extended to Winthrop employees and their families.  The International Center also hosts Passport Night each fall, an opportunity for the Winthrop community to apply for or renew U.S. passports. www.winthrop.edu/international center

A Travel Clinic is coordinated by Health Services and offers pre-travel assessment, vaccine updates, prevention medications and information about destination-specific health issues and first-aid needs.  www.winthrop.edu/hcs/healthservices-travelclinic.htm

Post Office

The university maintains a mail service with daily pickup and delivery. The Post Office is located in Dinkins Student Center. Intra-campus mail, U.S. mail, and intra-agency mail for professional use may be sent and received through the campus mail services.

Pre-School and Kindergarten Program

Winthrop is home to Macfeat Early Childhood Laboratory School, founded in 1892. Macfeat enrolls approximately 60 three, four and five-year old children in full and half-day programs.  The school serves as a research and demonstration site for the preparation of future teachers in areas such as early childhood and elementary education.  Staffed by professional educators and graduate and undergraduate students, Macfeat offers a child-centered program that fosters exploration, creativity, collaboration and independence.  The school is fully accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs, a division of the National Accreditation for the Education of Young Children. 

Professional and Personal Development Programs

• An eclectic array of presentations and workshops for and by members of the Winthrop learning community are made available through the Teaching and Learning Center.  Program topics reflect a diversity of interests and needs and range from professional to more personal aspects of self-development. www.winthrop.edu/tlc/  
• On-campus technology classes are offered throughout the year to employees through Winthrop’s Information Technology Department.  The Birdnest Web page provides space on the Winthrop server for individual Web sites. 
• Research and travel opportunities are available for faculty and staff for professional development purposes.
• The Outdoor Education Center (OEC) offers specialized group learning experiences in an effective non-traditional setting.  Located at the university’s athletic, recreational and research complex, OEC staff use creative games, warm-ups and a high rope course to teach skills in team building, self-confidence and more for campus departments and student groups.

Recreation and Wellness Opportunities

• Winthrop’s athletic department offers free admission to employees and their immediate family members to all home athletic events.  Winthrop athletes compete at the NCAA Division I level in the Big South Conference. Varsity sports include men's and women's basketball, indoor and outdoor track, cross country, tennis, soccer, and golf; women’s volleyball and softball; and men’s baseball.
• Winthrop’s Office of Recreational Sports, the Health and Physical Education Department, and the Athletics Department offer a vast array of opportunities for employees to pursue a healthy lifestyle such as:

v      health fair and wellness screenings

v      9-hole golf course

v      tennis courts

v      racquetball court

v      disc golf course

v      weight room

v      fitness classes

v      basketball courts

v      indoor swimming pool

v      intramural sports and tournaments

Research Activities

The Sponsored Programs and Research Office provides assistance in finding external sponsors, applying for funds and in administering the grant program.  The university subscribes to InfoEd, an Internet-based funding search program and sponsors an internally funded grant program, with an annual competition for funds to support summer and academic-year research activities and curriculum development.

Volunteer Opportunities

Winthrop’s Center for Career Development and Service Learning encourages civic responsibility and service by matching students’ and employees’ specific volunteer interests/goals with needs of the local community.  www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/servicelearning/ 

The Teaching and Learning Center recruits volunteers for the on-campus WILL program (Winthrop Invests in Lifelong Learning), an ongoing reading and computer skills program for staff.

In addition, the university teams with community members and organizations to promote a variety of fundraising activities including:

• Crop Walk - Church World Service; an organization of 36 denominations united to relieve poverty, aid in development and provide disaster and refugee assistance worldwide
• Light the Night – a fundraising walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

• Relay for Life – a fundraising walk for the American Cancer Society
• Winthrop Campus Ministries

• United Way Campaign

Wireless Internet Access

Wireless Internet access is currently available in many campus locations.  Wireless access allows laptop computer users (with appropriate software) to surf the Internet or check e-mail without plugging into a network outlet. 

Youth Summer Programs

Sports and performing arts summer camps and programs are available to children of university employees.

*The above services are subject to change at any time and should not be considered a contract between the employee and Winthrop University.