At Lehman, we hosted an adjunct meeting on Thursday, May 6, mainly for the purpose of disseminating information re pensions. Ellen Balleisen from PSC spoke about the nuts and bolts of joining TRS. More importantly, she spoke to the importance of joining TRS. CUNY doesn’t make this information that freely known, but by joining TRS and contributing 3 percent of your pay, after 10 years of service, that 3 percent is no longer applicable. They continue to contribute to your pension, and you may not be rich in your retirement, but CUNY will provide you a pension (based on a complicated formula that I can’t/won’t go into here, for the rest of your life. I, who came to teaching rather late in life, will probably end up with something around $7000/$8000 a year. I will gladly take it. For what will end up being a $7000 contribution over those 10 years, I will make that back within a year and then have CUNY helping to support me in my OA. If you don’t join TRS, CUNY gets to keep that money that is for you.

The other important thing she talked about was joining a TDA, an annuity. You can have as little as 1 percent taken from your pay, but you’ll be building up another chunk of tax-deferred money. If you’re planning to be an adjunct for the unforeseen future, you really need to enroll in TRS. Why let CUNY keep that money!