HR News Updates | December 2025

The CSUN campus will be closed Thursday, December 25, 2025 through Thursday, January 1, 2026.

December 25, 26, 29, 30 and January 1 are University observed holidays. However, Wednesday, December 31 is not covered by an observed holiday.  Eligible employees may charge their absence on this date to accrued leave time, i.e.: vacation, personal holiday, or if appropriate, Compensatory Time Off (CTO).  Employees who are employed on an academic year basis or who are not scheduled to work on December 31 (i.e. hourly/intermittent employees) are exempt from charging leave accruals for this day. Consult with your manager if you have questions.

The campus will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2026 in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day.

The Spring 2026 semester officially begins Thursday, January 15, 2026, with weekday instruction beginning Tuesday, January 20th for classes meeting on weekdays, and Saturday, January 24th for weekend schedules.

2025 W-2s will be issued in January by the State Controller's Office and mailed to the address on record in SOLAR HR as of close of business, Monday, December 15, 2025.

If your mailing address has changed, please go online today and update your records through the CSUN Portal. Once logged on to the CSUN Portal: 

1. Navigate to the “HR” tab
2. Select “Personal Information”
3. Select “Update Personal Information”
4. Select “Change home/mailing address”

Remember - current and past (up to four years) W-2 and monthly earning statements are available online through your Cal Employee Connect account.

Enroll in Cal Employee Connect Now for Timely and Easy Online Access to Your W-2 Information

Cal Employee Connect (CEC) allows CSUN employees to securely view up to four (4) years of their earnings statements and W-2’s, along with personal information online. Cal Employee Connect reduces state costs and workload by providing a tool for all state employees to access their earnings information electronically. CEC offers a range of tools to help you view your earnings, update tax withholdings, and calculate changes with breakdowns of deductions to earnings. CEC also enables you to enroll in and manage your Direct Deposit status. To learn more about CEC or how to enroll, we invite you to visit here.

You’re eligible for Direct Deposit!
If you currently receive direct deposit, please disregard this message.

Due to the campus closure on December 31st 2025, employees expecting to pick up their live pay warrant on this day for the December monthly pay period must submit the DECEMBER 2025 PAY WARRANT PICK UP Adobe Sign form by Wednesday, December 17th 2025. The form can be accessed here. Note, the 5-Digit Dept ID# on the form must reflect the same department number listed on your previous live warrants.

Employees who do not turn in this form, will not be able to pick up their pay warrant on this day and must wait for the normal distribution from the DDR once campus reopens. This form only applies to the December 2025 monthly pay warrants and does not apply to mid-month warrants for student and graduate assistants. 

Live warrants will be available for pick up on Wednesday, December 31st from 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. at the front counter of University Cash Services in the lobby of Bayramian Hall. A US Government Issued ID or CSUN ID will be required to release your warrant. If you are employed by more than one department and receive more than one pay warrant, please submit a separate form for each department. All remaining live pay warrants will be available through regular distribution to DDRs on January 2nd 2026.

For any questions, please contact University Cash Services at ext. 8000, option 1 or by emailing ucs@csun.edu.

The safety and well-being of our campus community is a priority for CSUN. As such, we are committed to providing our employees with online training for Gender Equity and Title IX and CSU’s Discrimination Harassment Prevention Program for Non-Supervisors & Supervisors. Trainings can be completed via a computer or tablet with an Internet browser and are not available via a mobile device.  

All CSUN employees are requested to complete all mandatory training courses by 11:59 p.m. December 19, 2025. For questions or issues with accessing the training, please contact Heather Kennedy in Human Resources at 818-677-5168 or via csu-learn@csun.edu.

As a reminder, CSU policy restricts Student Assistant work time. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service guidelines for student assistants to remain exempt from social security and Medicare deductions, limits their normal working hours to 20 during the school year. An exception is allowed during winter inter-session, spring break, and summer session.

The following information is provided as we approach the Winter Break and transition between semesters.

Work Hours: 

• During the Academic Semester (please see CSUN campus academic calendar), Student Assistants may work up to 20 hours per week total in all positions across campus.
• When school is not in session due to semester breaks (outside of the academic semester), Student Assistants may work up to a maximum of 40 hours per week, but may not be scheduled to work overtime. Overtime is defined as more than 40 hours per week. A work week is Sunday through Saturday. A schedule may exceed 8 hours a day provided the total for the week does not exceed 40 hours. The Controller's Office will not issue payments to Student Assistants in excess of 168 hours for a 21-day period, nor in excess of 176 hours for a 22-day period.
• Note: Please see guidance on Holidays below related to campus closures.
• When the academic semester starts in the middle of a work week it is a “split” week. For example, when the beginning of the semester is on a Wednesday, the 1st two days of week are still in the "Break" time period can be full-time, while the remaining days of the week would be under the restriction to work half- time.
  • One Example is:
  • Monday = 8 hours
    Tuesday = 8 hours
    Wednesday = 4 hours
    Thursday = 4 hours
    Friday = 4 hours
  • Total hours that can be worked in this “split” week scenario is 28 hours.
  • The actual hours per day worked in that week can be in any combination resulting in the slightly higher than 20 hours per week cap.
  • Note: Information regarding split weeks will be communicated to the campus community via email through HR News and Payroll towards the end of the semester, at the appropriate time.
• Federal Work-Study students may only work up to a total of 20 hours per week in all positions. 

Holidays: Student Assistants are not expected to work on campus holiday closure days.

• The University supports holidays as a time of celebration, or recognition of the designated individual. This is a reminder that only employees, including student employees, essential to maintaining specific departmental operations/services should be assigned to work on official campus holidays. Campus building are not serviced on holiday closure days, and access may be limited.
• If there's a critical requirement for a student to work when campus is closed, the department will need to submit a formal request to Employee Relations for approval before scheduling. The request should include justification for the need, the work to be performed, and who will be supervising the student worker(s). The request for approval must be submitted to HR at er@csun.edu, at least 15 calendar days before the holiday closure.
• After obtaining approval from HR, the Appropriate MPP Administrator should take the necessary steps to ensure that the student works under the supervision of the appropriate staff member. As with any workday, the appropriate supervising staff member(s) should be on site with the student employees when they are scheduled to work.

Breaks & Lunch: Generally, students shall be given a 15-minute break during a 4-hour shift, and at least a 30-minute break for lunch during a 5 to 6-hour shift. The 15-minute break is paid time; the 30-minute lunch is unpaid time. The 15-minute break cannot be accumulated for lunch and cannot alter the normal work schedule. For additional guidelines, please reference Rest Break and Meal Period Scenarios here.

Overtime: In California, overtime is defined as more than 40 hours per week.

• Student assistants do not qualify for overtime. Therefore, they must never work more than 40 hours a week. There are no exceptions to this prohibition.
• Student Assistants who meet eligibility may work up to a maximum of 40 hours per week when outside of the Academic Semester, but may not be scheduled to work overtime.
• A schedule may exceed 8 hours a day provided the total for the week does not exceed 40 hours.

Multiple Concurrent Student Assistant Appointments:

• Student employees may be concurrently employed as a Student Assistant, Work-Study Student Assistant, Instructional Student Assistant, Graduate Assistant, and Teaching Associate as long as they don’t exceed a combined total of 20 hours per week during a regular semester and 40 hours per week during a semester break (if they are not enrolled in classes on campus). However, student employees may not concurrently hold a staff or lecturer/faculty position or two concurrent work-study positions.
• Students holding more than one job should inform their departments of the multiple appointments.
• The departments share responsibility to ensure that all hours worked do not exceed the weekly maximum, or that overtime is triggered inadvertently.
• The dept. should use the Student Employment Eligibility Report before and/or after the student is hired to determine if the student employee holds multiple positions on campus.
• Please discuss multiple concurrent appointments with the student and the other hiring department to coordinate the scheduling of work.

Student Employees Graduating in December:

• Graduating students (excluding those in the 1868 job code) may continue working through January 14, 2026, as Bridge Student Assistants (job code 1874), with proper approval.
• Graduating students in the 1868 job code who are on an F-1 student visa may work only through December 24, 2025, in accordance with USCIS guidelines.
• For any follow-up questions, please contact Solvi Ericson in HR Operations at solvi.ericson@csun.edu.

Your enrollment in Cal Employee Connect (CEC) allows you to conveniently and securely view your payroll statements and W-2's online, 24/7, set-up or change your Direct Deposit, or make changes to your Withholdings.

Direct Deposit is a convenient way to automatically deposit all of your net earnings into the financial institution of your choice. Once you enroll, all your payments, including supplemental payments such as overtime, awards/bonuses, etc., are transferred to your financial institution.

Cal Employee Connect

Cal Employee Connect (CEC) allows CSUN employees to securely view up to four (4) years of their earnings statements and W-2’s, along with personal information online. Cal Employee Connect reduces state costs and workload by providing a tool for all state employees to access their earnings information electronically.

CEC offers a range of tools to help you view your earnings, update tax withholdings, and calculate changes with breakdowns of deductions to earnings. To learn more about CEC or how to enroll, we invite you to visit here.

Direct Deposit - Enrollment Overview

1. Log into your Cal Employee Connect (CEC) account.
2. Select Employee Services > Direct Deposit.
   1. Submitting a direct deposit form via CEC requires the employee to be on campus or connected to the CSUN VPN.
3. Follow the instructions to fill out the form and submit.
   1. Enrollment takes 2 pay cycles (30 to 60 days).

View more information about Direct Deposit for CSUN employees here.

Payroll Taxes and Withholding

Employees that would like to make changes to their tax withholding options for federal and state income taxes may now submit these electronically through their Cal Employee Connect account. Once logged on,

1. Navigate to the “Employee Services” tab.
2. Select “Tax Withholdings.”
3. Follow the prompts and the requested information.

View more information about Payroll Taxes and Withholdings here.

Please ensure that your vacation balance as of December 31, 2025 is at or below your maximum carryover per your applicable bargaining agreement.

You may view your leave balances online through the CSUN Portal at www.csun.edu. Once in the portal, follow: CSUN Employee Portal > HR > Time & Attendance > View Absence Balances. If you are not able to view your balances, please see your department Timekeeper.

Also, remember to consider your vacation accruals for November and December when calculating the number of hours you must use before January 1st.  To view your “Maximum Carryover Hours” and calculate your vacation usage, refer to https://www.csun.edu/benefits/leave-absence-programs/vacation.

Special note for Faculty: After one (1) full year of employment, a California Faculty Association (R03) employee who accrues vacation [Full-time ten (10) month and twelve (12) month faculty unit employees] shall take at least forty (40) hours of vacation each calendar year. Any part of the forty (40) hours not taken during the calendar year shall be forfeited by January 1 of the subsequent year (Article 34.7)

Finally, your "Personal Holiday" time earned with the year must be used before January 1, or it will be forfeited.

Are you looking for a summary of CSU provided benefits? You can view an overview summary of systemwide benefits to eligible employees by visiting Employee Benefits Summary.

Plan your 2025-2026 year with the Pay Calendars and Holiday Schedule available here.

Total compensation includes your salary and the value of your benefit package, based on your appointment type.

As an employee of the CSU system, you have comprehensive health and retirement benefits. To see the equivalent value of your total compensation, use the Total Compensation Calculator.

To view the most current CSU Employee Benefits Summary visit https://www.csun.edu/benefits/employee-benefits-summary.

We understand that sometimes it can be challenging to prioritize self-care time throughout the workweek or even during the workday. 

Our mental health benefits partner, Calm, has curated various resources below to help you incorporate self-care into your daily routine. 

These resources can help kickstart your self-care journey by relieving stress levels and improving your overall well-being: 

• Body’s Check Engine Light
  • In this 7-minute guided movement session, Mel Mah will support you in doing a soothing body scan and relaxing different body parts with gentle stretches, allowing you to create an easy self-care practice today. 
• 528 Hz Piano for Self-Care Healing
  • In this 9-track music album with Rhys Michael Phillips, you’ll listen to piano music set at 528 Hz, a frequency great for reducing stress and cultivating inner peace.
• Moments of Calm: Self-Care
  • In this 1-minute Moments of Calm session with Chibs Okereke, you’ll learn about a quick and effective self-care practice that you can do anytime throughout the day and feel a bit brighter. 
• Radical Self-Care
  • In this 10-day masterclass series with Lama Rod Owens, you’ll explore and try different self-care tools to see which ones you can adopt into your daily routine and create a nourishing practice that helps you tune into your body and care for your overall health. 

Try one of the resources above in the Calm app and start creating a self-care routine that you can easily integrate into your daily life.

Check out the Calm app for other diverse resources that’ll support your mental health journey. Haven't redeemed your free Calm Premium subscription yet? Visit the HR Benefits Calm website for information on how to activate your account.

Join an upcoming Calm webinar to learn how to personalize your app experience. Learn new mindfulness techniques or strategies with special monthly themed webinars.

Take advantage of your newest benefit as a CSUN Employee

Whether you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes, Calm’s diverse content library offers resources to suit your schedule and needs. Explore guided meditations and specialized music playlists to help with stress and focus, mindful movement video and audio, relaxing Sleep Stories, tailored content for children, wisdom-filled masterclasses led by experts, and much more.

Employees with Kaiser Permanente as their health plan provider already have access to Calm and may sign-up directly through Kaiser. All other state-side employees should simply follow the instructions below to gain full access to Calm - the #1 app for mental fitness.

To Get Started

• Visit the following link: Calm for CSUN Employees
• Sign up with your personal email address (or log in to an existing account)
• Validate your work email address or Employee ID

Once complete, you can download the Calm app and log into your new account. Your Calm subscription gives you unlimited access to the full library of content at calm.com and in the Calm app. In fact, you can now share your Calm subscription with up to five additional devices with your same login credentials. Enjoy the perks of Calm with your family and loved ones – all while becoming happier and healthier together! Calm's mobile app elements are accessible to mobile assistive technology such as screen readers like Voiceover for iOS and Talkback for Android and these devices' native live-captioning and subtitle capabilities. If you do not have this assistive technology on your device, you can use Calm's web app to utilize their assistive technology.

Sign up for one of Calm’s Live Employee Welcome Sessions to learn more.

Please note that Calm only shares aggregated user data. For more information, see their privacy policy at calm.com/privacy.

Visit the HR Benefits Calm website for more information and FAQs.

We are excited to announce new online resources. The new features include the following:

• MyWellBeing-  A wellbeing profile that allows users to evaluate their current strengths and identify areas for improvement in key domains:  Physical, Community, Social, Career and Financial. 
• Togetherall-  Peer support community where users can connect anonymously with others on a wide range of behavioral health topics.

As a Cal State University Northridge employee, when you or your family members (your dependents and permanent household members) need helpful guidance, problem assessment, short-term counseling, and/or referral to local resources, your LifeMatters@CSUN program (administered by Empathia Pacific, Inc.) is just a phone call away, and it is available on a live basis, 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

For Direct Assistance (Free & Confidential), call LifeMatters at 1-800-367-7474

         Or, Log on to myLifeMatters.com*

* If you need the LifeMatters password, please log into the CSUN Portal here.

Starting January 1, 2026, a new rule under the SECURE 2.0 Act, will impact how certain employees can make catch up contributions to their retirement plans.

What’s Changing?

If you’re turning age 50 or older in 2026 and your total 2025 FICA wages (Box 3 on your 2025 form W-2) were over $145,000*, any catch-up contributions you make in 2026 must be made as after-tax Roth contributions.  If your retirement plan does not offer a Roth option, you will not be able to make catch-up contributions.

What does this mean for you?

If your FICA wages were over $145,000* in 2025, catch-up contributions must be made as after-tax Roth contributions in 2026.

If your FICA wages were $145,000* or less, you can choose to make catch-up contributions as pre-tax or Roth, depending on your plan options.

Steps you can take now

• Talk to a financial or tax advisor to understand how this change may affect your retirement strategy.
• Review your current contributions and plan options.
• Login to netbenefits.com to view or update your contribution elections.

*Indexed Annually

As a California State University employee, you work hard to support and shape the future. At California Casualty, we believe you deserve the same dedication and protection in return. That’s why we offer an exceptional auto and home insurance program designed for CSU faculty and staff. 

With this special program, you’ll receive:

• Personalized coverage tailored to meet your unique needs
• Award-winning service from a team that’s been protecting CSU employees since 1989
• Special rates and discounts that aren’t available to the general public

As part of your employee benefit, we invite you to call 1 (833) 989-3900 for your free policy review with one of our trusted advisors. If you decide to switch, we’ll make it quick and easy—and even help you get a refund of any unused premiums from your current insurance company.

For over 100 years, California Casualty has been keeping our promise of delivering valuable benefits, protection and superior customer service. That’s peace of mind.

Get an online quote or call today at 1 (833) 989-3900 to discover why so many of your colleagues have already made the switch to the preferred auto and home insurance provider for CSU faculty and staff.

Your commitment to others deserves the best in return. Let us help protect what matters most to you.

Learn More & Get a Quote Call 1 (833) 989-3900

We’re here for you—whenever you’re ready. 2025 California Casualty. Coverage, rates, discounts, benefits and availability may vary by state or area and are subject to underwriting approval. Call for details. CA Lic #0041343