About the State Universities Annuitants Association (SUAA)

Who does SUAA serve?

 SUAA represents current employees, retired individuals, their spouses, and their survivors.

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What are the benefits of being a member of SUAA?

SUAA is your voice at the Capitol and SUAA works hard to be heard. SUAA provides a communication network through emails, legislative bulletins, websites, workshops, and meetings that inform and update you on both local and state issues relative to and focused on your pension and healthcare benefits. 

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What are some examples of how SUAA has fought for our pension and healthcare benefits?

• Represented all SURS participants by suing the State of Illinois for Public Act 98-0599 - Pension reform, the law that was ruled unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court. This legislation significantly reduced benefits for current employees and retirees.

• Lobbied against a bill that would have allowed for abolishing tuition waivers for university personnel.

• Led the charge to defeat the addition of Section 5.1 to Article XIII of the State Constitution - SUAA CA 49 Ballot initiative - an initiative that would have been an attack on SURS current employees and retirees.

• Is positioned to fight for Tier 2 employees if it is determined that their pension benefits do not meet the Safe Harbor requirement (state pension must be equal to or better than social security benefits if they had been paying into social security instead of SURS.)

 

How do I become a member?

Go to suaa.org, click on Join or Renew Membership. You may also print a copy of the membership form by clicking here.

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How much are SUAA dues?

Northeastern Illinois University SUAA dues are $44 a year or $3.67 a month (if you use payroll deduction or monthly annuity deduction). You can pay by check, online, or sign up for payroll deduction/annuity deduction. If you are interested in using payroll deduction, click here for the payroll deduction form.

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A message from Alice Medenwald, President of the NEIU SUAA Chapter

I hope you will seriously consider joining SUAA. In addition to the above benefits, the NEIU Chapter sponsors two meetings each year where we have a variety of speakers on a variety of topics, these have included legislative updates by:

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• State representative Will Guzzardi

• Executive Director of SUAA Linda Brookhart

• Legislative Liaison for NIU SUAA Jim Lockhart

• and myself, President of NEIU SUAA Alice Medenwald.

 

Other topics have included:

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• cyber security

• retirement planning

• long term care insurance

• and a presentation by the Executive Director of SURS.

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We can expect continued attacks on our pension and healthcare benefits, just look at the newspaper on a weekly basis and you will see article after article on how our pension benefits are so harmful to the State. This topic is not going away. The larger our membership base is, the more the legislators will pay attention to what we have to say. With our Executive Director and our lobbyist housed in Springfield, we are in a great position to have our ear to the ground to hear and be heard. Please feel free to contact me at neiusuaa@gmail.com if you have any questions.