Memorial’s acting president is kicking off the New Year with a personal challenge for his fellow staff and faculty members – make a cleaner, green Memorial.

Dr. Eddy Campbell would like every employee to opt out of receiving pay stubs, cutting down on the amount of paper used at the university.

“We are challenging faculty and staff to opt-out of receiving paper notifications of each payroll deposit,” he said. “We like to call this paperle$$ pay and it won’t cost you a cent.”

In fact, a new campaign has just been launched targeting staff and faculty.

• Watch a new video of Dr. Campbell explaining the benefits of the campaign and step-by-step instructions on how employees can opt out.

The goal is to get them to say “no” to paystubs and instead receive their pay notifications online.

A project of the Sustainability Office, Distance Education and Learning Technologies, the Department of Finance and Administration, and Human Resources, the campaign is running the entire month of January.

It will include weekly prizes drawn for all those who have opted out. Prizes include a gift certificate from Lifelong learning, an eco-office prize package from Corporate Express, a prize package from DELT, coffee mugs from the MUN bookstore and a gift certificate from Bitters.

There will also be two grand prizes at the end of campaign: a piece of blown glass art has been donated from Technical Services and another grand prize to be announced.

Up until Dec. 2008, only 742 staff and faculty – about 14 per cent of Memorial’s workforce – had opted out of receiving pay stubs. Roughly 4,460 employees still receive their stubs every two weeks.

“If you multiply 4,460 by 26 pay periods, that is nearly 116,000 sheets of paper plus another 116,000 envelopes that could be saved each year by opting for paperle$$ pay,” Dr. Campbell said.

All pay information for employees, including their most recent pay advice and data for the last 26 pay periods, is available on my.mun.ca, a password protected, confidential website.

Employees can click on the link to my.mun.ca from Memorial’s homepage. They then log in by typing their username and password.  If they do not have an account set up, they’ll need a pin number assigned by Human Resources. To receive a pin number, they can e-mail hronline@mun.ca, or call 737-2434.

“Once you are logged in, you can view your payroll information by clicking on employee services, then click on personal data and pay information,” Dr. Campbell explained. “To opt-out, simply click the no button in the lower, left hand corner and hit submit.  

“I challenge staff and faculty at Memorial to lead by example and say no to paper pay stubs and yes to paperless pay,” he added. “It will only take a minute to make a significant environmental and economical impact.”