Vassar-College-403-b-Retirement-Plan-Summary-Plan-Description-for-Staff-Employees

The Plan allows employees of Vassar College the “College” to save and invest a portion of their earnings on a tax-deferred basis by making salary deferral contributions to the Plan.. Any

VASSAR COLLEGE

403(b) RETIREMENT PLAN

SUMMARY PLAN DESCRIPTION FOR STAFF EMPLOYEES

Vassar College

124 Raymond Avenue

Poughkeepsie, NY 12604 Tel: (845) 437-7000

2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 PURPOSE OF THE PLAN 1

3 ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 2

4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PLAN 2

5 FUNDING VEHICLES; INVESTMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS 5

6 IN-SERVICE WITHDRAWALS AND LOANS 7

7 DISTRIBUTIONS AFTER TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT 9

8 DEATH BENEFITS 10

9 TAX CONSIDERATIONS 11

10 ADMINISTRATION OF THE PLAN 12

11 CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING PLAN BENEFITS 13

12 PLAN PARTICIPANT’S RIGHTS 13

13 MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION 16

VASSAR COLLEGE 403(b) RETIREMENT PLAN

SUMMARY PLAN DESCRIPTION

This summary plan description (“SPD”) provides a brief description of the Vassar

College 403(b) Retirement Plan (the “Plan”) Prior to 2010, Vassar College (the “College”) maintained three separate 403(b) plans, the Vassar College Retirement Plan for Faculty and Administrators, the Vassar College Retirement Plan for Staff Employees and the Vassar College Supplemental Retirement Account Plan In 2010, the three separate plans were consolidated into the single plan described in this SPD Except where specifically noted, the consolidation of the three plans has had no effect on the substantive provisions of the Plan or on any participant’s benefit

Inside this SPD, you will find an explanation of your rights, obligations and benefits under the Plan However, this SPD is not the actual Plan The actual Plan is contained in a detailed legal document, a copy of which is available from the Benefits Office for review and copying by any employee who wishes to do so In the event of any conflict between any

statements in this SPD and the provisions of the plan document, the provisions of the Plan will govern

The Plan is a defined contribution plan that operates under Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code The purpose of the Plan is to provide retirement benefits for participating

employees Benefits are provided through Fidelity Investments as well as through the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) (referred to in this SPD as the “Fund Sponsors”) The College’s current selection of Fidelity Investments and TIAA-CREF as Fund Sponsors is not intended to limit future additions or deletions of Fund Sponsors You will be notified of any additions or deletions

If you have any questions about the Plan after reviewing this SPD, please contact the Benefits Office

The Plan allows employees of Vassar College (the “College”) to save and invest a portion

of their earnings on a tax-deferred basis by making salary deferral contributions to the Plan In addition, the Plan is designed to help employees who are eligible to receive employer

contributions attain financial security in their retirement years Each plan year (January 1 – December 31), the College will make a contribution for each eligible employee which is based

on the employee’s compensation The Plan should enable participants to achieve a significant source of retirement income, in addition to Social Security and other non-retirement plan

savings

3 ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Salary Deferral Contributions

All employees of the College, other than certain students working for the College, are eligible to participate in the Plan by making salary deferral contributions

If you are an eligible employee, you will be able to make salary deferral contributions starting on the first day of the month following your date of hire An eligible employee may make a rollover and/or transfer contribution (see Section 4, below) before becoming a participant

in the Plan

Employer Contributions

Job Classification – You are eligible to participate in the employer contribution portion of the Plan if you are employed by the College in one or more of the following employee

classifications and are not a student of the College:

 secretarial,

 clerical,

 technical,

 supervisory,

 regular full-time security officer, or

 carpenter

Age and Service Requirements – The employer contribution portion of the Plan is open to all eligible employees who have attained age 21 and completed two years of service A “year of service” is a 12-month period, starting on your hire date and anniversaries of that date, in which you are credited with at least 800 hours of service An hour of service is generally credited for every hour actually worked by an employee and for most paid non-working hours, such as vacation, holidays and sick days

Employer contribution participation begins on the first day of the month after you

complete two years of service or, if later, on the January 1 or July 1 that coincides with or next follows your 21st birthday An eligible employee may make a rollover and/or transfer

contribution (see Section 4, below) before becoming a participant in the Plan

4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PLAN

Salary Deferral Contributions

If you have satisfied the requirements for becoming a participant, you may elect to make salary deferral contributions to the Plan These are contributions that you make to the Plan instead of receiving those amounts in the form of taxable cash compensation You may elect to make salary deferral contributions in any dollar amount or whole percentage from 1% up to 100% of your compensation each year Compensation means all of the earnings subject to wage

withholding that you receive from the College for services during the portion of the plan year in which you are eligible to participate in the Plan

You may change or stop your salary deferral contributions on reasonable notice

(preferably by email) to the Plan Administrator Any salary deferral contributions you make to the Plan will be allocated to a separate salary deferral contribution account and will be subject to the restrictions and limitations that the Plan Administrator considers necessary or appropriate

Salary deferral contributions are subject to legal limits that may restrict the maximum amount you can contribute to the Plan One such limit is that your salary deferral contributions cannot exceed $16,500 (in 2010 and 2011, indexed for inflation) If this limit is exceeded, the Plan will refund the amount of salary deferral contributions needed to stay within the limit

Enrollment – You may begin making salary deferral contributions to the Plan by

completing and submitting an election form within a reasonable period (as determined by the Plan Administrator) before the date on which you wish to begin contributing You may submit

an election form upon becoming eligible to participate or at any later time; your election will become effective as of the first day of the first payroll period following the date on which the Plan Administrator timely receives the election form On the form, you must indicate the

percentage or amount of compensation that you wish to contribute to the Plan in lieu of receiving payment in cash After you have submitted the form to the Plan Administrator, your future salary or wage payments will be reduced by the amount you have elected to contribute to the Plan

Changing the Rate of Contributions – You may change the rate of your salary deferral contributions by giving advance written notice (preferably by email) to the Plan Administrator The change will become effective in the first payroll period following the Plan Administrator’s receipt of your written notice You may discontinue salary deferral contributions by filing a form with the Plan Administrator within a reasonable period (as determined by the Plan

Administrator) before the beginning of the payroll period in which the discontinuance is to become effective

Catch-up Contributions

If you are, or will reach, age 50 during a plan year, you may elect to make catch-up contributions to the Plan in the form of additional salary deferral contributions by submitting a completed election form to the Plan Administrator The maximum amount that you can

contribute to the Plan as a catch-up contribution for a plan year is $5,500 (in 2010 and 2011, indexed for inflation)

Before 2009, the Plan permitted certain participants who had completed at least 15 years

of employment with the College to make additional contributions beyond the regular

contributions and age-50 catch-up contributions After 2008, these additional contributions are

no longer permitted

Employer Contributions– Contributions will be made on behalf of each eligible

employee, in 12 monthly installments from July through June, in an amount equal to 11% of your basic annual salary or wages, if you are expected to complete at least 800 hours during this period

The amount of compensation that can be counted under the Plan is subject to a limit that is indexed for inflation If you are affected by this limit, you will be notified Any contributions made to the Plan on your behalf will be allocated to a separate employer contribution account and will be subject to the restrictions and limitations that the Plan Administrator considers necessary

or appropriate

Overall Limit on Contributions

There is a limit on the total contributions (College contributions under the Plan and salary deferral contributions) that may be made for a participant for any plan year under the Plan and each other 403(b) plan to which the College contributes You will be notified if you are affected

by the overall limit

Transfer Contributions

The Plan Administrator, in its sole discretion, may permit an eligible employee (even if not yet a participant) to transfer contributions to the Plan from another 403(b) plan or

arrangement Any such contributions allowed into the Plan will be allocated to a separate

transfer contribution account and will be subject to the same restrictions and limitations as

applied to the contributions when they were held under the transferor plan or arrangement, as well as such additional limits as the Plan Administrator considers necessary or appropriate

Rollover Contributions

If you have received a distribution from a retirement plan of your previous employer, you may be eligible to “roll over” that distribution to the Plan A “rollover contribution” may be made as a “direct rollover” from your previous employer’s plan, as a transfer within 60 days after you have received the distribution from your previous employer’s plan, or in certain cases from an individual retirement account that has been used as a conduit for the distribution from your previous employer’s plan After-tax contributions may not be rolled over into the Plan

The Fund Sponsor that will receive the rollover contribution must approve all such

contributions in advance If you wish to make a rollover contribution, the Fund Sponsor may require you to demonstrate that the legal requirements for a rollover contribution are satisfied

You should not withdraw funds from any other plan or account until you have received written approval from the Fund Sponsor for the rollover into the Plan

The types of distributions that may be rolled over into the Plan include distributions from tax-qualified plans, governmental plans and individual retirement accounts that contain only funds from a previous employer’s plan For more information about these rules, you may

contact the Benefits Office or a Fund Sponsor Any such contribution allowed into the Plan will

be allocated to a separate rollover contribution account and will be subject to the restrictions and limitations that the Plan Administrator considers necessary or appropriate

Vesting

You are always 100% vested in all contributions made to the Plan This means that you will always be entitled to receive 100% of the value of your accounts, even if you terminate employment before retirement

5 FUNDING VEHICLES; INVESTMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The contributions you make (your salary deferral contributions, rollover contributions and transfer contributions) and the College’s contributions made on your behalf are allocated to a Plan account established in your name which is held either in annuity contracts issued by TIAA-CREF or in custodial accounts established by Fidelity Investments, or both These contracts and accounts are referred to as the Plan’s “funding vehicles” You choose the funding vehicle(s) to which your contributions are allocated

Under the Plan, you may invest your account in any of the investment options available under the funding vehicle or vehicles you have selected The Plan’s menu of investment options

is included in this SPD as Appendix B This menu is subject to change as a result of periodic performance reviews More information on the Plan’s investment options is available from the Benefits Office and also on-line at the Vassar HR, TIAA-CREF and Fidelity Investments

websites:

http://humanresources.vassar.edu/benefits.retirement.menu.html http://www.tiaa-cref.org/vassar

http:///www.fidelity.com/atwork

If you do not choose investment options for your account, your funds will be invested in the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) offered by your Fund Sponsor If you choose Fidelity Investments as your Fund Sponsor, your QDIA will be Fidelity’s Freedom Funds If you choose TIAA-CREF, your QDIA will be TIAA-CREF’s Lifecycle Funds If you

do not choose a Fund Sponsor, your contributions will be split evenly between Fidelity and TIAA-CREF

The Freedom Funds and the Lifecycle Funds are targeted for a date near your 65th

birthday, and provide a mix of assets that shifts during the life of the account In early years, the assets are weighted towards diversified equities to provide moderate growth The assets are shifted periodically so that, as you near retirement, the portfolio becomes weighted towards fixed investments to guard against volatility at the time when the funds are withdrawn Specific information on the assets, objectives, risks and fees of these funds is provided on Fidelity’s and TIAA-CREF’s websites (see above) If your account is invested in one of the Plan’s QDIAs, for purposes of Section 404(c) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which is discussed below, your account will be considered to have been invested at your

direction

In all cases, even if your contributions are defaulted to the QDIA, you have the right to change your investment allocations at any time, using the full range of investment options available under the funding vehicles To change your allocations, contact TIAA-CREF or Fidelity directly, either via your secure log-in on their websites or by telephone at these numbers:

TIAA-CREF: 1-800-842-2776 Fidelity Investments: 1-800-343-0860

In directing your investments, you should remember that the amount of your benefits under the Plan will depend in part upon your choice of investments If you choose investments that produce gains and other earnings, your benefits will tend to increase in value over time Conversely, if you choose investments that have losses, your benefits will tend to decrease in value over time Losses can occur and there are no guarantees of performance

The College and the Plan Administrator will not provide you with investment advice The Fund Sponsors and their representatives may, however, advise you in accordance with Sections 408(b)(14) and 408(g) of ERISA for the provision of investment advice to participants and beneficiaries under Section 601 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA)

The College, the Plan Administrator, the Fund Sponsors, and their representatives do not insure or otherwise guarantee the value or performance of any investment you choose You are entirely responsible for any investment elections that you make

Participant Responsibility for Investment Decisions – The Plan is intended to meet the requirements of Section 404(c) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974

(ERISA) and the Department of Labor regulations implementing that provision This means that the fiduciaries of the Plan, such as the College, may be relieved of liability for any losses that are the direct and necessary result of investment instructions given by a participant

Certain information is given to you automatically in connection with the investment of your contributions In addition, the following information can be obtained upon request from the Plan Administrator’s representative:

(i) a description of the operating expenses of each of the Plan’s specific investment alternatives;

(ii) information concerning the value of units or shares in the Plan’s investment alternatives and their historical performance;

(iii) a listing of assets comprising the portfolio of each investment alternative, the value of such assets (or the proportion of the investment fund which it comprises) and, with respect to each asset which is a fixed rate investment contract issued by a bank, savings and loan association or insurance company, the name of the issuer of the contract, the term of the contract and the rate of return of the contract;

(iv) copies of prospectuses, financial statements and reports, and other materials provided to the Plan regarding its investment alternatives; and

(v) information concerning the value of shares or units (if applicable) in each investment alternative in which the requesting participant has funds invested

In general, there is a prospectus for each of the investment options available through the Plan The prospectus sets forth the fund’s investment objectives, strategies and risks, presents historical performance figures for the fund, and describes the fund’s operating expenses You are encouraged to read all of the prospectuses carefully so that you can choose which investment funds are best suited for you You can get updated prospectuses and investment information for these funds by contacting the Plan Administrator or the relevant Fund Sponsor

Each of the investment alternatives made available through the Plan may have certain operating expenses, such as management fees, brokerage commissions, transfer taxes and other expenses Each of the expenses is, in general, deducted from the contract and/or fund and is, therefore, reflected in each investment alternative’s value As a result, investment-related

expenses are borne by the participants’ investments Not all of the investment alternatives have the same type or amount of expenses More specific information about the expenses incurred by each investment alternative is detailed in the relevant prospectus, which you are encouraged to read

Since the Plan is regarded under the federal tax laws as a program to provide retirement benefits, withdrawals or distributions of money from the Plan before retirement are restricted and may be subject to penalty taxes (as well as regular income taxes) in certain circumstances You should therefore treat the Plan as a means to accumulate tax-advantaged savings and to invest for the long term, and should not use the Plan to make short-term investments

Withdrawals After Age 59½

In accordance with such procedures as the Administrator may establish from time to time and to the extent permitted by the funding vehicles, you may withdraw all or part of your salary deferral account balance under the Plan once you reach age 59½

Rollover Contribution Withdrawal

In accordance with such procedures as the Administrator may establish from time to time and to the extent permitted by the funding vehicles, you may withdraw all or part of the balance credited to your rollover contribution account at any time

Financial Hardship Withdrawal

Subject to the terms of the funding vehicles, if you are actively employed and suffer a

“financial hardship” for one of the reasons described below, you may receive a financial

hardship withdrawal from your salary deferral contributions account, rollover contribution account and transfer contribution account up to the amount needed to meet your financial

obligations resulting from the hardship Any investment income earned on your salary deferral contributions may not be withdrawn on account of financial hardship

A financial hardship, as defined in the Plan, can result only from:

 medical expenses for members of your immediate family not covered by

insurance;

 post-secondary education expenses of a member of your immediate family;

 purchase of a principal residence for yourself;

 payments necessary to prevent your eviction from your principal residence or to prevent foreclosure on the mortgage on that residence;

 payments for burial or funeral expenses of your deceased parent, spouse, child

or dependent; or

 expenses for the repair of damage to your principal residence deductible as a casualty loss

Hardship withdrawals are also permitted for medical, tuition (educational) and funeral expenses for your primary beneficiary under the plan Your “primary beneficiary” is an

individual who is named as your beneficiary under the plan and has an unconditional right to some or all of your account balance following your death

Upon incurring a financial hardship, you must apply in writing to the Plan Administrator describing the nature of the hardship and the amount that you want to withdraw The amount of any hardship withdrawal may be increased to provide for anticipated taxes and penalties To be considered for a hardship withdrawal, you’ll need to complete an application form and supply supporting documentation required by the Plan Administrator

Hardship withdrawals may not be rolled over to another plan or to an individual retirement arrangement Since these withdrawals may not be rolled over, they are not subject to income tax withholding A hardship withdrawal is, however, subject to income taxes, as well as to a 10% penalty tax if received before age 59½ Your salary deferral contributions to the Plan and all other plans of the Employer will be suspended for a period of six months after the withdrawal

Loans to Participants

Subject to the terms of the funding vehicles, a Fund Sponsor may authorize a loan to you from your salary deferral contributions account, rollover contribution account and transfer

contribution account in an amount not to exceed the lesser of 50% of the value of such accounts

or $50,000 The loan must be repaid in regular installments over a period no longer than five years, unless the loan is made for the purpose of purchasing a principal residence in which case the term of the loan may be longer The loan will bear a reasonable rate of interest You may have only one loan outstanding at any time To obtain a loan, you must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Fund Sponsor that you can repay the loan in accordance with its terms, and you must sign a promissory note in favor of the Plan Your account balance must be pledged as security for the loan

Subject to the requirements of the promissory note, if you stop working for the College before your loan is repaid, your loan will immediately become due and payable, subject to a 60-day grace period Any outstanding loan balance will automatically be deducted from your

account before it is distributed to you