Ohio University’s Human Resources department started a book club in December 2024 to review taxation regulations for students and faculty who are not U.S. citizens.
During OU’s university updates in January, Vice President of Human Resources Mary Elizabeth Miles announced the development of the book club and why it was created.
Miles said she was proud after hearing about the book club because it helps human resources employees learn the regulations of Glacier, the university’s system of record for the documentation of visas for students and faculty.
During her presentation, Miles also called out Ana Tomas, chief of staff for the vice president of human resources because she started and currently runs the book club.
Tomas said Glacier is the company that helps the university process taxation compliances for individuals at OU who come to the U.S. to work but are not U.S. citizens.
According to Glacier, the exact language for this group of individuals is “non-resident aliens,” Tomas said, but human resources often call them foreign nationals.
“We discovered last year that our team needed some help with understanding the beginnings of non-resident alien taxation,” Tomas said. “The book, it's a platform to help employers be compliant with the non-resident alien tax if they weren't going to buy (Glacier’s) products."
Tomas said she leads discussions at the book club meetings, and with this role, she chooses important pieces from each chapter for the club to focus on for the duration of the meeting. She said she only picks topics that apply to OU’s system.
“It's important for our team to understand how Glacier and non-resident alien tax compliance is multi-faceted and wide-ranging throughout the university,” Tomas said. “It doesn't just affect human resources.”
It is not required for every employee from human resources to attend every Glacier Club meeting, Tomas said, but every member of the payroll team is asked to be there.
Some individuals who are not on the human resources payroll are also asked to attend some meetings, such as volunteers from the human resources employee service center and human resource liaisons.
“They don't really need to know as much as the payroll team needs to know, but it's very helpful in case we need to help support the payroll team, especially when we go through like fall hiring, and we have a lot of students, and it can be very overwhelming,” Tomas said.
Thomas said the fall semester brings the largest influx of foreign nationals for OU, of both students and faculty, who require human resources’ taxation services.
“In the spring, we have about a dozen or so. In the fall, we have much more,” Tomas said. “It's anywhere from like 100 to 200 depending on how many are accepted and arrive.”
The significant increase in the fall semester is because this is typically when master’s and Ph.D. programs begin, while fewer programs start in the spring.
This spring semester, Samantha Pelham, communications and public relations strategist, said there are no incoming faculty who are foreign nationals to talk about the work that the Glacier Club is doing.
Tomas said the Glacier club will continue to meet throughout the upcoming years because the human resources employees will need to stay up to date with updates to compliance regulations.
“They issue a new book every year, so we'll be getting the book every year and having a discussion on it every year,” Tomas said.
Tomas also said there are expectations for the regulatory book club to expand past just the Glacier tax regulations to other human resources-related books.
“We are going to be expanding the book club outside of just Glacier, and we're super excited for that,” Tomas said. “I think it's been very helpful, especially for our newer employees, to understand where things started from and how it applies to Ohio University.”
