Following an inquiry last fall about policies governing early withdrawal of funds from a retirement account, the Faculty Council heard a report from Vice President for Human Re- sources Peter Barnes at its March 20 meeting. Barnes said that Emory’s policy, which allows pre-retirement cash withdrawal only from employee contributions for employees who have reached 59 1⁄2 years of age, is consistent with “the purpose of the retirement plan,” which “isn’t intended as a future cash supplement” for current employees. Barnes also discussed a change to the medical benefits policy for dependents of employees who die while employed at Emory. Currently, if an employee who dies has at least 10 years of service and is at least 55 years old, the spouse, partner, or dependents may continue to participate in the medical plan at the active employee rate. For all others, spouses, partners, and dependents may con- tinue under COBRA. “The change we recommended to the cabinet, which was approved, was for Emory to subsidize the COBRA benefit for a surviving spouse, partner, or any dependent children for six months for all regular employees,” Barnes said.