CalArts and CU-UAW met on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, for a second special session to discuss healthcare benefits for the April 2026 to March 2027 cycle. (Again, this meeting was unrelated to bargaining for benefits for the collective bargaining agreements for the three separate CU-UAW units). The parties agreed to meet for another, final session on Monday, Feb. 9 to finalize the healthcare selections that must be communicated to the broker by Feb. 9 for appropriate rollout—confirmation of plans, finalizing the benefits packages, administrative set-up of Paycom, education session, etc. for open enrollment during the first two weeks of March.
CalArts answered additional questions from CU-UAW both during the session and as follow-up via email. Importantly, even under the new proposals, CalArts is still covering 78% of healthcare costs. And, even with the premiums suggested under the Imagine360 old 500 /new 1000 plan, CalArts is still covering about 87%-65% of the premium costs (and more like 87%-70% as Tier 4 picks up the highest brackets/percentages generally). CalArts further reiterated that in all of these instances for the Imagine360 1000 Plan, CalArts benchmarked itself against comparator institutions.
CU-UAW also raised the question of why the current Imagine360 Core Plan rates could not be maintained with standard inflationary adjustments. CalArts provided a detailed explanation outlining the financial and structural considerations that make this approach unworkable, and will be sharing this information more broadly in meetings with the Academic Council and the Staff Council later this week to ensure clarity, transparency, and a shared understanding across the campus community.