Tulane Staff Advisory Council Minutes
January 8, 2015
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Loshbaugh, Alysia, Chair
Present
Barrera, Denise
Smith, Lawrence, Vice-chair
Present
Blue, Jeff
Present
Ferbos, Wil, Elections Coordinator
Present
Carr, Rose
Present
Turner, Joan, Secretary
Sent Proxy
Catlin, Kristy
Conners, Linzi
NORTHSHORE
Excused
Daigle, Bryan
MacLean, Avery
Davis, Patrick
Present
Wright, Amber
Ely, Hunter
Present
Hayden, Nadrine
WFMO REPRESENTATIVE
Christina Wallace
Present
Huber, Jennifer
Present
Elizabeth Langlois
Present
Montegut, Renetta
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Morel, Mel'isa
Present
Pick, Amy
Present
Present
Anderson, Jerome
Present
Rabito, Margaret
Beck, Trina
Present
Sliwinski, Roblynn
Bocage, Jered
Present
Young, Griselda
Bourgeois, Kathy
Present
Bush, Nicole
Present
Butler, Aleshia
Present
Charles, Evane
Excused Causey, Jamie
Cheramie, Christopher
Present
Cervini, Brucer
Deeves, Tim
Present
Crisler, Shammeia
Espinosa, Miriam
Present
Healy, Isobel
Ghattas, Joseph
Houck, Katie
Present
Lowe, Brian
DOWNTOWN PROXIES
Bruce, Deidre
Hills, Tynette
Present
La Salle, Lucia
Present
Langlois, Elizabeth
Marsh, Leslie
Excused May, Matthew
Morton, Robert
Present
McKeown, Mark
Romig, Brad
Present
Mitchell, Olivia
SAC Minutes January 2015
Sent Proxy
Page 1 of 6
Rouege, Jackie
Present
Wilde, Elizabeth
Partridge-Hrabar, Kerrie
Potter, Shawn
Wilson, Marilyn
Present
Scherer, Donald
Wolford, Laura
Present
Schmidt, Norine
Wyatt, Penny
Present
Shinn, Michon
Present
Strong, Sewann
NORTHSHORE PROXIES
Terrebonne, Connie
Lower, Shelley
Wright, Linda
Pham, Brooke
Simmons, Elizabeth
UPTOWN PROXIES
UPTOWN PROXIES (Continued)
Anderson, Marcus
Marinaro, Heather
Augillard, Sharon Hyde
Meaux, Shelley
Brusseau, Allyson
Present
Present
Millon, Aaron
Clark, Marilynn
Mouton, Jean
Present
Cruz, Allison
Nazar, Elizabeth
Present
Davis, Angela
Nichols, Sherma
Downes, Patrice
Present
O'Brien, Jennifer
Dunaway, Joe
Present
Obrofta, Sharon
Farley, Torrie Augello
Paciera, JC
Fenimore, Samantha
Prator, Bobbie
Gordon, Erin
Robinson, LaShanda
Harris, Delisa
Rubin, Jeff
Jones, Michael
Sayas, Janice
Keck, Jeanny
Present
Present
Present
Seymour, Caltha
Leonard, Angelica
Van Kirk, Elizabeth
Lossi, Suzanne
Withers, Sarah
Present
Maese, Adam
* No teleconference available
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2014 – 2015
The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 2:00PM. Due to difficulties with the phone
conferencing system, there was no call-in available for any members.
SAC Minutes January 2015
Page 2 of 6
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes
Minutes from the September 2014 minutes were approved with no changes. We still do not have
minutes from the November 2014 meeting.
II.
Guest Speaker—President Michael Fitts
President Fitts was our guest speaker in January. He began his talk by telling us a bit about his
background and career prior to coming to Tulane University. He talked about the Huron consulting
team at Tulane and the two committees working with them, and he also talked about the two task
forces currently underway—one on the undergraduate student experience and the other on
interdisciplinarity.
He asked SAC to tell him what we thought were the strengths of the university. One answer was the
people that work at Tulane are its greatest strength. Another answer was the city of New Orleans.
There was a Q&A session toward the end, and then the President left around 2:30.
III.
WFMO Representative Report
(a) Christina Wallace began her report by stating that WFMO had done some research, and it would
be possible for staff to keep their email addresses indefinitely should a staff “emeritus” status be
implemented.
(b) The next topic of discussion was the rumor about exempt employees making less than $50,000
being automatically reclassified as non-exempt/hourly employees. Christina said the dollar amount
would be $50,440. The proposed change to the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) would happen
at the federal level, by President Obama’s executive order. If this happens, there won’t really be
anything Tulane can do about it—the law must be followed. The tentative timeframe by which we
might know more information is later in the spring but there is no exact date.
If enacted the new rules would state that any employee, regardless of duties, making less than
$50,440 would be considered hourly. Above that dollar amount, based on duties, employees could
still be non-exempt but there would be a possibility of being classified as exempt.
Problems with this change, besides the fact that exempt employees would suddenly become hourly,
include the fact that many academic departments don’t have overtime budgets. SAC members
expressed concern that if there are no funds for overtime in the academic departments, then if an
employee reaches 37.5 hours earlier in the week (example: 37.5 hours reached by 1pm on a
Friday), they may be sent home early to avoid overtime. In the meantime, work that needed to be
completed may go unfinished, or will get pushed to other employees.
WFMO is paying close attention to this issue and possible FLSA changes, so we hope to know more
in the future.
(c) Questions arose about the vacation donation policy. Currently, the pooled vacation donation
hours cannot be used for leaves due to childbirth. An employee who donates hours can donate
them to a specific person, but not for issues related to pregnancy or childbirth. SAC would like to
revisit this policy with WFMO, as this seems somewhat discriminatory towards female employees.
Alysia will discuss this further with Christina outside a meeting.
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(d) Several months ago, an email went out from WFMO to all employees reminding them about
university policy related to bringing children to the workplace. Some employees were offended by
the harshness of the language in the memo, while others simply had questions about the policy.
Christina explained that the policy is related to liability and workplace hazards, and injuries that
could take place if minors are not properly supervised.
(e) A question was raised regarding the university’s policy on flex-time, or working from home.
Christina said there is no policy at all on the working from home issue. Non-exempt employees that
leave work early because they hit 37.5 hours for the week is a kind of flex time, though there is also
no official policy. Alysia will discuss this further with Christina outside of this meeting.
(f) Finally, an employee asked about a UHC denial of a brand name drug even with a physician note
specifying that this particular drug should be part of the patient’s treatment. Christina explained
that this particular drug was probably not in their formulary. UHC has the right to change the drugs
they cover every six months. But for further information, this employee could email her and they
can start a private discussion of the issue.
IV.
Report of the Chair
None.
V.
Officer Reports
University Senate
No meeting in December or January. The next Senate meeting is in February.
Board of Administrators
Lawrence Smith gave a report on the Board Meeting that took place in December. Overall, the
trustees were given information about the success of Homecoming and Yulman Stadium. They
discussed the establishment of the task forces previously mentioned by President Fitts earlier today
(undergraduate experience and interdisciplinarity). They discussed and approved the $15 million
gift to endow the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking. They also discussed the
upcoming development campaign to raise another $1 billion for the university’s endowment.
VI.
University Senate Committee Reports
Benefits
No meeting.
Budget Review
No meeting.
Information Technology
No meeting.
Equal Opportunity
Laura Wolford gave a report that Patrick Randolph from the Office of Disability Services gave a
report to the committee about issues with faculty who don’t want to make accommodations for
students with disabilities. There are some faculty who make the accommodations but grudgingly,
SAC Minutes January 2015
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and others who don’t want to make accommodations at all. Mr. Randolph was seeking
advice/support from the EO Committee on how to address this issue.
Physical Facilities
Ron Scalise from the Law School is the new chair of this committee. At their last meeting, they
discussed the completion of Yulman Stadium, plans for the unified green (LBC quad and Newcomb
quad), the campus master plan, and parking ticket issues.
Social Issues
No meeting.
VII.
SAC Subcommittees
Election
No report.
Electronic Technologies and Information
No report.
Staff Appreciation
There was no meeting of this committee, but Alysia proposed the idea of having free snowballs for
staff on two separate dates—one for downtown and one for uptown. Perhaps we could invite
President Fitts to attend so that staff could meet him and chat while they enjoy a free snowball. The
rest of SAC agreed this sounded like a good idea, so Alysia will reach out to President Fitts’ assistant
to get some possible dates on his calendar.
Staff Issues
No meeting.
Health and Wellness
No meeting.
Community Service
Trina Beck gave a report on the CASA toy drive. In total we collected $1670 in online donations,
$22 in cash, $125 in checks, $475 in assorted gift cards, and about 200 toys, gifts, and books. These
amounts exceeded last year’s totals, so we were pleased with the results. We also had about $280
leftover from last year’s toy drive, so those funds were utilized to purchase additional gift cards. In
total, we collected almost $2300 in cash/gift card donations.
VIII.
Old Business and/or New Business
Bike Safety
Alysia met with Liz Davey, Amber Beezley, and others from the campus architect’s office. They
agreed that we should look into creating established bike paths or bike lanes as part of the overall
campus master plan.
Downtown Safety Incidents Last November
Defer to next meeting, when Norine Schmidt is present and can give an update.
SAC Minutes January 2015
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Staff “Emeritus” Status—Name and Proposal
Alysia previously asked SAC members to think of a name for the status we want to propose to the
administration for staff to have an “emeritus-like” status when they retire. We cannot call it
emeritus, as that is specific to faculty. After reviewing all suggestions, everyone agreed that
“Legacy” was the best choice. Going forward, this initiative will be referred to as “Staff Legacy
Status”. We need to write a proposal and submit it to Anne Banos, VP for Administrative Services
and Chief of Staff. Alysia asked anybody interested in helping write the proposal to email her.
SPH Mental Health Initiative
Jennifer Huber gave a report on an initiative/task force coming out of the School of Public Health
related to mental health issues. There will be Safetalk training, which is targeting suicide
awareness, and Ally training, which will support LGBTQ students. She asked if SAC would be
willing to volunteer people to do the training and reach out to their home departments. Several
people agreed to participate in the training and should contact Jen separately.
New EAP Program
It was announced that we have a new provider for the Employee Assistance Program (EAP.) An
email with the details will be going out to all employees soon.
IX.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:07p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Alysia Loshbaugh
Chair
SAC Minutes January 2015
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