Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council February 2013
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
Loshbaugh, Alysia,Chair
Smith , Lawrence, Vice Chair
Bouyelas, Sheri, Election
Coordinator
Bourgeois, Kathy, Recording
Secretary
Conners, Linzi, Corresponding
Secretary
Chavez, Gwen, Member At
Large
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
ATTENDEES
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Davis, Patrick
Haase, Tanya
Heisser, Michael
PRESENT
Huber, Jennifer
PRESENT
Kivell, Anita
PRESENT
Leger, Kay
NORTHSHORE
Guichard, Kenny
Viana, Rick
Maclean, Avery
PRESENT
WFMO Representative
Wallace, Christina
PRESENT
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Bocage, Jered
Branley, Kathy
Cheramie, Christopher
Espinosa, Miriam
Houck, Katie
Keck, Jeanny
Lane, Christopher, Immediate
Past Chair
Leonard, Angelica
Lowe, Brian
Mitchell, Scott
Murphy, Louise
O’Dwyer, Lisa
Platner, Robert
Richards, Whitney
Robinson, LaShanda
* Via teleconference
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
Ligget, Mark
Miller, Michael, Senator at
Large
Pick, Amy
PROXY
Catt, Jason (Proxy)
Charles, Anna (Proxy)
Fabacher, Lisette (Proxy)
Feiling, Greg (Proxy)
Golden, Nadia (Proxy)
Guilbeau, Elizabeth (Proxy)
Hankins, Julia (Proxy)
Hayden, Nadrine (Proxy)
Hills, Tynette (Proxy)
Hyde-Augillard, Sharon
(Proxy)
Kivell, Lyndsie (Proxy)
Lossi, Suzanne (Proxy)
Nolan, Andrea (Proxy)
Parzynski, Stacey (Proxy)
Relayson, Barbara (Proxy)
Schafer, Liz (Proxy)
Schor, Meredith (Proxy)
Starck, Tamar (Proxy)
Strong, Sewann (Proxy)
Tedesco, Ken (Proxy)
EXCUSED Wilde, Elizabeth (Proxy)
PRESENT Wilson, Marilyn (Proxy)
PRESENT Wright, Amber (Proxy)
PRESENT Young, Peter (Proxy)
INVITED GUESTS AND
VISITORS
* PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
*PRESENT
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
Page 2
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2012 – 2013
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by the chair, Alysia Loshbaugh, at 3:30
pm.
I. Review and Approval of the Minutes
The December Minutes were approved
II.
Guest Speakers
We didn’t have a guest speaker this month
III.
Report of
Loshbaugh
the
Chair,
Alysia
We continue to have people resigning from SAC. We have run out of proxies on
the downtown campus. Nadrine Hayden is now a representative for downtown.
We had two more resignations, though, so since we are so late in the year, we
could either do nothing until the spring election or try to use uptown proxies to fill
the downtown slots in order to make sure that we have enough representation.
Gwen said that whoever takes the place of the person that resigned has to fill out
their term. Alysia would like to encourage the downtown campus to encourage
people to run or nominate someone that would be a good candidate. It is
important to have enough representation for each campus. We also need to
have enough proxies to fill spots when members resign. Alysia gets a quarterly
report from WFMO to make sure that our list serve is up to date. The last time
she looked at the count, it seems as though we were under representing the
downtown campus. We will fix that when we go to the spring elections. A
member said that a lot of the people from the Primate Center don’t know what
SAC actually does. Alysia asked Christina to check to see if they can let new
employees know about SAC during their orientation.
Back in October, Alysia sent out an email to the Tulane community to let people
know what we do since our list serve hadn’t been updated in three or four years.
We added 1,200 people to our list serve. There are quite a few people at the
Primate Center that don’t have access to email, so fliers work well there.
Another member suggested that we send an email out with the minutes so that
other staff members can read about what we are doing. Gwen used to send an
email to everyone in her department and the people that were under their
department. It is posted on the SAC website, but not many people visit that site
to read the minutes. Alysia remembers that the secretary of the University
Senate used to send out the Senate minutes to the entire university. Alysia
suggested that we send a copy of our minutes out once they are approved. She
can ask Anne Baños about it. Gwen suggested sending the actual minutes as
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
Page 3
opposed to a link to go to the minutes. Another member suggested that we just
send out a scaled down version of the minutes or bullet points, since it is so
lengthy. It became too difficult to assign districts to each rep, because we had so
many people resigning. There are ways to get a count of how many people look
at the minutes and how long they spend reading them.
Another member said that we do volunteer work uptown that the other campuses
might not know about. The day of service is not run by SAC, but it is coming up
soon. It will take place on April 1, 2013. Alysia will look into making a one page
summary of the minutes to send out to the staff members. Jeanny suggested
having our meetings during lunch. Gwen said that if we have to go downtown,
we wouldn’t get a parking spot when we come back, nor would the downtown
people find parking if they have to come uptown. The Primate Center rep said
that there is always plenty of parking at the Primate Center.
IV.
WFMO Liaison
No Report. She will take the question of Student Loan forgiveness back to the
office. She will also ask if they can let new employees know about SAC during
their Orientation.
V.
Officer Reports
A. University Senate
They are reducing the total number of students that they will accept this year in
order to reduce the class size. In previous years we accepted about 7,500
students, but we will now only accept about 6,300. They are looking at
accepting about 1,550 first time freshmen.
Tulane reached an agreement with the city on the stadium, and ground breaking
started a couple of weeks ago. There will be about 2,200 pilings driven on that
site.
We joined the Big East, and a lot of schools dropped out since we joined. We
are negotiating a television contract for the next six years, and they are
negotiating with the Catholic Seven who are looking to leaving the Big East &
and form their own basketball league, but they wouldn’t officially withdraw from
the Big East until 2014 or 2015.
The schools are all working on their strategic plans. They will be presented to
the board in June. Once the board approves the strategic plan, they will use that
to start a public phase of the capital campaign, which will be about five years in
length. They look to raise one billion dollars.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
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There was an issue with the Freeman Business School data reporting. Data
reported to the US News and World report for the full time MBA program was
falsified. A former employee gave an incorrect number of applications and the
test scores were falsified from 2007-2011. That moved us to an unranked status.
We are eligible for a re-ranking in 2014. There will be some checks and controls
put in place and the reporting will be centralized to keep this from happening
again.
B. Board of Administrators
No Report
VI. University
Reports
Senate
Committee
1. Benefits
No Report
2. Budget Review
No Report
3. Information Technology
No Report
4. Equal Opportunity
No Report
5. Physical Facilities
No Report
6. Social Issues
The University is looking into having tobacco free campuses at an upcoming
meeting. This seems to be the trend these days. The Primate Center doesn’t
allow smoking twenty feet from the buildings, which seems to work there. It
would be difficult for them to enforce it there, because they are an enclosed
campus and can’t walk to public property to smoke. Downtown smokers could
walk out onto a public street and uptown campus smokers could walk to Freret or
an outer street to smoke. A member suggested that neighbors may be angry,
because we are surrounded by a neighborhood. SAC is supposed to make a
recommendation to the Senate and then the senate votes. SAC has three voting
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
Page 5
seats on the Senate for staff. Staff issues can be brought to any of the senators Alysia, Mike and Scott. We don’t think it would include the electronic cigarettes.
They do acknowledge that this would be a big problem with guests.
VII. SAC Sub-Committees
1. Election Committee
No Report
2. Electronic Technology and Information
No Report
3. Staff Appreciation
Gwen has been working on family fun day. We decided on Sunday, March 24,
2013 as the date from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm on the LBC Quad. Kenny from the
Primate Center was able to give us a box of do it yourself ink free fingerprinting
kits. She still has the Polaroid camera from the last Family Fun Day, so she can
use it. We would prefer to do the kits that day if possible. Two people will do face
painting. Rob got Boudreaux to do a race with the children. Gwen is thinking
about doing a schedule of some sort. One of the complaints from last year was
that there wasn’t enough for the adults to do. She thinks she may have a relay
race or water balloon toss for the adults at 10:30. Maybe we can get gift cards
as prizes. Then we could have the race with Boudreaux at 11:00. The children
could take pictures with Boudreaux. At 11:30 we could have an egg toss or
something like that. Bippo is not able to make it. Lindsey from tuWellness wants
to have a table there. Home Depot is coming out to do kits with the kids. Yesi
from Environmental Health and Safety said she would have a safety table set up.
If we get the Children’s Museum to come out, there is a charge. They only have
the little stuffy, which teaches kids about the digestive system, etc.. If the budget
allows, we could get another spacewalk. We can borrow one from Athletics. The
New Orleans Fire Department may send a fire engine out for the kids to look at.
We didn’t have a microphone last time, so Technology Services is going to
provide a PA system. Pete Simonson said he could make a track of music. The
Zoo Mobile doesn’t come out on Sundays, so we won’t have them. Everyone
gets a raffle ticket for door prizes. So far, we have two passes to Gulf Island
Water Park, two children’s passes to Global Wildlife and a picture frame. She
contacted Rotollo’s Pizza, Reginelli’s, Smoothie King, Blue Bayou, Olive Garden,
New Orleans Steam boats, Canes and the Hornets & we are waiting to hear back
from them. Rob will check with the Zephyrs. Alysia will check with the
Fairgrounds to see if they can donate some club seats for the next season.
Alysia asked if we could all try to get door prizes. Kathy was able to get Mr.
Mudbugs to make a food donation. Alysia spoke with Kelly Venable Carroll and
she was able to get Sodexo to donate the hamburgers and hot dogs. Coke is
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
Page 6
going to give us thirteen cases of product. We just have to tell them what we
want. Canned drinks get wasted, so we are going to need volunteers to pour the
drinks into cups. She only has eleven volunteers. We had thirty last year, and it
was barely enough. Four of our volunteers aren’t even SAC members. If you
want to volunteer, please sign up so she can order shirts. Just email Gwen if you
want to help. TEMS usually comes out with the ambulance for events. They
may be here, but the event is during spring break. Gwen contacted Scott
Mitchell about asking the new football coach to see if he can get someone to
come to sign autographs. Family members can also volunteer to help. A
suggestion was made to ask people to bring a canned food item to donate them
to the Second Harvester Food Bank. A member suggested giving an extra raffle
ticket to anyone that brings a canned food. Alysia is going to talk to Hanson
Snow Balls.
4. Staff Issues
They had a meeting to discuss professional development ideas. The staff
resource guide was discussed. The idea was for staff members to list some
things that they are very familiar with in case another staff member might need
help with something. We want to launch this in March. We are also thinking
about other professional development opportunities in general. She met with
Christina to talk about WFMO, Lawrence has been talking to Facilities Services,
Lyndsie Kivell talked to TUPD to figure out what the needs are and what our
resources are. Everyone was asked to give their input. We are trying to figure
out how to get the information out.
5. Health and Wellness
Signs have been posted around campus to encourage people to take the stairs
instead of the elevators. If anyone wants to have sings, for their area, contact
Louise Murphy. TU Wellness is looking into a walking program. Tamar is
working with Lyndsie to try to get a free yoga class going. We could also see if
any other staff members have any certifications and if they would be interested in
doing some type of class. United Healthcare wellness sessions have started, so
it would be good to get some participation from SAC members and to encourage
other to go. A healthy dining guide to help people find healthy choices is out.
Louise gave us their website and facebook address: http://tulane.edu/tuwellness/
http://www.facebook.com/TUWellness .
6. Community Service
Asking everyone to bring a canned food item to the Family Fun Day is also a part
of Community Service.
7. Ad Hoc Student Relations Committee
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
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Jeanny received a call from the Undergrad President. He is going to meet with
Jeanny after the meeting. If anyone has any thoughts about it, contact Jeanny.
The purpose of this committee is to improve relations between staff and students.
Her email address is jkeck@tulane.edu.
8. Ad Hoc Constitution Committee
Jered passed around a draft of some suggestions to improve the SAC
Constitution. He suggests combining the offices of Recording Secretary and
Corresponding Secretary and looking at the Parliamentarian and the ex-officio
members. A suggestion was made to reduce the number of meetings from ten to
six. The original language talked about them not being held in August or
January, but maybe we should make June and July the months that we wouldn’t
meet. Alysia feels that it should be left up to the chair in any given year. It
makes sense to have one at the beginning of every school year for instance. We
may get better participation if there are fewer meetings, but we may have to meet
longer. Gwen suggested having an odd number of meetings, so that we could
have an even number of meetings downtown and uptown and then one at the
Primate Center. A member suggested changing it to a minimum of at least six
meetings per year. There may be a need for an extra meeting for Staff
Appreciation or the toy drive, so we may have to add more meetings. The
member suggested that downtown representatives may be dropping off, because
it is difficult to come to the uptown campus, because we don’t have enough
parking. Alysia suggested having all of the spring semester meetings uptown
and all of the fall semester meetings downtown. Sometimes speakers can’t go
downtown to a SAC meeting, so that particular meeting must be held uptown.
Video conferencing has been difficult to co-ordinate because we can’t always get
a location on all three campuses at the same time. Maybe we could skype
instead. We would just like to have everyone present for the meeting that
President Cowen speaks at. He is scheduled to speak at the April meeting.
Tulane has a shuttle, so we can ride that shuttle to the downtown and uptown
meetings. Brian drove the shuttle bus for us to go to the Primate Center last
year. The normal Tulane shuttle is usually on time, so that is an option for the
people that want to travel from downtown to uptown for meetings. If we reduce
the number of meetings, we would also have to reduce the number of unexcused
absences. The suggestion was made to change the constitution to meet at least
seven times per year. Jered said that we can always schedule more meetings if
necessary.
The committee discussed combining the Corresponding Secretary and the
Recording Secretary and adding a Parliamentarian. A lot of the duties of the
Corresponding Secretary are being done by the chair, so the rest of it could
probably be done by the secretary. The secretary would do all of the things that
the recording secretary did as well as maintain the list of current council
committee members, council representatives appointed to boards. Notifying reps
of council meetings is something the chair has been doing. In turn, we would
change the duty of the Chair to distribute the agenda and minutes of the
meetings of the council. We would move the duty of representing the council to
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
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external university constituencies from the Corresponding Secretary to The
Chair.
He added ‘with council confirmation’ under #4. There are a few times that they
want to add a check to the power of the executive council by saying that the
members have to ultimately approve it, so in order to appoint a member-at-large,
we would have to have approval from the members.
They suggested removing the immediate past chair as an officer, because we
have the flexibility to appoint a member-at-large if necessary, so they are not
obligated to continue on in the committee. They also cut out Workforce
Management Organization employees designated by the senior administration
and invited guests. We would leave the senior administrator representing
Workforce Management as an ex-officio member. An ex-officio member is
someone that would be expected to attend every meeting. They have speaking
privileges, but not voting privileges.
We are trying to add Parliamentarian, because there are references to one in the
current constitution. He or she would be appointed by the chair with council
confirmation. The duties would include maintaining order at the council as per
Robert’s Rules of Order, serving as a reference in parliamentary law to the
council and chair the constitution committee.
We also want to address the proxy issue, but the committee didn’t have time to
discuss it.
They did discuss having the chair and vice chair run together as a ticket rather
than separately, because it is important for the two to have a good working
relationship. Someone suggested making the vice chair an appointed position by
the chair. This would make two of the five positions appointed rather than
elected. Lawrence said that he would rather this position be elected.
Gwen suggested looking at SAC Talk, which is an online chat or sending an
email to the members to get feedback. Once we have a language, it would have
to be confirmed by the members. We would like to have this all finished by the
April meeting, because we will have to have elections.
We need to clarify the role of the proxy as to which committees they can serve on
at another time.
.
VIII.
IX.
Old Business
New Business
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 14, 2013
Page 9
President Cowen will speak at our April meeting, but we don’t have any guest
speakers lined up for March. We would like to have Jean or Anne talk about the
new self-service, but they may not be far enough along to talk about it yet. It isn’t
supposed to be rolled out until July. Christina said that she would ask them if
they could come to the March meeting. A member was told in a staff meeting
that the non-exempt employees were going to have to start clocking in and out
using their ID cards. This is another step in trying to go paperless.
The March meeting will be downtown in the Tidewater Building. Alysia will look
into skyping or members can call in
X.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:06 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Bourgeois
Recording Secretary