Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, September 8, 2011
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Christopher Lane, Chair
Laurie Orgeron, Vice Chair
Present
Present
Sheri Bouyelas, Election Coordinator
Kathy Bourgeois, Recording
Present
Present
Linda Cantero
Gwen Chavez, Immediate Past
Present
Present
Chair
Zina Eugene
Mike Griffith
Present
Jeanny Keck
Angelica Leonard
Alysia Loshbaugh
Scott Mitchell
Louise Murphy
Lisa O’Dwyer
Rob Platner
Whitney Richards
LaShanda Robinson
Lawrence Smith
Kimberly Vega
Kady Weingart
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Secretary
Carol Ardeneaux,Corresp. Secretary
Suzanne Lossi, Member at Large
Present
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Linzi Conners
Patrick Davis
Tanya Haase
Michael Heisser
Anita Kivell
Kay Leger
Michael Miller
Merisa Pasternak
Amy Pick
Allan Slatkin
Patsy Stewart
Yesenia Vasquez-Lockhart
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
NORTHSHORE
Kenny Guichard
Desiree Waguespack
Corrie West
Present
PROXY MEMBERS
Tiffany Graham
Sharon Hyde-Augillard
Forbes Mann
Karissa Page
David Pierlus
Louie Schneider
Meredith Schor
Jon Souquet
Meredith Sugarman
Nikita Ussin
Cathy Woodard
INVITED GUESTS AND VISITORS
Richard Shointuch
* Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2011 – 2011
Present
Present
Present
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
September 8, 2011
Page 2
Call to Order: Laurie Orgeron, SAC Vice Chair, called the September 8, 2011 meeting of the
Staff Advisory Council to order at 1:00 p.m. The meeting was held in the LBC on the Uptown
Campus.
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes
The June 2011 & the July 2011 minutes were approved.
II. Guest Speaker, Richard Shointuch
Richard is the Vice President of Campus Development. He went over the many
construction projects going on mainly on the uptown campus. The main complaint was
regarding the lack of parking now & the fact that we will have even less parking in the
near future. Richard doesn’t have anything to do with the parking & we were directed to
bring those questions and complaints to the Traffic/Police Department.
III. Report of the Chair, Christopher Lane
We are still trying to fill all of the committees for the senate. He needs a senator to sit on
the University Senate. Gwen has other responsibilities that she needs to get back to.
There are 2 openings on the benefits committee for non exempt employees. They need
one downtown rep for the budget review committee. We need one exempt & one non
exempt rep for the equal opportunity committee. None of the committees have met, so
they don’t have any reports for them. Reps are asked to email Christopher if they are
interested in any of these committees.
We could use another person on the election committee & with Staff Appreciation &
Community Service & one more rep to help with Health and Wellness.
Chris spoke to Jean Holtman. They can’t send the same person to attend each meeting,
but they are willing to allow a SAC liaison attend the WFMO meetings on a monthly
basis & Lawrence Smith has volunteered to do this.
The website is back up to distribute football tickets. We are encouraged to fill out the
lottery for football tickets.
We had a great turn out at this SAC meeting.
IV. WFMO Liaison
Christina Wallace, Director of Customer Relations in WFMO, Barbara Dirks from WFMO
& Melissa Lynd from Cigna were there to give us an overview of the new insurance. We
are changing insurance companies due to the rising cost of health care. Each year the
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
September 8, 2011
Page 3
University reviews its current plan & also looks to other providers to see what they offer.
Despite our satisfaction with United, they made the decision to move to Cigna. It was
approved on June 1, 2011. The transition is going to take place on January 1, 2012.
Cigna is able to replicate over 98% of the current plan. There will still be rate increases,
but the increase is much less than if we stayed with United. To help offset the
increases, the University is offering an incentive for employees to complete a free &
confidential biometric screening & online health assessment. There are three steps –
check in to register to do the screening, log on to answer some questions & save.
Employees can then save up to 20% of their premium increase. You can go online now
to register for the screenings. They will take place from September 26, 2011 through
October 11, 2011. During that time they will be holding Town Hall meetings on each
campus for employees to ask questions. The deadline to get this information in is
November 23, 2011. There is more information on the WFMO website. Click the banner
that says A Change for the Better. We can also call their hotline 247.1700 in WFMO or
call Cigna at 800.841.4143.
Melissa Lynd, the Client Engagement Manager, talked to us about Cigna. They are a
Health Services company & not a Health Insurance company. Their goal is to have their
members be as healthy as they can be. They focus on preventive care to avoid health
problems down the line, which results in lower health care costs. They will try to help the
high risk individuals first to try to get them on the right path. After doing the health
assessment, you will get a private report with a score from 0-100. You can email that
report to your doctor or print it out to take it to the doctor. After January 1st, they will be
calling the people with the highest health risk to start helping them to lead a healthier life.
They will then look at Tulane as a whole & tailor some of the health & wellness programs
specific to our needs. You should receive a call from the same person each time in
order to develop a relationship. The health assessment will be done each year or you
can take it as many times as you would like throughout the year. If you don’t do the
screening, you will not receive the premium discount.
The co-pay for prescriptions will be the same.
V.
Officer Reports
Meetings:
A. University Senate
No report.
B. Board of Administrators
No report.
.
.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
September 8, 2011
VI. University Senate Committee Reports
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
No report.
VII. SAC Sub-Committees
1. Election Committee
No report.
.
2. Electronic Technology and Information
No report.
3. Staff Appreciation
No report.
4. Staff Issues
No report.
5. Health and Wellness
No report.
6. Community Service
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TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
September 8, 2011
Page 5
No report.
VIII.
IX.
Old Business
New Business
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on October 13, 2011 in the board room on the
24th floor of the Tidewater Building. Laurie Orgeron will run that meeting, because Chris will be
out of town. We plan to have someone speak to us about Campus Safety & the project that is
going on uptown as well as someone from Environmental Health to talk about ergonomics in our
offices & possibly one other speaker. Someone mentioned having a speaker talk to us about
the Environmental Audit, but they have already been working with the departments that are
involved in the audit. It is mainly an internal audit on OEHS & is being kept private & will stay
with Tulane.
X.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:00 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Bourgeois
Recording Secretary