Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, October 13, 2011
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
Christopher Lane, Chair
Laurie Orgeron, Vice Chair
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Excused Linda Cantero
Present Gwen Chavez, Immediate Past
Present
Chair
Sheri Bouyelas, Election
Present
Zina Eugene
Coordinator
Kathy Bourgeois, Recording
Excused Mike Griffith
Secretary
Carol Ardeneaux,Corresp.
Present
Jeanny Keck
Excused
Secretary
Suzanne Lossi, Member at Large
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
NORTHSHORE
Kenny Guichard
Desiree Waguespack
Corrie West
Angelica Leonard
Alysia Loshbaugh
Scott Mitchell
Louise Murphy
Present Lisa O’Dwyer
Rob Platner
Whitney Richards
Excused LaShanda Robinson
Present Lawrence Smith
Present Kimberly Vega
Kady Weingart
Present
Present
PROXY MEMBERS
Present
Tiffany Graham
Present Sharon Hyde-Augillard
Forbes Mann
Karissa Page
Present David Pierlus
Present Louie Schneider
Meredith Schor
Jon Souquet
Meredith Sugarman
Nikita Ussin
Cathy Woodard
INVITED GUESTS AND VISITORS
Gisele Baham
Mitzi Hithe
Alexandra Wasco
* Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2011 – 2011
Present
Excused
Present
Excused
Present
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
October 13, 2011
Page 2
Call to Order: Laurie Orgeron, SAC Vice-Chair, called the October 13, 2011 meeting of the
Staff Advisory Council to order at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was held in the Tidewater Boardroom
on the Downtown Campus.
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes
The September 2011 minutes were approved.
II. Guest Speakers, Mitzi Hithe, Office of
Environmental Health & Safety & Alexandria
Wasco, Breastfeeding Support Program &
Gisele Baham, Workforce Management
III. Report of the Chair, Christopher Lane
IV. WFMO Liaison
V.
Officer Reports
Meetings:
A. University Senate
The Board Meeting covered everything that they went over in the Senate meeting.
B. Board of Administrators
Laurie gave her report from the Board meeting held on September 15, 2011. Their first
order of business was to introduce Jerry Greenbaum, a new board member & Cassidy
Adams, the ASB President. They approved the minutes & announced two resolutions. The
first one was to establish an amendment regarding endowed funds. It was passed
immediately. The second resolution was to adopt Cyndy English to replace Winnie
(Wynona) Burmaster (Witkovski) as the secretary to the board. That was also passed.
They announced the change of board format with the executive session coming first as a
result of discussions from the summer meeting. Then Scott went over the highlights and
lowlights of fiscal year 2011. The successes included reaccreditation of the University, the
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October 13, 2011
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Medical School and Athletics. Financial performance ended with a surplus of three hundred
thousand dollars. Student interest and quality was up. National recognition for community
engagement was discussed. The University won some awards. The AB Freeman School of
Business dean search was a success. John Perdew was appointed to the National
Academy of Sciences as a member. The Weatherhead gift of fifty million dollars was given
& that money was used to name the new residential college. The disappointments were as
follows: the failed searches for the TUPD (Tulane University Police Department) chief &
SACS chair (both have been re-opened); security breaches; medical school clinical platform;
state of the economy; government support; retention and graduation rates. He went over
challenges, managing cash flow, the economy & its impact on Tulane, changing the
landscape of intercollegiate athletics. There will be significant changes in the next decade.
There have been tremendous incidents of infractions from other colleges such as Ohio
State. Because of that, there are going to be a lot of changes to the athletic programs.
Changing landscapes of healthcare are around the corner. Safety issues in New Orleans
was noted as a challenge & managing the growth and aspirations, because we are growing
so quickly. We have been having more students than the target & things like this are
presenting challenges. Institutional priorities include academics, improving the retention
rate (they want it to be 90% by 2014 & 95% would put us in the top 30 schools in the nation.
They want to explore how to secure medical school as a recognized academic medical
center. He spoke in depth about the two new medical hospitals that are being built & the
challenges that they are going to create i.e. filling beds & what Tulane’s roll is going to be.
Human capital was discussed. They completed the search for the SACS chair & social
innovation. They talked about the consolidation of uptown and downtown TUPD & the
search for a superintendant that will be over both. They are reassessing the role of the
Center for Bioenvironmental Research. Development and University Relations is raising
sixty five million dollars in private support, which includes twelve million dollars in
unrestricted funds & ten million dollars in annual fund. Development and University
Relations is planning for a one billion dollar plus campaign. They are trying to raise naming
gifts to fund the community coliseum for Athletics, which is the new football stadium that
they want to build. They do have some money already donated for it, but they need
approximately sixty million dollars. Capital and IT projects were next on the agenda.
Residential College three is in the final plan. They wanted to complete Weatherhead Hall,
which they did. The Hertz volleyball/basketball Practice Facility should be nearly completed.
They were supposed to do a dedication next week during homecoming (that has been
moved back to November 17th). JBJ Lab renovation, Flower Hall, Ruth’s Chris Project (a
restaurant that was purchased to turn into a medical center), implement phase one of five
phases of the fifteen million dollar IT investment plan. Financial: To meet cash flow and
statements of operating projections to develop financing strategy for crystal projects, IT &
debt restructuring. Community Engagement: To continue to partner with state, local and
public officials in focused areas of mutual interest. Continue to implement Tulane empowers
strategy. Earl Retif reported that total enrollment is 13,285, of which 6478 are
undergraduates, 1648 first time freshmen, 118 transfers & 57.2% of that number is female.
Jeremy Krigler, the person in New York (actually in Connecticut) that handles our
endowment, which is a little over one billion dollars. The fixed income equals 13% cash,
3.9% global equity, 34.9% absolute return, 10% real assets, 16.7 % private equity, 10.1 %
long shore equity. Our gain is up 17% - last year was 10 %. Rick Dickson also spoke &
promoted homecoming and the Hullabaloo auction.
.
.
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October 13, 2011
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VI. University Senate Committee Reports
1. Benefits
No report.
2. Budget Review
The cash flow is almost where it was pre-Katrina. Outstanding fema with university is
approximately twenty five million dollars. The library is in the schematic design phase.
Fema has to approve the designs.
3. Information Technology
No report.
4. Equal Opportunity
No report. They need one exempt employee to join it.
5. Physical Facilities
No report.
6. Social Issues
No report.
VII. SAC Sub-Committees
1. Election Committee
No report. We need another volunteer to help with this committee.
.
2. Electronic Technology and Information
No report.
3. Staff Appreciation
No report. Chris is helping them to see if they can get tents from Jefferson parish at no
charge. Gwen and Cory are starting to work on getting donations & give aways.
4. Staff Issues
No report.
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October 13, 2011
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5. Health and Wellness
No report.
6. Community Service
No report. They are getting ready to start the CASA toy drive on November 7th or November
14th. They already have $300. Please let Desiree know if anyone has boxes for donations
from last year. We will re-think taking toy donations at the game since we didn’t have
success last year. Someone suggested putting a box out during homecoming, but there
wouldn’t be much time to get the word out. There was a suggestion to ask Athletics to put a
notice out to let people know that they would be collecting donations at the game, but
someone from SAC would have to be there to manage it. A suggestion was made to send
an email out to all SAC members to see if anyone could handle this event in Champion
Square at gate C. Scott suggested using one of his student workers to collect the toys.
Desiree is looking for someone to help her with her Community Service committee from the
Uptown Campus. Kathy Bourgeois volunteered to help with this committee.
7. Student Relations
No report.
8. WFMO – SAC Liason
No report.
VIII.
Old Business
Gisele Baham from WFMO was here to answer a question submitted by Chris pertaining
to time sheets. They are in the process of putting the Tulane ID’s on the time sheets in
the beginning of January. They will not be using the social security number any longer.
The system that they use and the banner system are two different systems. The exempt
time sheets are the only time sheets that do not include the social security number. The
ability to do students in People Flow was pushed back due to the new system that they
are converting to, but we should be able to do this in the future. The Tulane ID number
is on our splash cards now. They should automatically put that ID number on the
exempt times sheets as well.
IX.
New Business
Mitzi Hithe from the Office of the Environmental Health and Safety Office was one of our
speakers. She gave a presentation on ergonomics. She attended a retreat that covered
computer and office ergonomics. She does go out and survey offices as requested. If
an injury report comes up that looks like it needs to be looked at, they get involved. The
area would be surveyed & they write reports. It is a free service that they provide free of
charge. They do not supply chairs or any products. They make suggestions to improve
the work space. She gave hand outs to each member with her contact information. Her
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October 13, 2011
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email address is mhithe@tulane.edu & her phone number is 504.988.2866. The
information is in the safety wave as well & on their website. The correct height for
monitor & correct location for the keyboard is in the safety wave, which is put out 4 times
a year. They try to put information on the latest technology out there for users to read.
She is doing research on tablets right now. They have seen a lot of neck injuries from
using them, so they are researching them. We have a lot of old outdated furniture at the
University, but sometimes they can be modified. Property Management has recycled
furniture. She looks for old keyboards and mice & shows employees how to clean them
& make them better than what we are using. They suggest taking the hand outs home &
applying the suggestions to your home work station. You may have an area at home that
needs to be improved. Look at how your children’s workspaces as well. That
generation is already experiencing problems & if we apply these suggestions, we can
alleviate some of those problems. If a person is having back or neck problems,
something as simple as raising your monitor could fix the problem. You may also want
to move your mouse closer to your body. This could reduce the stress put on your body
for the long run. Gwen asked her if she ever addressed back packs. Some of the guys
in the IT department walk around with backpacks that hurt their backs. She is going to
update the information on backpacks. The newer ones come with a strap that goes
around the waist. It uses your hips to carry the weight. There are newer models out
there that help distribute the weight. She finds that people sit more forward in their
chairs & without realizing it, you have a lot of gravity going on. When you lean forward,
you are adding gravity to your head and neck. It is important to learn how to adjust your
chair. Your arms should be at a right angle when typing. Sometimes chairs have to be
replaced with chairs that are adjustable. It is also recommended that we use a foot rest
of some type – even if it means using reams of paper or a binder as a foot rest. The
monitor should also be a certain distance from the user and the height is also important.
This information is on their website at http://tulane.edu/oehs/, in the policy and procedure
manual for the University, the safety guide for new employee orientation, the safety
wave articles & it is also in the employee handbook from WFMO. If they receive a call
asking them to come out to look at a department, they usually have to see the supervisor
so he/she knows that they are coming out. They need to understand that if she finds
something wrong, then it is the responsibility of the department to take care of it. It is
both the employee’s responsibility as well as the employer’s responsibility to ensure that
they have what they need to do their work in a safe manner. They test products to see
how they work & they can loan some of them out so users can see if it works for them.
She can then show you where you can buy them. If she can find a way to help a
department that doesn’t have the funds, she will do so.
Alexandria Wasco from the Breastfeeding Support Group gave a presentation. In the
early 2000’s the former chair of the Community Health Sciences department on the 23rd
floor of the School of Public Health decided that they needed a breastfeeding support
group. She began by making 2 rooms. One was in the Tidewater building on the 18th
floor & one in the Mary Amelia Women’s Center. In 2008 they received a grant from
WIC to create more lactation rooms around Tulane’s campuses. Currently there are 9
lactation rooms around campus. All rooms have reading material, information & some
rooms have hospital grade pumps. They have been advertising the lacation rooms
recently. There is a Louisiana law that says all women have the right to breast feed
anywhere in public. That has recently been controversial, because a lot of people don’t
agree with it. They are trying to provide support & spaces for women to pump or
breastfeed. Usually women need a 15 minute break every 3 – 4 hours or her breasts get
too full & they become uncomfortable. That can decrease the milk supply. Their
website is www.tulane.edu/breastfeeding . It has information on how to support co-
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workers & mother friendly businesses in New Orleans. The Tulane Women’s Center is
putting two lactation rooms in City Hall next week. They have received a lot of good
feedback on the rooms – especially the one in the LBC. It is currently in a bathroom, but
they are looking for a new space. Students are using it as well. Let them know if
anyone needs a room in their building.
Each member announced their name and the department that they work in.
Next Meeting:
November 10, 2011
LBC 201 Race Conference Room, 3:30 pm
X.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:15 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Bourgeois
Recording Secretary