March 8, 2012
Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
Lane, Christopher,Chair
Orgeron, Laurie, Vice Chair
Bouyelas, Sheri, Election Coordinator
Bourgeois, Kathy,Recording Secretary
Ardeneaux, Carol, Corresp.Secretary
Lossi, Suzanne, Member At Large
UPTOWN CAMPUS
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
EXCUSED
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Conners, Linzi
Davis, Patrick
Haase, Tanya
Heisser, Michael
Kivell, Anita
Leger, Kay
Miller, Michael
Pasternak, Merisa
Pick, Amy
Slatkin, Allan
Stewart, Patsy
Vasquez-Lockhart, Yesenia
NORTHSHORE
Guichard, Kenny
Waguespack, Desiree
PRESENT
PRESENT
Cantero, Linda
Chavez, Gwen, Immediate Past Chair
Eugene, Zina
Griffith, Mike
Keck, Jeanny
Leonard, Angelica
Loshbaugh, Alysia
Mitchell, Scott
Murphy, Louise
O’Dwyer, Lisa
Platner, Rob
Richards, Whitney
Robinson, LaShanda
Smith, Lawrence
Vega, Kimberly
Weingart, Kady
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
PRESENT
Graham, Tiffany (proxy)
Hyde-Augillard, Sharon (proxy)
Mann, Forbes (proxy)
Page, Karissa (proxy)
Pierlus, David (proxy)
Schneider, Louie (proxy)
Schor, Meredith (proxy)
Souquet, Jon (proxy)
Sugarman, Meredith (proxy)
Ussin, Nikita (proxy)
Woodard, Cathy (proxy)
INVITED GUESTS AND VISITORS
Christina Wallace - WFMO
* Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2011 – 2012
PRESENT
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
March 8, 2012
Page 2
Call to Order: Christopher Lane, SAC Chair, called the February 9, 2012 meeting of the Staff
Advisory Council to order at 3:40 p.m. The meeting was held in the boardroom on the 24th floor
of the Tidewater Building.
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes
February 2012 minutes were not approved. The minutes were erased while being
transcribed, so we have about half of the meeting transcribed.
II. Guest Speakers
We did not have a guest speaker
III. Report of the Chair, Christopher Lane
Staff Appreciation Day: The new committee met and came up with an idea to have a
staff picnic on a work day in the early or mid afternoon (around 2:00 or 3:00 pm) on the
uptown campus. We would use our budget to pay for a snowball stand, some freebees
and for a band. The budget is not big enough to feed the whole staff, so we thought we
could invite some food trucks to sell food. If we get approval for this, we will find out if
we could have a keg of beer. Maybe we could get the beer donated from Abita and we
may be able to get food donated as well. We could have this a week or two after
graduation, but before June. The quad would be a good location to have this event. If it
rains, we would have to move it to the Lavin Bernick Center. We haven’t figured out
what would we do for downtown or the Primate Center. We talked about rotating the
event annually. We didn’t have a member from the Primate Center at the meeting. Desi
was not able to attend the meeting. SAC members were asked to vote on the idea and
then move forward with a committee to plan the details. Ann Banos said that she
thought the idea had merit, but she didn’t have time to discuss it at the moment. She is
tentatively supportive of the idea. Chris asked her if she could commit to having the
President’s office get the word out to supervisors to let the staff take the time off to
attend the event. She couldn’t comment on that until she brought it to the President’s
cabinet. Laurie suggested that we have this event before June 1st, because we will have
summer orientation in June. We would need to reserve the quad and the ball room soon
if we are going to proceed with this. The Thursday and Friday after graduation on May
24th and May 25th are available for both locations. The Lavin Bernick Center is booked
the following week. We are looking for a reasonably priced band. Jeanne knows of a
Tulane employee that has a band as well as a Cajun band. We have a budget of about
$3,000. We would have to pay about $500 for snowballs through Plum Street. Alysia
will check with Hampson Snowballs to see how much they would charge. We would
have about $1,500 to pay for a band. The Shuttle services said that they can add an
extra shuttle to bring people from downtown to the uptown campus. Parking shouldn’t
be an issue since students will be gone & most of the faculty will be gone. We will have
to check to see if the hourly employees would have to use vacation time to attend. We
used to have lunch downtown at a major hotel. Scott and a couple of other people came
and spoke & we had a nice sit down lunch. There were also prizes. SAC had a lot more
money at that time. Lundi Gras is now our staff appreciation day. We may want to
promote the fact that Lundi Gras is more of our staff appreciation day. Some people
don’t look at that day as such. It was approved to move forward with this idea and
Jeanne Keck will join the committee. Chris will check to see if we can have Abita beer.
Reid Noble said that we may have to have security in place if we have alcohol.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
March 8, 2012
Page 3
A member said that their new boss was wondering why we don’t have a special
subcommittee for policies since we are having some issues with certain campuses and
departments. We don’t have authority to do that since we are more of an advisory body.
We have taken issues to the General Counsel before and the University Senate. Some
things have to go to the board of administrators. State schools work things differently
than private schools.
Chris had some examples of giveaway items for the members to look at. The members
liked the cup that he had.
IV. WFMO Liaison
Commuter program: Parking has always been an issue, but it is getting harder with all
of the construction on campus. A commuter incentive would really help with all of the
congestion on campus. They are willing to review any proposal that SAC puts out there.
SAC should take the next step. Chris asked about a car pool parking area that would
accommodate about twenty to thirty cars at reduced rates. Someone from TUPD would
have to spot check to make sure people are actually car pooling.
Adding alternative physicians to the network: Right now we don’t have any. They
don’t know if or when they will be added, but they do know that there are some discounts
available on the CIGNA website. If you log on to mycigna.com, there are discounts for
alternative medicine under a program called healthy rewards. There is a tab on the
upper left side that says review my coverage, which brings you to a drop down menu.
You would then select healthy rewards, and you can then navigate to the different
categories.
Bariatric Surgery: Some employees are asking to have bariatric surgery added to the
health plan. This was discussed in the senate benefits committee as something to study
for 2013.
Staff recognition: Staff recognition is coming up soon. Last year we were fortunate to
have some SAC representatives attend the event. It was helpful to have them there, so
they are asking for volunteers to give them a hand even if it is just to interact the our
constituents. The uptown event will be on March 26th from 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm in the
Lavin Bernick Center. The downtown event will be on March 27th from 9:30 am – 11:30
am, and the Primate Center event will be on March 27th from 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm. They
would like to know who is coming ahead of time, so they can print name tags. We have
two people celebrating fifty years of service, thirty three celebrating twenty five years and
one hundred seventy nine receiving five year awards. President Cowen goes to all of
the events. Email Denise O’Connell at doconnel@tulane.edu or call her at 247.1722 to
let her know if you would like to volunteer. We can also email Christina Wallace at
cwallac@tulane.edu . If you are receiving an award, it is best not to volunteer so you
can enjoy the ceremony. The invitations have been sent to those celebrating an
anniversary, and RSVP’s are arriving. Anniversaries are celebrated the year after your
anniversary. They will meet with us to let us know what our duties would be.
Years of Service: A member said that she worked here many years ago for twelve
years, and then she left and then came back again. She wants to know how her time is
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
March 8, 2012
Page 4
counted. You have to be hired back within thirty days of leaving the University or your
time starts over again.
Hiring Proposals: Someone also had a question about hiring proposals. There are
mixed messages out there about the hiring procedures. There is a communication out
there that says to do a verbal communication and then you do the hiring proposal. Then
there is another communication that says not to do the verbal until after OIE approves it,
which means you would have to do the hiring proposal first. Christina is going to find out
the correct procedure.
Workers Comp: With workers comp you have a seven day waiting period in which you
don’t get paid and you have to use your sick time. If you don’t have sick time, you don’t
get paid. A member was wondering how we can use the pool of time. One constituent
had fractured ribs and a fractured arm, but he was told that it was not severe enough for
him to apply for the pool. She wants to know what classifies severe and who makes that
decision. There have been mixed messages as to who can apply for the pool and under
what conditions, so we are asking for clarification. Christina will come back with different
scenarios next month. When they said that we can’t donate time any longer, employees
were not happy with that so they did change some of the rules. They are now allowing
us to donate our time to a specific person, but there are rules. Previously you could
donate to a specific person for any reason. When Robert had his heart surgery in 2004,
several people donated a week to him.
V.
Officer Reports
A. University Senate
Michael couldn’t be there and Suzanne Lossi replaced a former member.
B. Board of Administrators
No report
VI. University Senate Committee Reports
1. Benefits
No Report
2. Budget Review
No Report
3. Information Technology
No Report
4. Equal Opportunity
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
March 8, 2012
Page 5
Someone asked to have Leland Bennett recognized as an emeritus, but they found out
that they don’t give that status to staff. However, they have given that status to staff
before. The Board of Tulane makes this decision. He retired after 45 years of service.
Ann said that we have staff appreciation. He just wanted the status to be able to use the
Reily Center and the Library, but they wouldn’t grant it to him. They only want the faculty
to have this distinction. They said that maybe we could come up with something
different for Leland. There are only a handful of people that will stay with the university
for 30 – 45 years. One member thought that the staff handbook said that if you were an
employee for 25 years or more (even if you retire or change jobs) you get to keep certain
benefits. If we pass a resolution from SAC, we could take it to the University Senate, but
we would want to have an example of a staff member that has emeritus status. We are
going to see if we can find one. We think that this status only gets them the library and
Reily Center privileges. The Reily Center would not be free, but it would just be at the
same rate as the staff members pay. We would just like to make it comparable with
what faculty get. Laurie is going to see what she can find out.
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
This information is under the Chair’s report
4. Staff Issues
No report
5. Health and Wellness
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
March 8, 2012
Page 6
They are interviewing for the new program coordinator on March 15, 2012. They have
combined the students, faculty and staff into one, and it is now called the Well.
6. Community Service
No Report
VIII.
Old Business
No report
IX.
New Business
No Report
X.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Bourgeois
Recording Secretary