Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday October 14, 2010
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Gwen Chavez, Chair
Laurie Orgeron, Vice Chair
Rob Platner, Election Coordinator
Linda Cantero, Recording
Present
Present
Present
Excused
Kathy Bourgeois
Sheri Bouyelas
Mike Griffith
Michael Harrison
Excused
Excused
Excused
Present
Present
Alysia Loshbaugh
Excused
Suzanne Lossi
Present
Louise Murphy
Lisa O’Dwyer
Patrick Randolph
Present
Excused
Excused
Excused
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Absent
Present
Whitney Richards
Celena Trahan
Kimberly Vega
Judy Vitrano
Ronald Cram (proxy)
Simon Dorfman (proxy)
Joseph Halm (proxy)
Ryan Henne (proxy)
Jane Johnston (proxy)
Kady Weingart (proxy)
Carol Ardeneaux (proxy)
Anita Kivell
Excused
Excused
Excused
Present
Absent
Present
Excused
Absent
Absent
Excused
Present
Present
Excused
Excused
Present
INVITED GUESTS AND VISITORS
Secretary
Miriam Espinosa,
Corresp.Secretary
Aaron Martin, Member At Large
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Tanya Ambrose
Susan Barrera, Immediate Past
Present*
Present
Chair
Linzi Conners
Amber Douet
Michael Heisser
Tami Jenniskens
Christopher Lane
Merisa Pasternak
Allan Slatkin
Kay Leger
Patsy Stewart
Shirley Tubre
Kay Legar
NORTHSHORE
Scott Goings
Corrie West
Desiree Waguespack
Kelly Furlong
Cynthia Chauvin
* Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2010 – 2011
Present
Present
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Call to Order: Gwen Chavez, SAC Chair, called the October, 2010 meeting of the Staff
Advisory Council to order at 3:30 p.m. and was held at the Tulane Health Sciences Campus and
Satellite Offices.
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes
Chair, Gwen Chavez called for a motion to approve the September, 2010 minutes and the
minutes were approved.
II. Report of the Chair
No Report but mentioned that representatives without Tulane parking can park for the uptown
campus meeting at Uptown Square and take the shuttle or there are 4 reserved spaces by the
elevator on the 6th floor of Diboll that can be used. These spots are for everyone, not just SAC.
A parking pass can also be purchased in the Traffic Office at the bottom of Diboll.
III. Guest Speaker
Cynthia Chavin, and the President of the Friends of CASA were the guest speakers to speak
about the CASA program which is our Christmas Community service project.
CASA’s main purpose is to make a difference in the lives of the children . We train volunteers
from the community to advocate for the foster children from the community- They are allowed in
the Courtroom to advocate for the children and help the judges make the best decision when
placing the children. We do not actually become involved with the children until they are
removed and placed in foster care. But our main concern is to see that these children in crisis
are cared for and have something to look forward to. It is our goal to see that with the CASA
volunteers, the Social Workers and Judges, we want to see the children do not spend a lot of
time in the foster program
There are 140 volunteers who take care of 190 children - we have had to double up and some
follow the case of two children - not often but it does happen.
Second question,- how long is the commitment to the children - Each child being a different
circumstance, the time is different but the commitment lasts until the child’s case is closed or
until all court appearance s are finished.. There has been a push to get the children into a
permanent foster home for at least 17 years.
Several fund raisers for CASA, are October 22nd The Golf Tournament,
November 7th The Basketball game
November 8th Dinner At Chili’s
This year we are going to set up a way to donate on line for the CASA Community Services for
2010 Christmas project.
IV.
WFMO Liaison
Kelly Furlong discussed Open Enrollment stating that open enrollment will be from November 1st
to the 12th. We are using on line enrollment from. It is most important for you to fill out this form
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and it takes about 7 minutes to complete. CMS has mandated that all dependents listed must
have their social security numbers. On November 15 we will send out confirmations to you with
the list of benefits and all information. You will have a two week period to go over this and make
changes to this confirmation. This will show the Flex spending if you do not see a figure it is
because you did not select one.
Need to re-enroll in Flexible Spending every year. Over the Counter prescription medication is
not acceptable for Flexible Spending according to the IRS . The card will pay for the prescription
and any over the counter medication will be paid for in cash. It is also noted that next year the
flex spending will top off at $2500.00 - now it is whatever the employer wants.
There will be a deadline to fax the confirmation statements back and that deadline is
November30th.
Dependent Children can now be covered up to age 26 without financial dependency or full time
student status. They are covered until the last day of the month in which they turn 26. There is
now a statement regarding coverage of Grandchildren. They can be covered if it is a blood
grandchild, or legal adopted grandchildren, and they have to live in your house to be eligible.
This open enrollment is covering dental, health and vision and FSA- after the first of the year
we will contact individuals regarding life insurance coverage. Did not have time to program
everything into the web application.
There has been an increase in health cost, as we discussed last month
We are switching to Delta Dental insurance, high upgrade is the same as we had, but the
second option the lower range does everything we had but does not cover major and
orthodontic services.
Question was raised about what happens if in the middle of orthodontia and we switch
insurance carriers – Getting what has been paid to date under Met-Life and giving information to
Delta Dental so that they have that information. Treatment will not change.
Delta has 2 networks – Delta PPO and Delta Premier. Delta PPO will give you the lowest costs
if your dentist is a PPO dentist. Premier is a little higher. Provider lists will be on the WFMO
website.
Business Travel and highlighted the top amount - It will be up to 100,000.00 or 5 x you annual
salary.
Kelly also mentioned that the open enrollment guide was mailed out and should be reaching
your homes in the next few days. Also they will be four meetings to discuss this enrollment and
also they will be an open conference call that you can attend.
No questions were given to Kelly to bring back to WFMO.
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V. Officer Reports
A. University Senate
The senate committee was held - 15 min in duration. No presidential report, no unfinished
business, new business was new bylaws and they passed. They talked about Social Work
Clinical Professor they added one and The School of Business added seven new members, and
was adjourned at 3:30.
B. Board of Administrators
Doug Hertz is a member of the Board - when he came in for the Board meeting this time
he took 14 freshman to dinner and he said that was the best time he ever had and is hoping all
the other board members when they come in for the meetings will take students from their
hometown to dinner .
The President reported Tulane was voted the second most happiest campus in America.
Priorities- getting ready or already started the SACS review and SACS will be on campus in the
Spring.
- Solidify clinical platform for Med School
- Get number of Doctoral Programs up to 850
- Double funded research by 2020
- Complete search for AB Freeman Dean
- Appoint 5 faculty to Social InnovationProfessorships
- Transition from hiring freeze to stabilization was effective 9/1/10
- Continue to build University Relations/Development and Administrative Service functions
- Continue to monitor and adjust feasible compensation levels for faculty and staff
Capital Projects
- Raise $65 million with $12 million in unrestricted funds
- Increase number of donors to 17,000
- Prepare to launch Tulane Empowers campaign into fundraising initiative
- Looking for fundraising initiative for Athletics
- Partner with New Orleans mayoral administration in areas of mutual importance
- 75 – 90million in Capital Projects ongoing
- Dinwiddie and Richardson are completed
- In process of building a cat condo for ferel cats by Richardson
- Complete Residential College on old Doris site by Fall, 2011
- Design for Volleyball/Basketball facility to be done by Fall, 2011
- Develop viable options for another Residential College without tearing down anything
- Complete design for JBJ lab space
- Complete construction of another research building at Primate Center
Financial
- Meet cash flow and Statement of Operations very close to break even
- Prepare to migrate back to DMC (Decentralized Management) model by 2012
- Develop multi-year investment strategy to enhance the university’s IT capabilities
Community Engagement
- Implement plan for Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching
- Continue initiatives in Public Education, Health and Public Service
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Beat Harvard out of award for Best Medical School in US for helping change cities.
Mobilized resources to address the short and long term effects of Gulf oil spill and submitted
proposal along with other universities to BP to fund research.
FEMA put a hold on renovation to Howard Tilton Library.
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
A student group held a protest because they felt the Sodexho employees were not being
treated fairly by their supervisors. In the Times Picayune article, the public perception
was that it was a protest against Tulane University. The social issues committee has
been tasked to see if the University needs to establish a “Cod
e of Conduct” for its
vendors. This could potentially be a requirement for all vendors to review and abide by
specific “Tulane Values” when conducting business with the University. The committee
is reviewing if this can be a legally binding agreement with outside vendors.
VII. SAC Sub-Committees
1. Election Committee
No report.
2. Electronic Technology and Information
No report.
3. Staff Appreciation
No report.
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4. Staff Issues
No report.
5. Health and Wellness
Upcoming final quarter seminars will be “Healthy relationships” and “Stress and Life
Balance”. We are continuing to encourage UHC insured members to fill out their on-line
health assessment survey. The Biggest Winner program is in progress. We have 82
teams. We are focusing now on next year’s health and wellness initiatives. We plan to
tie all of the components of our annual activities together with a streetcar theme. We
want to continue to grow participation in our programs.
6. Community Service
Have bins donated to collect toys. Will kick off CASA for the Holidays Toy Drive with
the Tulane-Loyola Basketball game on November 7. $5 tickets if you bring in a toy.
VI. Old Business
No Report
VIII. New Business
No Report
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on Thursday, November 11, 2010
at the LBC room 201-Race Conference Room, 3:30. Guest Speaker will be Anne Banos, VP of
Administrative Services
I0X.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Gwen Chavez
SAC Chair