Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, February 11, 2010
ATTENDEES
OFFICERS
Susan Barrera, Chair
Gwen Chavez, Vice Chair
Rob Platner, Election Coordinator
Lisa Britton, Recording Secretary,
Member at Large
Cheryl Sterling,Corresp. Secretary
Jered Bocage, Parliamentarian
ATTENDEES
Present
Present
Present
Present
Absent
Present
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Tanya Ambrose
Present
Ron Cail
Linzi Conners
Cheryl Dempsey
Tami Jenniskens
Paula Lucas
Merisa Pasternak
Patsy Stewart
Shirley Tubre
Absent
Present
Excused
Excused
Present
Present
Present
Excused
NORTHSHORE
Scott Goings
Corrie West
Robert Johnson (proxy)
Excused
Present
Absent
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Kathy Bourgeois
Linda Cantero
Erin Coffey
Liz Davey
Shirley Dymond
Miriam Espinosa
Mike Griffith
Michael Harrison
Cynthia Hayes,Immediate Past
Chair
Romella Hodges
Alysia Loshbaugh
Suzanne Lossi
Aaron Martin
Lisa O’Dwyer
Laurie Orgeron
Kimberly Vega
Judy Vitrano
Emily Capdeville (proxy)
Jeannine Coxen (proxy)
Simon Dorfman (proxy)
Jeanny Keck (proxy)
INVITED GUESTS AND
VISITORS
Erica Taylor, Wellness
Coordinator
Sandy West, WFMO
Present
Excused
Absent
Absent
Present
Present
Excused
Present*
Absent
Absent
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Excused
Absent
Absent
Excused
Present
Present
Present
* Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2009 – 2010
Call to Order: Susan Barrera, SAC Chair, called the February 11, 2010 meeting of the Staff
Advisory Council to order at 2:30 p.m. The meeting was held at the Lavin-Bernick Center, in the
Rechler Conference Room.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
I.
February 11, 2010
Page 2
Review and Approval of the Minutes
Chair Barrera called for a motion to approve the November 12, 2009 minutes and the minutes
were approved. She then called for an approval of the December 10, 2009 minutes and they
were also approved.
II. WFMO Liaison
Sandy West, Director, WFMO Strategic Planning and Implementation
Question was brought back to WMFO from our last SAC meeting regarding vacation pool time
and Family Medical Leave. WMFO’s response: In order for an employee to receive time from
the vacation pool, that employee must be approved for FMLA. You cannot apply for vacation
pool hours unless you have been approved to take medical leave. The employee’s vacation
and sick time is used up first before any vacation pool hours can be transferred over to assist
that employee. The employee can only take a total amount of leave approved (if you are
approved for a 12 weeks medical leave, you cannot request to take an additional 2 weeks).
Discussion regarding the vacation pool hours -- should we request a report from WFMO as to
the total hours in the pool? For example, we have a campaign asking for employees to donate
vacation hours since the pool is getting low. Agreed we should try to put something forth to
WFMO.
Questions to WFMO:
At the end of the year, people were taxed on the gift cards they received for participating in
UnitedHealth’s Wellness Program. Why was this information not communicated earlier instead
of seeing the deduction on our paycheck?
If UnitedHealth was putting up the gift cards, why did Tulane tax us on this?
Answer: The information was clearly stated at onset and on each communication from the
Wellness Committee. Of the 1,300 cards given out, only approximately 30 people complained.
This is a requirement by the IRS, the gift cards (worth a specific dollar amount) are to be
considered taxable income. Sandy calculated everyone and communicated the information to
the Payroll Office. So everyone who received a gift card was taxed on the value amount.
UnitedHealth did put up the gift cards but it was up to Tulane to distribute them. That is why we
are responsible for listing this as taxable income.
Discussion from the floor: Several people have investigated the communications and were not
able to find any information stating they would be taxed. Feelings by those who participated
believe they did not read the fine print. The university had the advantage because the people
that participated helped the university by taking the survey. Then appears on paycheck as
taxable income, reason WMFO didn’t hear anything is because people went to Payroll not
WFMO. Everyone present agreed that in the future, this issue be made clearer to participants.
Sandy West saved the communications on this issue and no it was not glaring statement
informing about gift cards will be considered as taxable income. Sandy said they will do a better
job in communicating this information, was not done intentionally to mislead those who
participated in the survey.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 11, 2010
Page 3
Question to WFMO: What about employees who reached a milestone anniversary date with
Tulane? Are they going to be taxed for those gifts?
Answer: Word from Jean Holtman (Associate VP, WFMO) is they are still investigating that, so
no answer on service awards to report right now.
Discussion from the floor: If it is determined we need to tax those receiving the service awards,
request WFMO to revisit the idea to give out gifts instead of gift cards. When you are rewarding
them for their years of service to Tulane, to tax them does not seem appropriate.
III. Report of the Chair, Susan Barrera
No report.
IV. Officer Reports
A. University Senate
Susan Barrera reported from the Senate meeting on February 1, 2010.
 President’s report: have received 44,000 student admission applicants for the fall
semester 2010.
 Undergraduate Tuition will increase approximately $1,100 so with all of the fees included
and tuition will be an additional 3% increase for upcoming year.
 Fourth quarter financials – have some good news, the actual deficits are half of what we
originally budgeted.
 The Endowment Portfolio is back up to approximately $900 million.
 The annual Development figures are around $40 million.
 Budget guidelines for FY 2011 have been approved.
 Salary merit pool will increase 2% for FY 2011.
 Faculty and staff hiring freeze policy will remain in effect until further notice.
 Hope to reach projected balanced budget by year 2012.
B. Board of Administrators
No report.
V. University Senate Committee Reports
1. Benefits
No report.
2. Budget Review
No report.
3. Information Technology
No report.
4. Equal Opportunity
No report.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
February 11, 2010
Page 4
5. Physical Facilities
No 4eport.
6. Social Issues
No report.
VI. SAC Sub-Committees
1. Election Committee
No report.
2. Electronic Technology and Information
No report.
3. Staff Appreciation
Susan Barrera, Rob Platner and Lisa Britton want to discuss the upcoming Family Fun Day
event on Saturday, February 27th.
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Anne Banos received our budget for approximately $4,200 and President Cowen agreed
to give SAC $4,000 for this event. The money has been transferred to us and we have
the funds to purchase the things we have planned for the event.
Anne Banos committed to purchasing shirts for our SAC volunteers.
Asked Anne Banos if she can get us a Saints player to attend our event. With all of the
excitement from the Super Bowl will be a big draw to get people to attend.
President Cowen is going to participate in the walk. Registration will begin at 10:30 am
with the walk beginning at 11:00 am.
We have not received a good RSVP to date – 8 staff members bringing a total of 17
including family members. We are changing the name to Family Fun Day instead of
Wellness Walk and will send out more emails and correspondence to get people to
come participate.
Aaron Martin will ask that information on our event be included in “Scott’s Tulane Talk”
that goes out weekly via email. Also will get in the Tulane New Wave
Lisa O’Dwyer will mention our event to the Tulane Women’s Association.
Merisa Pasternak will promote the event to the Medical School.
Jered Bocage will see if the drum guys and jugglers would come out for entertainment
purposes.
We can post photos on the scoreboard during the baseball game. We are asking if you
have photos of staff or co-workers to get them to us so we can put together a SAC
presentation. Also if you take photos the day of the event, Athletics can get those on the
scoreboard prior to the game.
Specifics on event:
 Food – we have not ordered the food yet. Will give a final head count number on the
Tuesday before the event. The menu will be: Jambalaya, salad, garlic bread, whole fruit
and cookies. Mr. Mudbug is donating a couple of pans of a seafood pasta dish. We are
waiting to hear back if we will get donations of water and Powerade.
 Renting tents– two 10x10 size tents and four 20x20 size tents. Also renting tables and
chairs for 150 people. Tents will be used for the food and people to sit under. We are
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
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February 11, 2010
Page 5
also renting two inflatables for the kids. The student athletes are supposed to come out
and help out with the kids’ area.
DJ – Jonathan Jouet is a staff member and he will come out for us.
Sports lecture – given by someone from Athletics. We will check to see if the mascot
can come out prior to the game.
Giveaways we ordered grocery totes, sports bottles and Frisbees, expected delivery to
be the week before the event. Also have 50 insulated lunch bags with the SAC logo we
will bring to give out.
Our event should be wrapped up by 12:30 pm – the walk (one mile) begins at 11:00 am.
The gates for the baseball game open at 1:00 pm.
SAC volunteers should be there for 8:00 am. We will need to set up the tables and
chairs prior to the event. The tents will be set up but we need to set up the table and
chairs. Medical School and Pediatrics groups will be doing the health screenings are
planning to set up around 9:00 am.
4. Staff Issues
No report.
5. Health and Wellness
No report.
6. Community Service
No report.
VI. Old Business
None.
VIII. New Business
Aaron Martin presented a draft resolution: Domestic Partner Benefits Resolution 2010-01. He
explained the issue was brought to our attention of how difficult it is for Tulane employees to get
domestic partner benefits. The attached draft resolution shows a comparison of Tulane’s policy
and the University of Minnesota’s policy. This resolution would request Tulane review and
update our current policy. Considering how things are moving with health care and domestic
partnerships, here at Tulane we should update our policies. This issue will be discussed further
at our next SAC meeting.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on Thursday, March 11, 2010 in the Dean’s
Conference Room in the Tidewater Building at 3:30 pm.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa M. Britton
Recording Secretary