Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, November 13, 2008
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
OFFICERS
Glenda Folse
Karen Hiller
Tami Jenniskens
Present
Present
Roxanne Johnson
Paula Lucas
Linda Miller
Cindy Stewart
Shirley Tubre
Merisa Pasternak (proxy)
Yesenia Vasquez (proxy)
Excused
Excused
Excused
Susan Barrera, Chair
Rhonda Earles, Vice Chair
Gwen Chavez, Election Coordinator
Lisa Britton, Recording Secretary,
Present
Present
Present
Present
Member at Large
Excused
Present
Present
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Marty Brantley
Liz Davey
Shirley Dymond
Miriam Espinosa
Cynthia Hayes, Immediate
Present
Present
Present
Excused
Cheryl Sterling, Corresp. Secretary
Jered Bocage, Parliamentarian
Present
Present
MEMBERS – AT – LARGE
Rob Platner
Present
INVITED GUESTS
Ruth Wilson, WFMO
Michael Bernstein, Guest Speaker
Present
Present
VISITORS
Mike Griffith (proxy for Linda Wright)
Zina Harris, Business School
Present
Present
Past Chair
Aaron Martin
Lisa O’Dwyer
Judy Vitrano
Linda Wright
Argentina Acosta (proxy)
Jenny Daigle Benoit (proxy)
Laurie Orgeron (proxy)
Present
Excused
Excused
Proxy
Excused
Present
NORTHSHORE
Eileen deHaro
Mary Little
Robert Johnson (proxy)
Excused
Present*
Present
*Via teleconference
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2008 – 2009
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
Page 2
Call to Order: Susan Barrera, SAC Chair, called the November 13, 2008 meeting of
the Staff Advisory Council to order at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was held in the Lavin
Bernick Center, Race Conference Room on the uptown campus.
I. Review and Approval of the Minutes
Chair Barrera called for a motion to approve the October 13, 2008 minutes.
minutes were approved.
The
II. Guest Speaker
Michael Bernstein, Sr. Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost shared his
“mission objectives” for this academic year and upcoming year and his opinion rating
the success of each goal. These are stated goals above the day-to-day business in
working with the schools and the office of the President.
Academic year 2007-08 Objectives
1. Conduct two leadership searches and successfully hired a Dean for Liberal Arts and
a Dean for Architecture.
2. Goal of creating then implementing a process by which we could evaluate doctoral
programs and make some finalized concrete decisions about Ph.D. education at
Tulane. In wake of Katrina some doctoral programs had admission process
suspended, some eliminated. Goal last year to articulate what methodology would
be. Worked with a consultant, met with focus groups across the schools, discussion
with senior leadership and came up with a “request for proposals”. Do feel
successful and we accomplished what we set out to do
3. Goal of developing a process to selectively select faculty and their hiring. Also
faculty compensation, we made a lot of progress in compensation but still struggling
among all schools to decide “what is the optimum size of faculty”? Didn’t achieve
what we set out to do on that.
4. Academic personnel review – meeting with all schools, and the promotion and
tenure committee to get a sense of how they make academic personnel decisions.
Goal is twofold – one to make good decision on hiring and secondly we are
concerned about all being treated equitably. The process should be consistent
across the schools.
5. Facility diversity – our stated objective that we enhance the representation of underrepresented groups in our faculty. We made modest progress last year. Recently
we were successful in recruiting a woman into a position of Dean of Liberal Arts. We
continue look at how we advertise, how do we construction our applicant pools. For
some candidates, the issue has to do with salary or how we support their creative
research. We find that we don’t recruit individuals, we recruit households. So
opportunities for partners and spouses, and needs for dependents, we started work
on that last year and continue this year. Created a partners opportunity link (go to
provost website) and links you through to a site that coordinates job information for
all colleges and universities in the region and adding some private sector employers.
6. We had strategic objective that endorse reconfiguration in the relationship between
the uptown campus and the downtown campus. In the wake of Katrina there was a
general reorganization of the university such that School of Medicine, Public Health,
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
Page 3
and Tropical Medicine, now report to Academic Affairs in way they had not in the
past. We continue to work with both schools to make sure we are working with them
effectively so they can hire their faculty and staff. Mostly in School of Medicine,
hiring is 24 / 7 – 365 unlike all of the other school that follow a typical academic
calendar cycle.
Academic year 2008-09 Mission Goals
1. Another set of leadership searches are underway - Dean of Law School, and a
Director of the Murphy Institute of Political Economy which is a multi-disciplinary
teaching of social sciences. Also we are launching a search to identify a permanent
Executive Director of Newcomb College Memorial Institute, a position created out of
the Katrina Renewal Plan.
2. Want to execute graduate program RFP (request for proposals) process now under
way. We put RFP out a month ago and the faculty is now responding. Multi
proposals to assess and may take a couple of years to make some conclusive
choices about where we will invest in doctoral education.
3. Salary enhancement – we continue to look at faculty salaries and WFMO is looking
at staff salaries. We started with four uptown schools and made changes there that
we think helped a lot. This year analyzing Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in
certain areas where we think they are weak. There are particular disciplines where
problems still exist on the uptown campus. Everything we are thinking about is
suddenly on hold giving the financial situation.
4. Looking at faculty professional development. Two components – mentoring so when
a new faculty member is recruited, we want to know what the senior faculty are
doing in the way of mentoring and guiding them in their careers. We don’t have a
mentoring program and we are trying to come up with strategies to improve what we
do. We look at our peers who do this well, for example, Duke and the University of
Virginia. The second component is teaching effectiveness. Tulane does not have
an office of learning assessment and learning quality and we should invest in this.
An office made up with professionals would help us to develop to see how effective
our teaching is in the classroom and secondly would offer guidance and support to
faculty to help and improve their teaching.
5. Academic personnel review. We continued to invest a lot of time and energy talking
with Deans and promotion of tenure committees. Issues vary from school to school
– one issue may be school doesn’t analyze faculty research sufficiently; another
school not getting letters from peers out. The goal is to bring all of the schools up to
achieve the best practice across the board.
Miscellaneous points –
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS, Tulane is a member) reaccreditation is due year 2011/12. We are looking to hire a Director of Accreditation
and Assessment. All of peer institutions have a full time person in this position. By not
having someone full time, every 10 years when you need to be accredited, you spend a
lot of money and time to gather all of the information together. We are on track to
prepare for accreditation but we can learn from this cycle, and to make this a smoother
process.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
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Also as part of the accreditation, we are looking at student affairs. Last May there was
a hazing incident and two students were injured. This raised the question on what we
can do better in the area of student conduct and student life. Internal audit of our
practices and created a case manager to coordinate all units and keep track of the
student. We want to be on top of this working with student health, student affairs and
we are trying to strengthen our work there. Substance and alcohol abuse is the main
cause of problems. Unfortunately a very small percentage of students have not made
the best choices for themselves. The fraternity that was involved in the hazing incident
have been closed down, and several students have been expelled with possibly more
depending upon the investigation. A powerful message has been sent out that this
behavior will not be tolerated.
Financial situation – Scott’s Cowen’s talk – market stinks and economy in poor shape.
We are trying to be vigilant and ready to respond whenever we need to. Katrina put us
is a position in that we are lean. Whatever pain we are feeling, all of the other
institutions are feeling it too. We have made some tough decisions and our peer
institutions are just now realizing they too will have to go through and make some tough
decisions.
Question: Why doesn’t Tulane offer a physical therapy program? I don’t know the
answer. We have sports medicine unit there but don’t know why isn’t offered.
Question: An architecture student asked for information as to where can they go and
ask how can they be more a part of the university. The problem in that they spend so
much time on class assignments that there is never any time left to be a part of Tulane
functions other than class assignments. Students should first go to the dean. If not
satisfied then they should go to Provost and Academic Affairs. The curriculum for
architecture has morphed into this large complicated situation. There is a new dean
and we are in the process of slimming the curriculum down. There is a lot of confidence
in this new dean.
Question: What if student is concerned about retaliation? In the past this may be true
but this will not be tolerated. Thinks the situation will improve with the new dean.
Question: With recruitment of new students and employment down by 1,000 staff, is
there any talk of increasing the staff? Not our intention to have 2,000 incoming
freshmen students every year. There is a limit of how many students we can bring in
every year. Pre-Katrina we were trying to bring in 1550- 1575. That seems to be the
better number that we are trying to achieve. After Katrina we were trying to bring up the
enrollment to get students to come to Tulane. If we start to have too many students
then staffing issues is affected. We would have to increase the number of staff to meet
the needs of these students.
Question: Are there provisions for staff development? Enabling staff to attend 1-week
course somewhere, don’t perceive a lack of will, it comes down to money. Where does
the money come from? This should be a key point of budgets with head of
departments.
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November 13, 2008
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Question: Since the university offers Microsoft “Office” programs, a lot of staff do not
know how to use excel or word. Would it be possible to have some in-house person
lead the training sessions for staff? It seems to be more cost effective to have someone
here instead of paying other places to train. He will see if there is someone who can do
this. Chair Barrera will send an email requesting he check into this for us.
Question: Who at university is responsible for management training? Is there a class
or program to train people how to manage people? WFMO organization but not sure
who specifically would be responsible. We hire staff with varying degrees and expect
that everyone knows how to manage. We could be more proactive and have a faculty
mentorship, have certain amount of yearly meetings to help the newcomer. Take senior
managers, bring them together and identify promising junior level colleagues and have
them bring in and help develop our next generation of leaders. At other universities, this
is done in-house as a “management academy”.
III. Report of the Chair, Susan Barrera
 Susan Barrera reported that the SAC Constitution has been signed by Scott Cowen.
The new constitution will be put up on our website. Thanks for everyone who
worked so hard to make this happen.
 Our future guest speakers: Ben Sachs in February, Yvette Jones in March and Scott
Cowen will be in May.
 Linda Miller, chair for the Staff Issues Committee could not be at meeting today and
asked if anyone is interested in being on the committee to please email her so that
she can schedule a meeting.
 Kathleen Brumfield, downtown representative, has to resign from SAC due to work
commitments.
IV. WFMO Liaison
Ruth Wilson, Director of Employee Support Systems
Note: WFMO will rotate a liaison who will be present at our SAC meetings.

Only information Ruth received prior to this meeting to get back to SAC was “what is
the university’s position on flex time?” The position on flextime is provided in the
handbook, for non exempt employees. Core working hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm
so she is not sure of the question. A person must submit in writing to supervisor and
the supervisor’s discretion based on the needs of the department.
We explained that it is a general question for departments that includes everyone,
exempt and non-exempt employees. This question came out of our July meeting
and the price of gas for transportation. It seemed to make more sense to have
flextime and not need to travel to the office five days a week. However, at the
meeting it was said that department heads are uncomfortable agreeing to flextime
because there is no clear explanation for departments to grant flextime.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
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After discussion, SAC was asked to submit something in writing to WFMO. With this
in writing, they can then take up the issue and investigate.

Question: Is there any update on the compensation study? No specific information
at this time and will make a note for whoever comes to the December meeting to
address this.

Question: Can tuition waiver be moved to 20 years from 25 years of service for
staff? No answer at this time.

Question: Can we have Commuter Savings Accounts (CSA)? Employee can get
their money to be tax deferred put into a commuter savings account which can be
applied to parking, public transportation and bicycle maintenance for those
commuting. Has WFMO had any discussions about adding the commuter savings
account? Also, can we have the health savings account (HSA)? You need to have
a $1,500 deductible which we don’t have because it is now $1,000. But for
somebody who doesn’t have a lot of health expenses, the HSA would be able to roll
over, transferred to another employer, the money is never lost. So could WFMO
explore if we can do this option? Both questions will be forwarded to WMFO for the
representative coming to the December meeting to give us an answer.
V. Officer Reports
A. University Senate
Rhonda Earles gave the following report.

Following a few housekeeping items, President Cowen gave his update on the
university.
He asked that all faculty, staff and students be vigilant as they
traverse campus. Additional precautions are underway, including: patrolling an
enlarged off-campus area especially Thursday through Sunday, 25 security
cameras should be in place by Thanksgiving, administrators have been
conducting walkabouts identifying dark areas and other areas of concern, brush
cutting in an effort to eliminate hiding places, students have asked for more vivid
language in the crime alerts, and safety tips have been posted around campus.

The suspect in the third attack is being held without bail/bond. He is also a
suspect in the first and second attacks. The only information the university and
police have on the second attack is hearsay; the victim has not come forward to
make an official report.

President Cowen urged students to not walk alone, especially at night, and to
use the shuttle when possible.

The DCM model will return as soon as we reach breakeven of the operating
budget, estimated at 2011 or 2012. A hybrid system is in place now.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting

November 13, 2008
Page 7
Regarding the economy, there is no evidence that student loans have been
impacted by the current economy. We continue to provide need-based aid to
students.
B. Board of Administrators
No meeting.
VI. University Senate Committee Reports
1. Benefits
No meeting.
2. Budget Review
Aaron Martin gave the following report (see “Attachment 1”). Meeting held and the
message from President Cowen is we are in fairly good financial shape and the plan
is to be financially in the black by 2012.
3. Information Technology
No report.
4. Equal Opportunity
No report.
5. Physical Facilities
Gwen Chavez gave the following report. There is a meeting scheduled for
November 24th. On the agenda is a request for feedback on McAllister Wave
Project, the closing of McAllister and turning the area in a green area. Also on the
agenda is the review of planning of housing on the uptown campus.
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.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
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4. Staff Issues
Linda Miller, committee chair, could not be at the meeting today and asked whoever
is interested in being on the committee to please contact her. She will have a Staff
Issues meeting prior to the next SAC meeting in December.
5. Health and Wellness
Judy Vitrano is the chair for this committee and she will be contacting WFMO and
Sandy West to see how we can support them.
6. Community Service
Gwen Chavez reported that in the past, SAC adopted two families to give to at
Christmas. Gwen suggested this year instead of giving to a needy family, we give to
the children that are in group homes and foster children since they usually don’t get
presents. Gwen has contacted CASA in Orleans, and Jefferson (and is in process of
contacting St. Tammany) to inquire about the number of kids and their age groups in
foster care. Jefferson has 250 plus, Orleans approx 100. CASA tries to get
presents close to $20 for each child. Younger children are easier to find presents for
and the older children usually get them a watch, or CD player, or a wallet or purse,
and CASA delivers them to the kids. Presents cannot be delivered to CASA
wrapped. They do have wrapping parties if anyone would like to participate. In
Orleans, party is December 13th, Jefferson delivers the presents between December
5th and January 5th. The parishes work together so if we collect say more items for
older children, they contact the other parishes and exchange to make best use of the
gifts. If we do get more than they need, they do try to give them something on their
birthdays.
If we want to do this, Cynthia Hayes will put out an email to entire university. We
have our SAC account that the money can be deposited into. Cynthia and Gwen will
take the lead on this. Gwen will collect uptown, Susan can collect in Tidewater and
she will ask Judy Vitrano to collect at Elmwood. Eileen deHaro and Mary Little will
collect at the Primate Center. We will ask the Provost office to send out this
information to the faculty.
VIII. Old Business
Chair Barrera announced the December meeting will be downtown on December 11th.
In the past we have done a “pot luck” dinner. Question was asked of those in
attendance if they are interested in repeating that tradition of pot luck and also, is
anyone interested in changing the time. After discussion, it was agreed that the
meeting time will stay the same and Susan will take care of the arrangements to have
desserts and coffee at the December meeting.
Aaron Martin mentioned that a meeting to discuss the Book Scholarship Award as part
of the Community Service was held today prior to this meeting. There were some
decisions and recommendations made and this committee will be getting information
out to everyone for their review for the December meeting.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting
November 13, 2008
Page 9
Chair Barrera will follow up with Provost to see if we can schedule in-house training
computer sessions. If anyone is interested in the mentoring program, contact Susan for
her to this along to the Provost.
IX. New Business
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on December 11, 2008 at the SPHTM
Dean’s Conference Room in the Tidewater Building, 24th floor at 3:30 pm.
X. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa M. Britton
Recording Secretary
ATTACHMENT 1
Tulane University Senate
Budget Review Committee
Minutes of the October 27, 2008, Meeting
Attendees:
Kay McLennan, Morris Kalka, Aaron Martin, David Greenberg, John
Trapani, Michael Bernstein, Hugh Long, Carol Reese, Marilyn Li, Lynn
Pearlmutter, Yvette Jones, Tony Lorino, and James McFarland
The Budget Review Committee of the Tulane University Senate met on Monday,
October 27, 2008, from 3:00 until 4:30 p.m. in room 2101, Goldring/Woldenberg Hall II.
Prior to the meeting, Professor McFarland distributed an agenda. The agenda
included four major topics:




Fiscal Year Ending 6/30/2008 Audited Financial Statements (Draft
Endowment Highlights—6/30/2008
Fund-raising and Capital Campaign Highlights
Fiscal Year 2009 Budget
Ms. Yvette Jones and Mr. Tony Lorino provided several handouts at the meeting
covering the four agenda items:












TULANE UNIVERSITY STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION JUNE30,
2008 AND 2007 (THOUSANDS) (DRAFT)
TULANE UNIVERSITY STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES, YEAR ENDED
JUNE30, 2008, WITH COMPARATIVE TOTALS FOR JUNE30, 2007 (IN
THOUSANDS) (DRAFT)
TULANE UNIVSERSITY NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS YEAR
ENDED JUNE 30, 2008 (DRAFT)
Tulane University Years Ended June 30, 2007 and June 30, 2008 Financial
Reporting
TULANE UNIVERSITY Endowment Highlights Fiscal Years June 30, 1998
through 2007 and June 30, 2008 (dollars in thousands)
Tulane University Surpasses Campaign Goal, Raises More than $750 Million
(Press Release: September 26, 2008)
“Tulane exceeds expectations,” The Times-Picayune, October 6, 2008
Campaign Total: Progress Toward $700,000,000 Goal, 7/1/98-6/30/08
Tulane University Campaign Progress Report, 7/1/98-6/30/08
Tulane University Framework for Fundraising
Proposed FY 2009 Budget Assumptions Unrestricted Operations Only
Tulane University Preliminary Financial Forecast Fiscal Year 2009 (in
thousands)
Ms. Jones and Mr. Lorino reviewed the handouts in considerable detail and
responded to questions from the Committee.
Review of Financials and Endowment
An operating loss of approximately $20 million was reported for FY 2008 which is
significantly better that the $34 million loss originally projected. In addition, the
University is in a strong cash position with approximately $100 million in reserves that
should be adequate to cover any liquidity issues in FY 2009.
Although an operating loss (operating budget deficit) is projected through 2011,
the overall financial picture for 2008 and 2009 is better than expected due to several
factors, including larger enrollments and associated tuitions revenues and one-time
payments from FEMA, insurance companies, and the State of Louisiana, and several
large gifts. These one-time payments contribute significantly to the University’s strong
cash position.
The University is still pursuing some additional payments from insurance
companies and FEMA.
The University’s balance sheet is in good shape, and the University has
adequate lines of credit to cover most contingencies.
One of the greatest concerns in future years is the impact of the “economic and
financial crisis” on the University endowment and endowment earnings. Although
endowment payouts should not be affected in the short term, considerable uncertainty
exists about future years, especially for the Eminent Scholars Funds.
Campaign and Fund Raising
The University’s capital campaign raised more than $730 million, exceeding the
campaign goal:




Endowment
Facilities
Restricted Program Support
Tulane Fund/Other Unrestricted
$297.5 million
$93.5 million
$238.3 million
$101.3 million
Another campaign is in the early planning stage. The major objective of
fundraising in the next year or so is to increase the number of donors and broaden the
University support base.
Future Meetings
A conference call is being scheduled for November 25. This meeting will review
the approved FY 2008 year-end financials and provide the basis for the Committee’s
report for the December 1 University Senate meeting.
The Committee will also meet in the spring to review and approve the FY 2010
Budget.