Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, May 8, 2008
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Glenda Folse
Tami Jenniskens
Roxanne Johnson
Paula Lucas
Linda Miller
Cindy Stewart
Shirley Tubre
Karen Hiller (proxy)
Merisa Pasternak (proxy)
Yesenia Vasquez (proxy)
OFFICERS
Cynthia Hayes, Chair
Susan Barrera ,Vice Chair
Rhonda Earles, Elections Coord.
Kathleen Brumfield, Record Sect.
Cheryl Sterling, Corresp. Sect
Jered Bocage, Parliamentarian
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
MEMBERS – AT – LARGE
Lisa Britton
Rob Platner
Verna Lee
Present
Present
Present
INVITED GUESTS
Jason Chretien
Present
PTOWN CAMPUS
Marty Brantley
Gwen Peacock Chavez
Liz Davey
Shirley Dymond
Miriam Espinosa
Lisa O’Dwyer
Judy Vitrano
Linda Wright
Argentina Acosta (proxy)
Jenny Daigle Benoit (proxy)
Aaron Martin (proxy)
Laurie Orgeron (proxy)
NORTHSHORE
Eileen deHaro
Mary Little
Robert Johnson (proxy)
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Absent
Excused
VISITORS
Excused
Present
Present (TC)
Present (TC)
Excused
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2007 – 2008
Call to Order: Cynthia Hayes, SAC Chair, called the May 8, 2008 meeting of the Staff Advisory
Council to order at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was held at the School of Public Health & Tropical
Medicine Dean’s Conference Room, Tidewater Building. The meeting was also teleconferenced (TC)
at the request of representatives from the Primate Center.
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I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes: Cynthia Hayes, SAC Chair, called for a motion to
approve the April 10, 2008 minutes. The minutes were approved.
II.
Report of the Chair
1. Staff Recognition Event – The Rickey Graham review was great! We received many
accolades. Special thanks to Lisa Britton for her hard work and efforts.
2. Baseball Game – Staff will be recognized at the baseball game on Friday, May 9, 2008.
3. Tuition Waiver – If staff would like to go back to school for a PMBA, they can take 7 credit
hours in this program per Anne Bãnos. The change revolves around a curriculum change in
the PMBA program. They have a one credit class that they are moving up in the program
which will require students enrolled in the program to have one semester in which they are
taking seven credit hours. As you know, the Tuition Waiver policy expressly forbids our
employees to take more than six credit hours in a single semester on a waiver. We will be
allowing employees enrolled in the PMBA program ONLY to exceed the six credit hour limit
for a single semester and for a single semester only. You may want to note that the program
curriculum also dictates that in a semester further along in the program results in PMBA
students taking a maximum of five credit hours in one semester. The curriculum change
becomes effective this fall and will include those already enrolled in the program.
So, the online Tuition Waiver policy Section VIII, B. 2 (a) will be amended to read as follows:
First paragraph stays as is.
Second paragraph (begins with Any of the summer sessions….) stays as is.
3rd paragraph will be added as follows:
Employees enrolled in the PMBA program in the A.B. Freeman School of Business will
be approved to take seven hours in one semester as required by the PMBA curriculum, and in
light of the fact that a future semester requires only five hours of coursework. The approval to
exceed the six hour credit limit per semester applies only to employees enrolled in the PMBA
program and will only be approved for one semester.
4. Tobacco Policy – The tobacco policy was approved by Senate.
5. Wellness Committee – Cynthia has given the committee a few recommendations from
SAC for the Wellness Committee:
 Have an MD, medical director of the Comprehensive Wellness Program, hire a nurse
practitioner or RN to run it, hire a dietician and a fitness expert.
 Set up a Wellness Center on all three campuses – mini set up with a few pieces of
equipment- two days on uptown campus (could use the Reily Center for that one, two
days at downtown center (one of the buildings) and 1 day at primate center.
 Have specific hours – but use the staff wisely to create hours conducive to opening early
and closing later – i.e. open for 7:00 PM and close at 6:30 PM
 Provide free B/P readings at any time of the day.
 Have a weight management program – where the employee comes in and sees the NP and
in collaboration with the Medical Director – develops a plan of care using the expertise of
the dietician, fitness expert and MD and write up the plan and goal to be achieved – if the
goal of X amount of weight is lost – then reward the employee after 365 days on the
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program with a check for $150 – an incentive but that $150 could have saved multiple
dollars in claims due to multiple illnesses that could be eliminated by the weight
reduction. The institution/manager would need to allow for employees to have changes
in their work schedule to do this – example – employee could work 8-6 rather than 8-5
but at 2-3 he would be going to the weight management program working out on the
equipment and then go back to work.
Have Diabetic Cooking instructions – once a month or every other month – The Tulane
Community Clinic at Covenant House has a kitchen. They use it sometimes in the
evening. Is there availability to use it for this for an evening class? The dietician could
teach the class, security could be available on site due to safety issues. How to cook if
you are a diabetic?
Market the entire program – develop a small brochure – by explaining to employees that
cost is rising and continues to rise with health care – the institution wants to do
everything to bring this cost down – by doing this and asking that the employee play a
huge role in bringing this cost down we can past that savings on to the employee. It may
take one or two years to collect the data and see the savings but sometimes you have to
put out money in order to save money long term. Market it in the paychecks also and/or
have a monthly e-mailing/newsletter of what is going on with wellness. Put flyers in the
elevators regarding upcoming programs.
Discuss research that could be done using this model – some of the researchers in
medicine might be interested in being involved.
Talk to the medical equipment companies – i.e. the most recent computerized work
station connected to a treadmill – would they be willing to donate one or two for a year –
for a research project with Medicine or Cardiology – or to the Wellness Center. Send a
mailing out to the employees and see who would be willing to volunteer to be the one or
two people – set up some criteria with the MD and then select from the employees who
responded who would be chosen. They would work at this station for a period of time 6
months or 1 year. Monitor their weight loss and other activities. The data obtained from
this could be used to write a paper.
Diabetic checks – could offer to do glucose monitoring – stop in – if the Wellness Clinic
is open in your area – uptown, downtown, Primate Center and will check at no cost to
you.
Have a smoking cessation program
Does the present UnitedHealthcare Plan offer a case management program for employees
with certain diagnoses? We would have to research the confidentiality laws with that but
this saves dollars tremendously.
Have a program 2- 3 times per year on asthma – especially when it gets close to pollen
season – the nurse practitioner could do this – could do one for adults and one for parents
who have children.
Have a program quarterly on diet with patients who have high blood pressure.
The Medical Director and/or nurse practitioner could visit a large corporation that has
such a program to get more ideas about the program and the budget surrounding such a
program.
Take a look at the statistical data surrounding claims and the most frequent diagnoses and
the most expensive claims and provide health education surrounding those things.
The Wellness Center could be a place to get information about referral sources – go see
the nurse or MD to find out more as where to go to get support for certain diagnoses – i.e.
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the American Cancer Society, Leukemia Society, Cancer Crusaders, etc. What support
systems are available to you/us in the Community?
III.
Human Resources Liaison: Jason Chretien, Assistant Vice President for Operations
Jason Chretien addressed outstanding Staff Issues Committee questions.
1. Question: Is Tulane Administration looking into cards for FLEX spending?
Answer: No. There needs to be a better way to administer them.
2. Question: Is there a policy on employees being allowed to work from home?
Answer: There is no policy in place.
3. Question: Does Administration have plans to review the compensation structure
(salary ranges)?
Answer: Administration put a moratorium on the re-classification review in
November 2007. They developed a policy, instituted the policy, and have
subsequently reviewed all the re-classification requests that were put on hold. They
responded back to the Departments who had re-classification requests. There are
about eight (8) pending but those came in subsequent to the initial moratorium. There
is a process and a policy in place. If you take a look at the WFMO website, under the
compensation tab, it delineates the re-classification process.
4. Question: Will the University be moving away from using social security numbers as
employee identification number on timesheets, legal documents, etc?
Answer: It is a work in progress. It is primarily being driven by Technology
Services at this point. The reason they are in the driver’s seat is because they are
coming up with a mechanism to effectively create numbers for everyone who need
numbers across the campus; not only employees, but students as well. They will then
effectively roll it out to all of the WFMO systems. WFMO is all ready to go to
update their program. They already have the fields; they just need to know what the
numbering convention will be and the policy and procedures around how they roll out
the numbers. The last that he heard, they were trying to get it completed this calendar
year.
5. Question: Will sick leave be done away with?
Answer: There was a little talk of it a little bit after hurricane Katrina; however, it
was pretty much a draw off the table. To most of you taking away your sick leave
would be like perceived as a take-away and given the climate at the University right
now that is the last thing Administration would like to do.
6. Question: Will the University consider changing the retirement benefit to 20 years
rather than 25 years?
Mr. Chretien requested clarification of this question. It was explained to him that if
someone retires after 25 years of employment, they are still eligible for free tuition
for dependents, etc.
Answer: He will have to go back to Administration with this question.
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IV.
Officer Reports
A. University Senate: The University Senate met on April 28, 2008. Report from meetings
was given by Rhonda Earles.
University Senate Meeting Notes
April 28, 2008
Guests were introduced: Liz Davey, Danny Lawless.
Minutes of previous meeting were approved.
Elections were held: Cedric Walker to serve on Committee on Committees, Jeff Wiese to serve
as parliamentarian.
President Cowen reported that 1,323 deposits have been received at four days before the deadline
for submitting deposits. This leads to the estimate of an entering class of 1,560 to 1,720. This
also allows for the “summer melt” of 6 percent to 8 percent. Approximately 60 percent of the
incoming class is in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. The ultimate goal is 75
percent in the top 10 percent.
The honors committee submitted a change in the process for reviewing and approving candidates
for honorary degrees. This would streamline the process. The matter was postponed until fall
semester.
The budget review committee submitted its summary of the fiscal year, noting that payments
from insurance and FEMA had been received. The goal for elimination of the structural deficit
is 2011; this deficit includes $100 million debt from Hurricane Katrina, one-time costs of
remediation, increases in utilities, and increases in salaries. In response to a question, there are
four schools targeted for faculty salary adjustments this year; SPHTM is not among those. The
mention of “cost of living” is erroneous and should read “merit pool.” The senate approved the
FY09 budget and its recommendations.
The committee on committees (CoC) reported that the committee on equal opportunity is
advisory not executive. CoC recommended adding institutional equity to the committee’s
oversight instead of forming a new committee that will advise the senate and administration and
changing the membership to chair, six faculty, three exempt staff, and three nonexempt staff.
CoC was asked to consider disbanding the social issues committees; this is not recommended.
CoC was asked to consider disbanding faculty status committee, which hasn’t met in 15 years;
disbanding this committee was recommended.
The social issues committee presented the results of their work on the proposed nonsmoking
policy, noting the recommendations from SAC regarding garage stairways/elevator areas and
ensuring safety. They reported that a policy does exist for reviewing proposed gifts from
tobacco companies; therefore, any such gifts would be vetted by the vice president for
development and the senior vice president for external affairs. How to implement and enforce
the policy are being examined; this is more difficult downtown.
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The faculty tenure and faculty responsibility committee recommended adding a sentence to the
opening of the faculty handbook that would specifically say the handbook does not represent a
contract under Louisiana law. This was tabled until fall semester. The proposed interim
principles will be used in calendar year 2008 if needed. Action to include these principles in the
handbook can be taken in the fall.
Under new business, the senate was asked to reaffirm its role in the process of approving the
Code of Student Conduct. This was approved.
University Senate meetings may be found online at http://www.tulane.edu/~usenate/ once they have
been approved.
B. Board of Administrators: No Meeting. A meeting is scheduled for next week.
V.
University Senate Committee Reports:
1. Benefits –No Meeting. A meeting is scheduled for June.
2. Budget Review – Cynthia gave a brief summary of the meeting for Aaron Martin and
Roxanne Johnson:
Since the Interim Report, delivered in December of 2007 the SCBR met once on April 25 to discuss the
’08 budget as of the end of the third quarter, a report from the Development office on the completion of
the Campaign, the proposed ’09 budget and the results of the Provost’s analysis of faculty salaries. As
the University begins to settle back into a budget more closely resembling that of 2005, there are still
large perturbations. While the stream of expenses associated with Hurricane Katrina has slowed to a
trickle, the University is still struggling, often successfully, to recover insurance benefits and to obtain
reimbursement from FEMA for expenses incurred in repairing storm damage. Thus, as in FY 07, the
University will be significantly in the black at the end of FY 08 when insurance recoveries, FEMA
reimbursements and large donations are included. The actual net operating revenues and expenditures,
though, remain bright red (est. – 28M).
3. Information Technology – No Report.
4. Equal Opportunity – No Report.
5. Physical Facilities – No Report
6. Social Issues – No Report
VI.
SAC Sub-Committees:
1. Election Committee: Rhonda Earles, Chair of the Election Committee reported. There is one
nomination for four of the five officer positions. No one was nominated or volunteered for
the Recording Secretary position. Kathleen with her current workload has decided that she
does not want to run for recording secretary a 2nd term.
2. Electronic Technology and Information: No Report.
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3. Staff Appreciation: Report given by Lisa Britton, Chair of Staff Appreciation Committee.
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The Ricky Graham Performance on April 21st was a great success. We had
approximately 120-130 people attend. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a success
– Aaron Martin (website invitation), volunteers (Merisa Pasternak, Yesenia Vasquez,
Rob Platner, Rhonda Earles, Judy Vitrano) who were stationed at the entrance doors and
give away table. Cynthia had hired a caterer, Southern Hospitality, who also supplied the
servers for the event. She also ordered the giveaways (coolers and pens).
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Those attending the event appeared to be pleasantly surprised when they entered Dixon
Hall. In the lobby we had tables of food and giveaways. Then Ricky’s performance was
just fun. We were able to laugh and appreciate why we are still here living in New
Orleans. And a New Orleans icon, Mr. Bingle, presented Anne Banos with the door prize
– a vegetarian MRE.
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Repeating this event should be considered at each campus, maybe rotate every year. It
was easier to put on than the larger event we had with WFMO with the wellness theme
“good to be TU”.
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We were just notified that Tulane and UnitedHealthcare will be hosting the “Biometrics
health screening days” at each of the campuses in two weeks. The event at each campus
will be held for the day so that people will be able to come at their convenience for the
designated locations. For downtown, it will be on Thursday, May 22nd in the JBJ bldg.
The uptown and primate center will have their events on May 20 and 21st.
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The Biometric screenings are blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose. It may include
some other testing such as Body-Mass-Index.
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Lisa has a conference call with the UnitedHealthcare representative tomorrow morning.
She will send out an email to everyone if we need any volunteers. A nursing company is
coming to do the testing and they do this for many large companies and health fairs so
they may not need too much help.
4. Staff Issues: No Report; however Susan will call a meeting before the next meeting.
5. Constitution: Report given by Jered Bocage, Parliamentarian and Chair of Constitution
Committee. Two things have changed since the constitution was reviewed last meeting: 1) It
was suggested that the name of the Electronic Technologies and Information Committee be
renamed to the Electronic Technologies and Communications Committee and 2) Article III
Section C.7 paper ballots.
A motion was made to accept the changes to the Constitution and it was seconded. It was approved
unanimously. Cynthia and Jered will meet with Anne Banos and review the changes and submit the
revised Constitution to President Cowen for his signature and approval.
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VII.
Old Business: No
VIII. New Business:
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Rob Platner suggested that we do birthday recognitions once per month.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on June 12, 2008, Uptown Campus, The LavinBernick Center for University Life. Dr. Scott Cowen will attend the June Meeting.
IX.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 PM.
Kathleen Brumfield
Recording Secretary
Approved ________on ____________, 2008
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