Tulane University
Staff Advisory Council
Minutes of Thursday, June 12, 2008
ATTENDEES
ATTENDEES
DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Glenda Folse
Karen Hiller
Tami Jenniskens
Roxanne Johnson
Paula Lucas
Linda Miller
Cindy Stewart
Shirley Tubre
Merisa Pasternak (proxy)
Yesenia Vasquez (proxy)
Present
Excused
Excused
Excused
Present
Present
Absent
Excused
Absent
Present
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
Excused
Excused
Present
MEMBERS – AT – LARGE
Lisa Britton
Rob Platner
Verna Lee
Present
Present
Excused
UPTOWN CAMPUS
Marty Brantley
Gwen Peacock Chavez
Liz Davey
Shirley Dymond
Miriam Espinosa
Aaron Martin
Lisa O’Dwyer
Judy Vitrano
Linda Wright
Argentina Acosta (proxy)
Jenny Daigle Benoit (proxy)
Laurie Orgeron (proxy)
Present
Excused
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Excused
Excused
Absent
Excused
Present
NORTHSHORE
Eileen deHaro
Mary Little
Robert Johnson (proxy)
INVITED GUESTS
Scott Cowen, President of Tulane
Anne Bãnos, Chief of Staff
VISITORS
Nicola Wolf (proxy-.Vitrano)
Present (TC)
Excused
Excused
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2007 – 2008
Call to Order: Cynthia Hayes, SAC Chair, called the June 12, 2008 meeting of the Staff
Advisory Council to order at 3:30 p.m. The meeting was held at the Lavin-Bernick Center for
University Life in the Korach Conference Room. The meeting was also teleconferenced (TC) at
the request of representatives from the Primate Center.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 2
We had a surprise visitor stop in, Harry Connick, Jr. He was in the room next to our meeting
room and stopped in to say hello and to inform us that he was here (at the LBC) shooting a
movie “Living Proof” a Lifetime movie. Connick portrays Dr. D.J. Slamon, whose work led to
the development of the molecularly targeted breast cancer drug Herceptin.
I.
Review and Approval of the Minutes: After discussion regarding typographical
corrections to the May minutes, Cynthia Hayes, SAC Chair, called for a motion to
approve the May 8, 2008 minutes. The minutes were approved with the corrections.
II.
Report of the Chair
Cynthia wanted to share her thoughts about the first SAC meeting after Katrina. There
was a lot of uncertainty, the membership had dwindled, and she added that we have come
a long way. We have a vibrant group of members and proxy members. Cynthia thanked
everyone for their time and commitment, Aaron Martin for his work on the website, Jered
Bocage for his work on the constitution. The one thing that she will take away from this
experience has been the friendships that she would not have had the opportunity to have
without being on this council.
III.
President’s Report
Dr. Scott Cowen was our guest speaker today and Anne Bãnos was also a guest. Dr.
Cowen gave an update on the university. At the almost three year anniversary of Katrina,
we are much further along in our recovery. We still have a lot of challenges but have
recovered at a faster pace then anticipated. Four major points to share:

Very encouraging is the increase in student enrollments, especially at the
undergraduate level. The first class after Katrina had 880 students, and we had hoped
for 1,200. Even though high quality level, until they graduate in 2010, we will have a
smaller undergraduate total population than we would have liked. Last year we had
hoped to get 1,200, and we actually have 1,324 students, exceeding our expectations.
For the fall of 2008, we hoped for 1,400; as of now we have 1,600. This class is the
all time highest quality class in the history of the university. What we are also seeing
is that student interest is not only on the undergraduate level but the medical school is
having a lot of success. That is very rewarding to us because the medical school was
so hurt by the storm itself. Once again the number of applicants and enrollees at the
medical school is at an all time high.

Second is our ability to attract and retain faculty at the institution. We lost some
faculty after the storm due to voluntary and involuntary departures. We were
concerned as to whether we would be able to replace faculty and we have been able to
do that across the board. The best demonstrations of that are Michael Bernstein, the
new Provost who came to us from the University of California, San Diego, and Dr.
Ben Sachs, who is now Senior VP and Dean of the Medical School who came to us
from Harvard.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 3

Third is that at the end of this month we are going to finish the “Promise and
Distinction” campaign. We started the campaign with a goal of $500 million and
increased the goal amount to $700 million. We should end up somewhere at $725 to
$730 million. Despite the fact that we have half the size of the development staff
today than we had before the storm, we will have successfully completed that
campaign on time and over goal. There are a lot of people that deserve a lot of credit
for that. It’s not so much about the money that has been raised; it’s what the money
is used for. A lot of money, approximately $300 million of the endowment, is going
to scholarships for students and chairs and professorships, and quite a bit for new
buildings, and the other for program support. That has been a good sign that we have
been able to raise money and raise it at a fairly high level. As you probably know, we
had a goal by June 30th of this year to have our endowment over $1 billion; we
actually achieved that a year ago. Despite the fact that the market has been very soft
this year, the endowment is worth about $1.1 billion right now.

Last thing is that we are uniformly held in very high regard in the city and state. We
always were before the storm but since the storm, because of our contributions
regarding public education, health care, and the revitalization of the city, the city and
state has a different view of Tulane, and uniformly more positive than it had before
the storm itself.
Those points are all of the positives but there are still challenges.

We still have operating deficits this year of $28 million, and yearly through at least
2010. Until we can build the student population up to a steady number, that 500 or
600 students that we don’t have and will have in three years, causes problems for us.
The cost of living in New Orleans and having a university in New Orleans is a lot
more expensive than it ever was. Our costs are so much higher now than before the
storm as we all have experienced.
We still have a lot of one time costs related to the storm. We have $100 million in
debt on the books that is costing us approximately $5 million a year. So we have
operating deficits through 2011 and hoping that in 2012 they are essentially gone.
We have been able to get through this period of time because of insurance recovery
and FEMA recoveries. So if you add together all of the losses, $650 million, we
recovered from all sources over $400 – 450 million. That’s how we are taking care of
our deficits and doing what we have to do.
We came out of financial exigency last January. Financial exigency is defined
symbolically as “you are in imminent danger of not surviving”, because as long as we
had that label everyone was concerned about the fact that we weren’t going to
survive. We have turned that corner and we are in continual recovery so the Board
lifted up in December the notion of financial exigency itself. As we go forward we
have a lot of priorities as an institution. We have made a commitment to the faculty
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 4
to try to address voids in the compensation. We took a big step forward with the
faculty starting this fiscal year. We understand there are compensation issues with
the staff - some of which we have started to address on an anecdotal basis last year.
Anne Bãnos and her staff are right in the midst of a salary compensation study.
When we get the results of that, we will begin to make some investments and close
whatever gaps exist there. We expect that will happen in the fiscal year 2009.
Clearly there are people that are underpaid but there are a fair percentage of those that
are fairly paid. So data was not nearly as negatively skewed as we thought it would
be.

We still have at any given time several hundred job openings for staff. We are trying
to hire people and I know that puts an extra burden on the rest of the staff. We have
budgeted and are attempting to close those gaps. The good news is that when Dr.
Cowen promised three years ago that we would not have any further terminations,
there were no more. So one of our challenges is how to manage in a tight resource
market because of our deficits, yet we are going to find a way to do that. Secondly,
we are addressing in particular the staff issues which are very much on our minds and
you will see progress within this year. It is not five years away, it is within this year.
Those are the two big issues.

The third issue is that we would like to recover the $200 million that we are still out
of pocket for. We would like to pay down the debt and have some extra money for
the institution to do something with it.

Another challenge is people’s perception of New Orleans around the country and that
is improving. Dr. Cowen was telling the President’s Cabinet this morning that he is
chairing the community-wide effort to renew the millage in Orleans parish in July for
the public schools system. So as part of that effort, we did some polling in Orleans
parish. They were asked: are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the
city? Seventy percent (70%) were optimistic about the recovery. That is significantly
higher than in the past.
Questions were taken from the floor:

Dr. Cowen plans to visit the Primate Center in the fall.

Long term plan on uptown campus parking – space where Rosen House formerly was
located. Most valuable piece of land on the campus so we do not want to put just a
garage there. Ultimately we will build a multi-purpose facility that will include a
garage, but a garage absent the other pieces would not make economic sense. The
temporary parking will facilitate 382 vehicles but is not the long term plan. Sorting
out what all of the priorities are before we decide what to do with that land is of
paramount importance.
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June 12, 2008
Page 5
IV.

Next residential housing building is in the planning phase. Within 24 months,
construction will start on the one we were originally going to build and will continue
to fix up the current ones.

The “bubble” is in the process of coming down and the land put back to green space
this summer.

The Cowen Institute is doing really great. Four things are done at the Institute:
o Basic applied research in Orleans parish public schools and generate an annual
report (which was released in April).
o Policy advocacy - there are three pieces of legislation set up state-wide to get
bond money for the schools.
o Programs for schools to help them be successful.
o A clearing house for public school education information.

Don’t feel there is a need for additional graduate student housing because we have
Papillion. There was talk about Uptown Square and doing condominiums, but don’t
think the market will support that. Uptown Square is fully occupied and there are no
plans for housing on that site.

Work on Howard-Tilton Library and the Alumni House are the only remaining
projects from Katrina. The Alumni House should be occupied in FY 2009 and the
FEMA monies will add two floors to the library.

President Cowen thanked everyone for their hard work and optimism for our Tulane’s
recovery. He said he couldn’t ask for a better group of people than we have here.
That is why the salary study survey is a priority and will start making adjustments
accordingly. There has been a lot of sacrifices over the last three years and we want
to see if we can start to help. He is energized when he sees great people he works
with here at Tulane. He understands the staffing issues, with everyone needing to do
more work than their job asks of them and he appreciates all that the staff does. He
also thanked Cynthia Hayes for her leadership of the SAC since the storm.
Officer Reports
A. University Senate: No report. Senate is off for the summer. Meetings will begin
again in the fall.
B. Board of Administrators: Susan Barrera gave the following report from the Board
meeting held on May 15, 2008:
President’s Report:
Academic Priorities and Objectives
o continue to implement renewal plan
o review of doctoral programs will be done by end of June
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 6
o 1,611 students paid deposits by 5/18 – highest metrics ever
o 2,000 students on wait list (will take only about 100 transfer students instead of
200)
o expect final # of a little over 1,600 students
o continue to review size and composition of faculty
o salary adjustments made for faculty in 4 uptown schools (avg. increase was
10.3%); will do something similar for staff (consultants’ analysis not completed)
Leadership Priorities and Objectives
o completed Dean’s Searches for Liberal Arts and Architecture
o CIO started in Jan.
o Continue to rebuild athletics – 2 finalists for #2 spot
Development Priorities and Objectives
o complete campaign goal
o want to raise at least $75M in private gifts and grants
Capital Projects
o baseball stadium completed
o planning for Yuleman Center in process
o finalize expansion at Primate Center
o continue to update & refine capital plane (will have update in Dec.)
Financial Priorities
o anticipate exceeding all goals for budget & cash flow projections
o continue to aggressively pursue insurance and FEMA
o put on hold to continue to reduce debt – putting all cash aside for future
discussion
o will update financial forecast
Other Priorities
o continue to play leadership role in recovery of N.O.
o continue to play an active role in leadership at the national level
Higher Education Report:
Policy issues in higher education (accessibility, affordability and accountability)
Accessibility
o major universities are becoming more selective plus tuition & financial aid
barriers
o selectivity vs. diversity
o sticker shock
o college prep: k-12 systems doing a poor job
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 7
o
o
o
o
need to increase outreach to underrepresented populations
increase access to financial aid
seek legislative solutions such as simplification of FAFSA
deal w/ poor k-12 programs – let students go to junior college for two years then
make it easier for them to get into high end 4 year institutions if they do well
Affordability
o tuition is rising and universities are having a hard time controlling costs
o tuition continues to outpace inflation
o privates vs publics
o student burden
o uses of endowment to help those lower socio-economic level
o contolling costs w/o compromising quality
o improving communications about tuition increases
o seeking financial aid enhancements
o communicating the importance and uses of endowment funds by tax-exempt
institutions
Accountability
o why are costs rising
o value – questioning the value of higher education
o accreditation – lack of transparency & absence of national standards
o outcome measures – U.S. universities perform poorly on some objective measures
despite higher spending than universities in other countries
o measuring student outcome via a “voluntary system of accountability”
Tulane’s focus will be on the accessibility and affordability issues
Budget Approval
o only change is increase form 1,400 to 1,500 new students on revenue side
o on expenditure side – added in $3.0M for faculty and staff salary increases for 4
targeted schools and staff to be determined at later date in addition to the 3%
merit pool.
o FY 09 budget approved
V.
University Senate Committee Reports:
1. Benefits – No Meeting. Next meeting will be held at the end of June. Anne Bãnos
will talk about health insurance issues.
2. Budget Review – No meeting. Committee is off for the summer. Meetings will
begin again in the fall.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 8
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: The primary business of today’s meeting was election of
officers for 2008-09. These officers were elected by acclamation: Susan Barrera,
Chair; Rhonda Earles, Vice Chair; Lisa Britton, Recording Secretary; Cheryl Sterling,
Corresponding Secretary; and Gwen Chavez, Election Coordinator.
Rhonda Earles thanked everyone for making the last two years enjoyable and she
thanked everyone who helped with this election. This is Rhonda’s last year as
Election Coordinator. Starting July 1, 2008 she will be the Vice Chair of SAC.
2. Electronic Technology and Information: Aaron Martin said the website has been
updated and the re-direct (link from older URL to new website) was done today. The
old server will eventually come down. Everything has been updated except for the
constitution and we will obviously need to update new officers.
Once the
constitution has been approved, it will put in a PDF format on the website. Down the
road, we can build pages and committee chairs can maintain their own pages on this
SAC website.
3. Staff Appreciation: Report given by Lisa Britton, Chair of Staff Appreciation
Committee. The “Biometrics Health Screening” days were held at each of the
campuses during the week of May 19, 2008. The Biometric screenings included
blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose and Body-Mass-Index and the results were
given shortly after the individual’s test started. The health screening was part of the
Wellness programs that Tulane and UnitedHealthcare are promoting. There will be
various events offered throughout the upcoming year. An upcoming event to be held
downtown will be a lecture “Wellness and You”.
4. Staff Issues: No Report.
5. Constitution: Report given by Jered Bocage. Three documents are going to be
shared with Anne Bãnos. The first is a broad overview of the changes. The second is
the present Consitution with the marked changes. The third will be the cleaned up
copy. Jered and Cynthia will meet with Anne sometime this month and they will give
her all three.
TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2008
Page 9
VII.
Old Business: None.
VIII. New Business: Discussion was open to the floor regarding wellness issues. The
question was asked: what would staff like to see or participate in? Some suggestions
offered:







Staff would appreciate free membership to the Reily Center.
Exercise classes offered for appropriate level, specifically mature adults may not feel
as comfortable exercising with the college age students and may be concerned about
not being able to keep up with the younger college age students. Offer classes at the
Diboll complex before work, during lunch and/or after work. There are people that
meet early in the morning in the park and do Tai Chi exercises.
Suggested that the library’s basement could be a meeting point for exercise during
lunch time when staff may be able to attend.
The food court doesn’t offer really healthy variety of foods. It was noted that since
the renovation, the food is better and there are many choices, just not any really
healthy choices.
The Farmer’s Market is held at uptown square; possibly this could be offered at the
quad once a month.
Perhaps have a medical student downtown or an EMS uptown help with group
exercise on a designated place on the respective campus where staff can come check
their blood pressure or offer assistance for minor medical concern, instead of
someone rushing to their primary care doctor.
To help promote bicycling, Green Buildings could be considered for new constructed
buildings (have a showering facility). This would be for staff members that ride their
bicycles, giving them a chance to shower and change before going to work.
At the next Wellness meeting, Cynthia will bring these suggestions to the committee for
discussion.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on July 10, 2008 at the Primate Center in
Covington, LA. The meeting will be scheduled for earlier (possibly 1:00 pm) so we can
have a catered lunch there before the meeting. Weather permitting, we can have a tour of
the center after our SAC meeting. Detailed information on the July meeting will be sent
out and we will also ask if anyone would be interested in carpooling to the Primate
Center.
IX.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa M. Britton
Acting Recording Secretary
July 10, 2008