TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 6

March 8, 2012

Tulane University Staff Advisory Council ATTENDEES ATTENDEES

OFFICERS UPTOWN CAMPUS Lane, Christopher,Chair PRESENT Cantero, Linda Orgeron, Laurie, Vice Chair PRESENT Chavez, Gwen, Immediate Past Chair Bouyelas, Sheri, Election PRESENT Eugene, Zina Coordinator Bourgeois, Kathy,Recording EXCUSE Griffith, Mike Secretary D Ardeneaux, Carol, Keck, Jeanny PRESEN Corresp.Secretary T Lossi, Suzanne, Member At Leonard, Angelica Large Loshbaugh, Alysia PRESEN T DOWNTOWN CAMPUS Mitchell, Scott Conners, Linzi Murphy, Louise Davis, Patrick O’Dwyer, Lisa Haase, Tanya Platner, Rob PRESEN T Heisser, Michael Richards, Whitney Kivell, Anita PRESENT Robinson, LaShanda PRESEN T Leger, Kay PRESENT Smith, Lawrence PRESEN T Miller, Michael Vega, Kimberly Pasternak, Merisa Weingart, Kady Pick, Amy PRESENT Slatkin, Allan Stewart, Patsy PRESENT Vasquez-Lockhart, Yesenia PRESENT Graham, Tiffany (proxy) NORTHSHORE Hyde-Augillard, Sharon (proxy) Guichard, Kenny Mann, Forbes (proxy) Waguespack, Desiree Page, Karissa (proxy) Pierlus, David (proxy) Schneider, Louie (proxy) Schor, Meredith (proxy) Souquet, Jon (proxy) Sugarman, Meredith (proxy) Ussin, Nikita (proxy) Woodard, Cathy (proxy) TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 2

INVITED GUESTS AND VISITORS

Christina Wallace - WFMO PRESEN T * Via teleconference All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2011 – 2012

Call to Order: Christopher Lane, SAC Chair, called the February 9, 2012 meeting of the Staff Advisory Council to order at 3:40 p.m. The meeting was held in the boardroom on the 24 th floor of the Tidewater Building.

I. Review and Approval of the Minutes

February 2012 minutes were not approved. The minutes were erased while being transcribed, so we have about half of the meeting transcribed.

II. Guest Speakers

We did not have a guest speaker

III. Report of the Chair, Christopher Lane

Staff Appreciation Day: The new committee met and came up with an idea to have a staff picnic on a work day in the early or mid afternoon (around 2:00 or 3:00 pm) on the uptown campus. We would use our budget to pay for a snowball stand, some freebees and for a band. The budget is not big enough to feed the whole staff, so we thought we could invite some food trucks to sell food. If we get approval for this, we will find out if we could have a keg of beer. Maybe we could get the beer donated from Abita and we may be able to get food donated as well. We could have this a week or two after graduation, but before June. The quad would be a good location to have this event. If it rains, we would have to move it to the Lavin Bernick Center. We haven’t figured out what would we do for downtown or the Primate Center. We talked about rotating the event annually. We didn’t have a member from the Primate Center at the meeting. Desi was not able to attend the meeting. SAC members were asked to vote on the idea and then move forward with a committee to plan the details. Ann Banos said that she thought the idea had merit, but she didn’t have time to discuss it at the moment. She is tentatively supportive of the idea. Chris asked her if she could commit to having the President’s office get the word out to supervisors to let the staff take the time off to attend the event. She couldn’t comment on that until she brought it to the President’s cabinet. Laurie suggested that we have this event before June 1st, because we will have summer orientation in June. We would need to reserve the quad and the ball room soon if we are going to proceed with this. The Thursday and Friday after graduation on May 24th and May 25th are available for both locations. The Lavin Bernick Center is booked the following week. We are looking for a reasonably priced band. Jeanne knows of a Tulane employee that has a band as well as a Cajun band. We have a budget of about $3,000. We would have to pay about $500 for snowballs through Plum Street. Alysia will check with Hampson Snowballs to see how much they would charge. We would TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 3

have about $1,500 to pay for a band. The Shuttle services said that they can add an extra shuttle to bring people from downtown to the uptown campus. Parking shouldn’t be an issue since students will be gone & most of the faculty will be gone. We will have to check to see if the hourly employees would have to use vacation time to attend. We used to have lunch downtown at a major hotel. Scott and a couple of other people came and spoke & we had a nice sit down lunch. There were also prizes. SAC had a lot more money at that time. Lundi Gras is now our staff appreciation day. We may want to promote the fact that Lundi Gras is more of our staff appreciation day. Some people don’t look at that day as such. It was approved to move forward with this idea and Jeanne Keck will join the committee. Chris will check to see if we can have Abita beer. Reid Noble said that we may have to have security in place if we have alcohol.

A member said that their new boss was wondering why we don’t have a special subcommittee for policies since we are having some issues with certain campuses and departments. We don’t have authority to do that since we are more of an advisory body. We have taken issues to the General Counsel before and the University Senate. Some things have to go to the board of administrators. State schools work things differently than private schools.

Chris had some examples of giveaway items for the members to look at. The members liked the cup that he had.

IV. WFMO Liaison

Commuter program: Parking has always been an issue, but it is getting harder with all of the construction on campus. A commuter incentive would really help with all of the congestion on campus. They are willing to review any proposal that SAC puts out there. SAC should take the next step. Chris asked about a car pool parking area that would accommodate about twenty to thirty cars at reduced rates. Someone from TUPD would have to spot check to make sure people are actually car pooling.

Adding alternative physicians to the network: Right now we don’t have any. They don’t know if or when they will be added, but they do know that there are some discounts available on the CIGNA website. If you log on to mycigna.com, there are discounts for alternative medicine under a program called healthy rewards. There is a tab on the upper left side that says review my coverage, which brings you to a drop down menu. You would then select healthy rewards, and you can then navigate to the different categories.

Bariatric Surgery: Some employees are asking to have bariatric surgery added to the health plan. This was discussed in the senate benefits committee as something to study for 2013.

Staff recognition: Staff recognition is coming up soon. Last year we were fortunate to have some SAC representatives attend the event. It was helpful to have them there, so they are asking for volunteers to give them a hand even if it is just to interact the our constituents. The uptown event will be on March 26th from 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm in the Lavin Bernick Center. The downtown event will be on March 27th from 9:30 am – 11:30 am, and the Primate Center event will be on March 27th from 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm. They would like to know who is coming ahead of time, so they can print name tags. We have two people celebrating fifty years of service, thirty three celebrating twenty five years and one hundred seventy nine receiving five year awards. President Cowen goes to all of TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 4

the events. Email Denise O’Connell at [email protected] or call her at 247.1722 to let her know if you would like to volunteer. We can also email Christina Wallace at [email protected] . If you are receiving an award, it is best not to volunteer so you can enjoy the ceremony. The invitations have been sent to those celebrating an anniversary, and RSVP’s are arriving. Anniversaries are celebrated the year after your anniversary. They will meet with us to let us know what our duties would be.

Years of Service: A member said that she worked here many years ago for twelve years, and then she left and then came back again. She wants to know how her time is counted. You have to be hired back within thirty days of leaving the University or your time starts over again.

Hiring Proposals: Someone also had a question about hiring proposals. There are mixed messages out there about the hiring procedures. There is a communication out there that says to do a verbal communication and then you do the hiring proposal. Then there is another communication that says not to do the verbal until after OIE approves it, which means you would have to do the hiring proposal first. Christina is going to find out the correct procedure.

Workers Comp: With workers comp you have a seven day waiting period in which you don’t get paid and you have to use your sick time. If you don’t have sick time, you don’t get paid. A member was wondering how we can use the pool of time. One constituent had fractured ribs and a fractured arm, but he was told that it was not severe enough for him to apply for the pool. She wants to know what classifies severe and who makes that decision. There have been mixed messages as to who can apply for the pool and under what conditions, so we are asking for clarification. Christina will come back with different scenarios next month. When they said that we can’t donate time any longer, employees were not happy with that so they did change some of the rules. They are now allowing us to donate our time to a specific person, but there are rules. Previously you could donate to a specific person for any reason. When Robert had his heart surgery in 2004, several people donated a week to him.

V. Officer Reports

A. University Senate

Michael couldn’t be there and Suzanne Lossi replaced a former member.

B. Board of Administrators

No report

VI. University Senate Committee Reports

1. Benefits

No Report

2. Budget Review TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 5

No Report

3. Information Technology

No Report

4. Equal Opportunity

Someone asked to have Leland Bennett recognized as an emeritus, but they found out that they don’t give that status to staff. However, they have given that status to staff before. The Board of Tulane makes this decision. He retired after 45 years of service. Ann said that we have staff appreciation. He just wanted the status to be able to use the Reily Center and the Library, but they wouldn’t grant it to him. They only want the faculty to have this distinction. They said that maybe we could come up with something different for Leland. There are only a handful of people that will stay with the university for 30 – 45 years. One member thought that the staff handbook said that if you were an employee for 25 years or more (even if you retire or change jobs) you get to keep certain benefits. If we pass a resolution from SAC, we could take it to the University Senate, but we would want to have an example of a staff member that has emeritus status. We are going to see if we can find one. We think that this status only gets them the library and Reily Center privileges. The Reily Center would not be free, but it would just be at the same rate as the staff members pay. We would just like to make it comparable with what faculty get. Laurie is going to see what she can find out.

5. Physical Facilities

No Report

6. Social Issues

No Report

VII. SAC Sub-Committees

1. Election Committee

No report

2. Electronic Technology and Information

No report

3. Staff Appreciation TU Staff Advisory Council Meeting March 8, 2012 Page 6

This information is under the Chair’s report

4. Staff Issues

No report

5. Health and Wellness

They are interviewing for the new program coordinator on March 15, 2012. They have combined the students, faculty and staff into one, and it is now called the Well.

6. Community Service

No Report

VIII. Old Business

No report

IX. New Business

No Report

X. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 pm

Respectfully submitted, Kathy Bourgeois Recording Secretary