Tulane Staff Advisory Council Minutes
January 8, 2015
ATTENDEES / ATTENDEESOFFICERS / DOWNTOWN CAMPUS
Loshbaugh, Alysia, Chair / Present / Barrera, Denise / Sent Proxy
Smith, Lawrence, Vice-chair / Present / Blue, Jeff / Present
Ferbos, Wil, Elections Coordinator / Present / Carr, Rose / Present
Turner, Joan, Secretary / Catlin, Kristy
Conners, Linzi / Excused
NORTHSHORE / Daigle, Bryan
MacLean, Avery / Davis, Patrick / Present
Wright, Amber / Ely, Hunter / Present
Hayden, Nadrine
WFMO REPRESENTATIVE / Huber, Jennifer / Present
Christina Wallace / Present / Elizabeth Langlois / Present
Montegut, Renetta
Morel, Mel'isa / Present
UPTOWN CAMPUS / Pick, Amy / Present
Anderson, Jerome / Present / Rabito, Margaret / Present
Beck, Trina / Present / Sliwinski, Roblynn / Sent Proxy
Bocage, Jered / Present / Young, Griselda
Bourgeois, Kathy / Present
Bush, Nicole / Present / DOWNTOWN PROXIES
Butler, Aleshia / Present / Bruce, Deidre
Charles, Evane / Excused / Causey, Jamie
Cheramie, Christopher / Present / Cervini, Brucer
Deeves, Tim / Present / Crisler, Shammeia
Espinosa, Miriam / Present / Healy, Isobel
Ghattas, Joseph / Hills, Tynette / Present
Houck, Katie / Present / La Salle, Lucia / Present
Lowe, Brian / Langlois, Elizabeth
Marsh, Leslie / Excused / May, Matthew
Morton, Robert / Present / McKeown, Mark
Romig, Brad / Present / Mitchell, Olivia
Rouege, Jackie / Present / Partridge-Hrabar, Kerrie
Wilde, Elizabeth / Potter, Shawn / Present
Wilson, Marilyn / Present / Scherer, Donald
Wolford, Laura / Present / Schmidt, Norine
Wyatt, Penny / Present / Shinn, Michon
Strong, Sewann
NORTHSHORE PROXIES / Terrebonne, Connie
Lower, Shelley / Wright, Linda
Pham, Brooke
Simmons, Elizabeth
UPTOWN PROXIES / UPTOWN PROXIES (Continued)
Anderson, Marcus / Marinaro, Heather
Augillard, Sharon Hyde / Meaux, Shelley / Present
Brusseau, Allyson / Present / Millon, Aaron
Clark, Marilynn / Mouton, Jean / Present
Cruz, Allison / Nazar, Elizabeth / Present
Davis, Angela / Nichols, Sherma
Downes, Patrice / Present / O'Brien, Jennifer
Dunaway, Joe / Present / Obrofta, Sharon / Present
Farley, Torrie Augello / Paciera, JC
Fenimore, Samantha / Prator, Bobbie
Gordon, Erin / Robinson, LaShanda
Harris, Delisa / Rubin, Jeff / Present
Jones, Michael / Sayas, Janice
Keck, Jeanny / Present / Seymour, Caltha
Leonard, Angelica / Van Kirk, Elizabeth
Lossi, Suzanne / Withers, Sarah / Present
Maese, Adam
* No teleconference available
All Officers are serving the Staff Advisory Council term 2014 – 2015
The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 2:00PM. Due to difficulties with the phone conferencing system, there was no call-in available for any members.
I. Review and Approval of the Minutes
Minutes from the September 2014 minutes were approved with no changes. We still do not have minutes from the November 2014 meeting.
II. Guest Speaker—President Michael Fitts
President Fitts was our guest speaker in January. He began his talk by telling us a bit about his background and career prior to coming to Tulane University. He talked about the Huron consulting team at Tulane and the two committees working with them, and he also talked about the two task forces currently underway—one on the undergraduate student experience and the other on interdisciplinarity.
He asked SAC to tell him what we thought were the strengths of the university. One answer was the people that work at Tulane are its greatest strength. Another answer was the city of New Orleans.
There was a Q&A session toward the end, and then the President left around 2:30.
III. WFMO Representative Report
(a) Christina Wallace began her report by stating that WFMO had done some research, and it would be possible for staff to keep their email addresses indefinitely should a staff “emeritus” status be implemented.
(b) The next topic of discussion was the rumor about exempt employees making less than $50,000 being automatically reclassified as non-exempt/hourly employees. Christina said the dollar amount would be $50,440. The proposed change to the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) would happen at the federal level, by President Obama’s executive order. If this happens, there won’t really be anything Tulane can do about it—the law must be followed. The tentative timeframe by which we might know more information is later in the spring but there is no exact date.
If enacted the new rules would state that any employee, regardless of duties, making less than $50,440 would be considered hourly. Above that dollar amount, based on duties, employees could still be non-exempt but there would be a possibility of being classified as exempt.
Problems with this change, besides the fact that exempt employees would suddenly become hourly, include the fact that many academic departments don’t have overtime budgets. SAC members expressed concern that if there are no funds for overtime in the academic departments, then if an employee reaches 37.5 hours earlier in the week (example: 37.5 hours reached by 1pm on a Friday), they may be sent home early to avoid overtime. In the meantime, work that needed to be completed may go unfinished, or will get pushed to other employees.
WFMO is paying close attention to this issue and possible FLSA changes, so we hope to know more in the future.
(c) Questions arose about the vacation donation policy. Currently, the pooled vacation donation hours cannot be used for leaves due to childbirth. An employee who donates hours can donate them to a specific person, but not for issues related to pregnancy or childbirth. SAC would like to revisit this policy with WFMO, as this seems somewhat discriminatory towards female employees. Alysia will discuss this further with Christina outside a meeting.
(d) Several months ago, an email went out from WFMO to all employees reminding them about university policy related to bringing children to the workplace. Some employees were offended by the harshness of the language in the memo, while others simply had questions about the policy. Christina explained that the policy is related to liability and workplace hazards, and injuries that could take place if minors are not properly supervised.
(e) A question was raised regarding the university’s policy on flex-time, or working from home. Christina said there is no policy at all on the working from home issue. Non-exempt employees that leave work early because they hit 37.5 hours for the week is a kind of flex time, though there is also no official policy. Alysia will discuss this further with Christina outside of this meeting.
(f) Finally, an employee asked about a UHC denial of a brand name drug even with a physician note specifying that this particular drug should be part of the patient’s treatment. Christina explained that this particular drug was probably not in their formulary. UHC has the right to change the drugs they cover every six months. But for further information, this employee could email her and they can start a private discussion of the issue.
IV. Report of the Chair
None.
V. Officer Reports
University Senate
No meeting in December or January. The next Senate meeting is in February.
Board of Administrators
Lawrence Smith gave a report on the Board Meeting that took place in December. Overall, the trustees were given information about the success of Homecoming and Yulman Stadium. They discussed the establishment of the task forces previously mentioned by President Fitts earlier today (undergraduate experience and interdisciplinarity). They discussed and approved the $15 million gift to endow the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking. They also discussed the upcoming development campaign to raise another $1 billion for the university’s endowment.
VI. University Senate Committee Reports
Benefits
No meeting.
Budget Review
No meeting.
Information Technology
No meeting.
Equal Opportunity
Laura Wolford gave a report that Patrick Randolph from the Office of Disability Services gave a report to the committee about issues with faculty who don’t want to make accommodations for students with disabilities. There are some faculty who make the accommodations but grudgingly, and others who don’t want to make accommodations at all. Mr. Randolph was seeking advice/support from the EO Committee on how to address this issue.
Physical Facilities
Ron Scalise from the Law School is the new chair of this committee. At their last meeting, they discussed the completion of Yulman Stadium, plans for the unified green (LBC quad and Newcomb quad), the campus master plan, and parking ticket issues.
Social Issues
No meeting.
VII. SAC Subcommittees
Election
No report.
Electronic Technologies and Information
No report.
Staff Appreciation
There was no meeting of this committee, but Alysia proposed the idea of having free snowballs for staff on two separate dates—one for downtown and one for uptown. Perhaps we could invite President Fitts to attend so that staff could meet him and chat while they enjoy a free snowball. The rest of SAC agreed this sounded like a good idea, so Alysia will reach out to President Fitts’ assistant to get some possible dates on his calendar.
Staff Issues
No meeting.
Health and Wellness
No meeting.
Community Service
Trina Beck gave a report on the CASA toy drive. In total we collected $1670 in online donations, $22 in cash, $125 in checks, $475 in assorted gift cards, and about 200 toys, gifts, and books. These amounts exceeded last year’s totals, so we were pleased with the results. We also had about $280 leftover from last year’s toy drive, so those funds were utilized to purchase additional gift cards. In total, we collected almost $2300 in cash/gift card donations.
VIII. Old Business and/or New Business
Bike Safety
Alysia met with Liz Davey, Amber Beezley, and others from the campus architect’s office. They agreed that we should look into creating established bike paths or bike lanes as part of the overall campus master plan.
Downtown Safety Incidents Last November
Defer to next meeting, when Norine Schmidt is present and can give an update.
Staff “Emeritus” Status—Name and Proposal
Alysia previously asked SAC members to think of a name for the status we want to propose to the administration for staff to have an “emeritus-like” status when they retire. We cannot call it emeritus, as that is specific to faculty. After reviewing all suggestions, everyone agreed that “Legacy” was the best choice. Going forward, this initiative will be referred to as “Staff Legacy Status”. We need to write a proposal and submit it to Anne Banos, VP for Administrative Services and Chief of Staff. Alysia asked anybody interested in helping write the proposal to email her.
SPH Mental Health Initiative
Jennifer Huber gave a report on an initiative/task force coming out of the School of Public Health related to mental health issues. There will be Safetalk training, which is targeting suicide awareness, and Ally training, which will support LGBTQ students. She asked if SAC would be willing to volunteer people to do the training and reach out to their home departments. Several people agreed to participate in the training and should contact Jen separately.
New EAP Program
It was announced that we have a new provider for the Employee Assistance Program (EAP.) An email with the details will be going out to all employees soon.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:07p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Alysia Loshbaugh
Chair
SAC Minutes January 2015Page 5 of 6