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 Meeting SummaryCommunicable Disease Preparedness Committee |
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Previous Meeting |
Date |
Next Meeting |
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Members
Present:
Anne Hubbell, Katrina Doolittle, Jose Gamon, Teresa Burgin, Lori McKee,
John
Balog, Manuela Quezada-Aragon, Angela Arvizo, Nancy Baptiste, Rene.
Yoder, Mary
Jaspers, Larry Olsen Members
Absent: Michael
Abernethy, Lorin Gobble, Teresa
Brobeck, UComm Rep, Leigh DeRoos, Mike O’Larey , Stephanie Roybal,
Carmen
Gonzales, David Pearce, Joe Palmer, Esperanza Villanueva Joyce, Stephen
Lopez ,
Benjamin Diven, Ruben Torrez, Julie Weber, Hugo Vilchis , Jeff. Witte New
Members: Tammy Anthony will
represent Auxiliary Operations, replacing
A. Throneberry. And Susan Grotevant will represent OF&S, replacing
Jose
Gamon. The
meeting began at 3:07 PM. 1.
K.
Doolittle noted Tammy Anthony is a new member
replacing Angela Throneberry, and that Susan Grotevant is replacing
Jose Gamon.
1 2.
Old
Business: K. Doolittle commented that the Business
and Finance Office and OVPRGSIP are completing their respective COOP. The recent changes to the CDPC membership
highlight the need to update COOP plans at least annually.
L. Olsen said he had no feedback from HS Dept
Heads on the training presentation. K.
Doolittle said she would make it shorter and add information on
approvedHR
policy per comments received from A. Hubbell. 3.
New
Business: K. Doolittle stated the H. Vilchis will
present his Community Preparedness training at the April meeting. She them moved to the lone agenda item; the
review and discussion of three HR policy drafts generated by R. Yoder
entitled
“Disaster Preparedness and State of Emergency”, “Social Distancing”,
and
“Telecommuting”. R. Yoder presented a
brief overview of each policy noting that the materials were retrieved
from
on-line sources. She requested reviewers
to reformat as they see fit and to “track changes” they make and send
electronic versions of marked up documents as email attachments to ryoder@nmsu.edu. She asked
that you add your name to end of the file name i.e., Telecommuting
Policy – Draft kdoolittle.doc. She
suggested it would be a good idea to post
relevant HR policy documents on-line and require periodic review. The draft policies were well-received and the
committee unanimously thanked R. Yoder for her efforts.
The following are selected comments on policy
development and implementation. a.
R.
Yoder noted that hand washing is an obvious
priority for Student and University Health Center personnel and asked
how can a
requirement be implemented elsewhere on campus? b.
J.
Balog commented that implementing policy is
necessarily a unit-level obligation. 4.
On
the Telecommuting and Social Distancing Policy draft’s; a.
N.
Baptiste stated that telecommuting is not an option
for her operation and that the Children’s Village would close during a
pandemic
outbreak. b.
T.
Bergin stated telecommuting is a viable option for
her group to remain functioning during a pandemic and instructs
personnel not
to report to work when they are ill but is not certain other functions
can be sustained
by telecommuting. c.
Hubbell
stated that completing the necessary paperwork
authorizing telecommuting may exceed the event duration and suggested a
streamlined process for emergency conditions would be needed. She noted that existing procedures are too
management-intense to be implemented in a short-term emergency event. d.
R.
Yoder commented that a two-week absence by any one
or even a few personnel in a given unit should be a manageable
situation. And she suggested that perhaps two
telecommuting policies would address the need for authorizing
short-term and
long-term telecommuting. She then noted that in order to be effective,
policy should
consider the long-term and not a two or three week interval. e.
K.
Doolittle noted that operations would be reduced to
some minimal level, the university would not attempt to support normal
operations. She noted that the Social
Distancing draft reads more like a guideline than a policy, and for
“social
distancing”; a guideline seems to be preferable to a policy. f.
K.Doolittle
distributed an example of travel policy for consideration since the
Social
Distancing draft did not address travel or research in countries that
were
under travel warnings. 5.
On
Disaster Preparedness and State of Emergency Policy
draft; a.
R.
Yoder admitted difficulty in drafting an
all-inclusive policy. She noted that
positions rather that persons are designated “essential”.
And she suggested that primary contacts among
the administrative and operating units would be the designated
“essential “ position
and they would need to communicate to other staff in the emergency in
order to
establish their respective assignments.
She said that the nature of the event would dictate the response
i.e.,
an earthquake, flood or disease outbreak would each be handled in a
different
manner. b.
T.
Bergin suggested that policy attempt to anticipate
pre and post event eventualities. She
asked what the policy might say to persons scheduled to travel at the
beginning
of an outbreak or who have arrived at their travel destination at the
beginning
of a disease outbreak. c.
R.
Yoder reminded everyone that COOP and training will
be needed to flesh out each areas response.
She noted that under the revised policy manual a COOP is required for each administrative and
support unit. d.
A.
Hubbell asked if faculty would be paid during an
emergency, also what about graduate assistants.
The consensus was that faculty contract language would prevail,
and that
funding structure for paying graduate assistants is stipulated by the
entitiy funding
the assistantship. R. Yoder noted that
disputed issues in faculty contracts would be resolved by the Provost
and that
changes to the working conditions negotiated with the AFSCME would be
bargained
according to terms defined in the collective bargaining agreement. e.
K.
Doolittle was concerned that exempt employees would
not have a mechanism to be compensated for extended overtime hours
under the
current or proposed policy. L.
McKee said that NMSU may be able to apply
for disaster relief funds from FEMA to recover payroll expenses
incurred during
an emergency. f.
R.
Yoder noted
that the BANNER system does track attendance on a day to day basis,
only data
from established time and attendance reporting schedules are available,
i.e.,
bi-monthly and monthly, as submitted by personnel and approved by their
supervisor. She said an alternative time
and attendance method may be needed. g.
T.
Bergin suggested the internet based “Clock-Me”
program may be a possibility. 6.
L.
McKee said the Student Health Center used the
RapidfluÒ diagnostic kit. She noted that Dona Ana County Health
Department requires a confirmed diagnosis for disease reporting
purposes. She also noted that many reports are
based on
a presumptive diagnosis. As participants
in the NM public health network, NMSU has access to disease reporting
data. She provided the following numbers
for the first quarter of 2008.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday
April 8,
2008 at 3:0PM in the EH&S training facility. |
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