Allen R. Warner, President
University of Houston Faculty Senate
and Chair,University of Houston System University Faculties Executive Committee

            Dr. Gogue, thank you for this opportunity to present brief comments to the Board of Regents on behalf of the University’s tenured and tenure-track faculty.  Senate President-elect Steven Craig, professor of economics, is also with me today and we hope that this sort of report might become a regular part of the Board’s agenda. 
            Chair O’Connor, Vice-Chair Hermes, and other distinguished members of the Board, let me begin by thanking each of you for your continuing contributions.  We know that you expend incredible amounts of time and energy on behalf of the students, staff and faculty of the University of Houston System – time for which you are not compensated and for which you often do not even claim the expenses that you incur.  Your dedication is deeply appreciated.
            Allow me to celebrate the productivity of my faculty colleagues at the University of Houston.  These figures are from the University’s Office of Planning and Policy Analysis:

            These are not the only measures of faculty productivity, of course, nor is sponsored research the only measure of research productivity.  More will be said of that later.  They are just a few indicators of the commitment of current faculty to building the University to the flagship of excellence envisioned in your Strategic Plan.  We were certainly not underemployed in 1997.
            Tenured and tenure-track faculty are the foundation of institutions of higher learning.  To quote from the Preamble of the Senate’s constitution,

. . . the faculty has the primary responsibility for curricular matters and degree programs.  Recommendations about
appointments, retention, and post-tenure review are a central faculty responsibility.  The faculty has significant input
in the formulation of budget priorities, including compensation policies.  The faculty has a major role in the selection
and review of administrators at all levels of the University.  The faculty assists in setting goals to improve the quality
of campus life, the surrounding community and the national academic standing of the institution.

            Permit me a bit of personal reminiscence.  Being here today is especially meaningful since I began my career in higher education in 1973 as a founding member of the UH-Victoria campus.  At that time, and for some years thereafter, the maximum full time tuition for a Texas resident was $50 a semester.  The State paid the rest of the cost and was sufficiently solvent that the 1975 Legislature (if memory serves me correctly), facing a billion dollars more in projected income than in initial requests for funding, chose to provide every faculty and staff member in public universities a 7% across-the-board, midyear raise.
            Conditions have changed.  Over the intervening decades Texas has reluctantly gone the way of other states, placing more and more of the cost of higher education on students.  As former Chancellor/President Arthur Smith said on several occasions, the view of the public and policy makers has shifted from higher education as a major contributor to the public good, to one that views a university degree as a personal benefit.
            We are now at a crossroad in continuing to build the University, especially to attain our role within the System’s Strategic Plan approved by this Board last August.  That plan includes increasing the number of faculty, assuring that compensation is nationally competitive, retaining highly qualified faculty and staff, and other initiatives too numerous to list here.  Among the steps taken under the auspices of the Faculty Senate are:

• An initial plan for shared faculty development among the UH System Universities in cooperation with Dr. Sandra Friedman;
• Planning for a Senate-sponsored Scholarship and Community Conference this coming year intended to enlist faculty support behind the upcoming Comprehensive Campaign;
• Pursuing more family-friendly policies to encourage young faculty (especially women, who constitute only about 26% of our tenure-track faculty) to make their careers here.  Among early efforts are a change in the policy for extending the probationary period for reasons of family; investigating the availability of childcare; and a Senate task force on compensation and retention that is finding evidence of substantial salary compression, making productive faculty vulnerable to outside offers;
• A newly formed Senate Task Force on Research Excellence under the leadership of President-elect Craig to explore all of the parameters of achieving that excellence.

            To accomplish these ends we need to find continuing revenue streams, and we pledge to work with you and the administrative leadership of the University.  Good data are often difficult to find, and the shift to Peoplesoft has caused some delay.  Some data are firm, though.  The Legislature in recent years has reduced elements of institutional support more than it has increased them, and expected institutions to provide salary increases despite diminishing State resources.  Our understanding is that the most optimistic scenario from the current legislative session will still provide fewer resources to the University of Houston than were available four years ago.
           Until the 78th Legislative Session, tuition was also capped.   Now that tuition is rising, political concerns are expressed in Austin.  Former Lieutenant Governor and Interim UH System Chancellor Hobby’s recent Houston Chronicle editorial, we believe, provides a service to Texas higher education by pointing out the public policy contradictions with which all of us are faced.
           To pursue our common goals together, we need:

• Sound data;
• Policies that are consistent with the Strategic Plan;
• A continued atmosphere of openness, transparency and mutual trust; and
• Mutual confidence in one another as people of good will and common commitment to the University of Houston and to the University of Houston System.

            These are hallmarks of efforts we want to pursue jointly with you, with Drs. Gogue, Strickland and Foss, and with one another as partners in a common venture with a common cause:  to build the University of Houston and the UH System into a world-class resource for the people of Texas, and their children . . . and their children.
            Thank you again for this opportunity, and for your dedication and continued support.  Our meetings of the Faculty Senate are open, and you are always welcome to join us. 
            I will be happy to respond to any questions.