Dr. Gogue, thank you once again for this opportunity to present brief comments to the Board of Regents on behalf of the University’s tenured and tenure-track faculty.  Chair Hermes, Vice Chair Cemo, members of the Board, this is my last opportunity to appear before you as president of the University of Houston Faculty Senate since my term expires before your next scheduled meeting.  Allow me this final opportunity to summarize my earlier points and to celebrate my colleagues.

            In May I provided data to you on the extraordinary growth in external funding and students served by faculty of the University of Houston in the past several years, without a corresponding increase in the number of full time, tenure-track faculty.  That collective willingness to go above and beyond was further highlighted in the faculty’s response following hurricane Katrina. Immediately following Katrina’s devastation, the Faculty Senate voted unanimously to support Drs. Gogue and Foss in their efforts to offer assistance to those affected institutions and to their students. My understanding is that some 1,600 displaced students were absorbed by the University in about a week.  The staff of the University performed magnificently to accommodate those displaced students, but the faculty also went above and beyond in response to the challenge.  Students were admitted to classes weeks into the semester, personal attention provided, teaching schedules modified, and counseling extended that went far beyond academic advisement.

            You should also know that meetings of various Faculty Senate bodies had to be rearranged during the weeks that followed because members of those committees were engaged in volunteer activity at the Astrodome, George R. Brown, or elsewhere where help was needed.  Most faculty who performed these acts of grace and kindness will not report those efforts for University public relations purposes.  They chose to volunteer their efforts because of who they are, and because of their willingness to go above and beyond.

            At your recent retreat I attempted to convey the sense of excitement and anticipation among the faculty for our evolution to the research-intensive flagship campus envisioned in your Strategic Plan.   I also provided data to you, though, that Texas’s two existing flagship campuses are well into long-term plans to grow their faculties.  Faculty size is an important element in National Research Council rankings, as well as in many other measures of research reputation.

            Our greatest need is a faculty growth plan, or as Texas A&M evidently calls their five year effort to add 447 faculty positions, a faculty reinvestment plan.  We are clearly behind the curve if our common ambitions are to become reality. 

            Last week Chair Hermes was present at a dinner celebrating faculty with 20 years, 25 years, and 30 or more years of service to the University.  Hundreds attended, and far more faculty qualified but were otherwise obligated.  A number of them were teaching evening classes that night.  My personal goal during my 32 years in the System has been to work with people who could be elsewhere, but who choose to be at the University of Houston.  That evening I felt very close to that dream.

            Your active support is definitely needed to celebrate the achievements of our existing faculty, and to establish a significant faculty growth and reinvestment plan.  Our common goal is to make the University of Houston the institution of choice for students in our area, in Texas, and throughout the country.  Houston deserves no less.

            Thank you again for your willingness to listen.  I trust you will provide the same opportunities and attention to Professor Craig, and to his successors in the role of president of the University of Houston Faculty Senate.