The Committee met after the last Senate meeting.  The BFC resolved to repeat the Salary Study with a newer data set, to look at temporal changes, and to consolidate the data quality improvements brought about by previous study.  An effort will be made to correlate the results with the Scholarship Report, though any proxy measure for faculty performance is subject to many caveats. 

The Committee also agreed to promote greater campus-wide knowledge of facilities-related  plans and construction activities, in collaboration with Plant Operations.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 is the last day for faculty to vote for members of the UH Faculty Grievance Committee.  It is also the last day for faculty to sign up for possible service on the 33 UH Standing Committees.  The Committee on Committees will meet on Monday, April 21, to fill upcoming vacancies for the next academic year.  It will use the survey results to determine faculty representation on these bodies.

The next meeting will be held on Friday, April 18, at 11:00 a.m. in room 353 of the Cullen Performance Hall (the Faculty Senate’s conference room).

DATE:              28^th March 2008
TIME:               11:30 PM
LOCATION:    Room 220U, M.D. Anderson Library

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Drs. Clarke, Haun, Middents, Sansgiry & Subhlok
COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:  Drs. Chellam, Gao, Linzer, Kugler, Linzer & Manny  
AD HOC COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: None

AGENDA ITEM #1:  Review of the minutes from 2-8-08 FAC meeting

ACTION:  A motion to accept the minutes from the 2-08-08 FAC meeting as written was made by Dr. Haun and seconded by Dr. Middents.  The motion was unanimously accepted by the committee and the minutes were entered into the record. 

ACTION: Dr. Sansgiry, Chair of the FAC sub-committee on Faculty Benefits, presented the minutes and reports from the Subcommittee on Benefits.  After discussion of specific elements raised by the sub-committee, the Chair requested Dr. Sansgiry and the subcommittee to develop a prioritized list of their recommendations to the FAC for discussion at the next FAC meeting with the goal of then presenting that list to the Senate FEC for consideration. 

AGENDA ITEM #3:  Committee Charge

ACTION:  Discussion of this item was tabled and the Chair indicated that he would email all members of the committee the comments that he had received to date.

The Scholarship and Community Committee met on February 27.   The following topics were discussed:  1) An invitation to Houston Mayor Bill White to address the Senate.  2) A follow-up with the State Legislators who visited last spring.  3) Hosting a city-wide Faculty Retreat.  4) Inviting the new heads of the Houston Alumni Organization and the Office of Special Events to talk to the committee.  The committee is scheduled to meet on Monday, March 31, with Beth Burroway, the new Director of Special Events.

DATE:              28^th March 2008
TIME:               1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
LOCATION:     Room 202, Library

      Agenda Item 1): Proposed By-law Change

Dr. Sansgiry provided update to the committee with respect to the required proposed by-law changes.  Two changes were requested and discussed.

1)     Addition of the new Strategic Planning and Development Committee.

      “the Strategic Planning and Development Committee to review and recommend the changes that will impact the University of Houston due to regional, state, national and global demographic, economic and educational shifts,”

      The above amendment was requested in Bylaws section of the Constitution of the Faculty Senate, subsection four. As provided in the Appendix A (below)  

2)     Increasing the diversity of faculty senate committees to achieve adequate expertise to fulfill the objectives of each senate standing committee.

      “Up to three non senate faculty members may be appointed.”

      The above amendment was requested in Bylaws section of the Constitution of the Faculty Senate, subsection four. As provided in the Appendix A (below)  

     Agenda Item 2): Activities of the committee for the year.

 The following activities were discussed by the committee as possible activities of the committee.

1)     Faculty governance input into the allocation of capital budgets, especially HEAF funds.
2)     Provide guidance for University in developing strategic alliances or partnerships.
3)     Provide strategic input in the University’s "Master Plan”.
4)     Provide suggestions for improving the quality of the University Community and the Environment.
5)     Understanding the role of competition and coordination with Community Colleges regionally.
6)     Develop an information base for professional and graduate programs and opportunities for expansion.
7)     Develop an information base for undergraduate programs and study the need for residential housing and other issues.
8)     Planning the necessary faculty growth to achieve top tier.

 After much discussion the committee agreed to prioritize two topics that would be considered for further discussion.  These were

       1)     Growth and impact of graduate programs at UH
    2)     Needed faculty growth to achieve top tier status.  

    Meeting adjourned.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The following is for information only.  The Executive Committee has yet to deliberate on these suggestions.

Appendix A:  Proposed Faculty Senate By-law Amendment (Amendments proposed are in italic)

 
Constitution of the Faculty Senate -- Bylaws

FOUR--All m Members of standing committees shall be appointed from the membership of the Faculty Senate. Up to three non Senate Faculty members may be appointed as necessary.   The Senate standing committees are: the Budget and Facilities Committee, which shall conducts a continuing review of the university's financial resources, including the ways in which such resources are actually spent; the Educational Policies and Student Affairs Committee, which shall review and recommend policy concerning the substance and presentation of undergraduate and graduate education, shall review the operations of the appropriate administrative offices with respect to the implementation of existing policy and the promulgation of policy changes, and which shall create and maintain more effective coordination and cooperation with student organizations at the University of Houston, shall be concerned with the improvement of campus life, and shall review the operations of the administrative offices responsible for the promulgation of policies concerning student and campus life; the Faculty Affairs Committee, which shall review and recommend policy concerning the conditions of faculty employment, the updating of the Faculty Handbook, and shall review the operations of the appropriate administrative officials with respect to the implementation of existing policy and the promulgation of policy changes; the Strategic Planning and Development Committee to review and recommend responses to changes that will impact the University of Houston due to regional, state, national and global demographic, economic and educational shifts, the Scholarship & Community Committee, which shall serve as liaison between the Faculty Senate and both the internal university community and the various external-local and regional—communities that the University serves.  The committee shall assist faculty in three areas:  promoting scholarly activities; conducting scholarly activities; and communicating scholarly activities.