BUDGET & FACILITIES COMMITTEE, Chair:  Richard Willson

   BFC has finalized the Salary Survey, presented it to the Executive Committee and will present it to the full Senate at the October 17 meeting.

   COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES, Chair:  Katy Greenwood

   The Committee will meet Tuesday, October 23, at 1:00 p.m. in room 353, Cullen Performance Hall.

   EDUCATIONAL POLICIES & STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, Chair:  David Mazella

Report is pending
 

   FACULTY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, Chair:  Mark Clarke

DATE:          5^th October 2007
TIME:          12:00 PM
LOCATION:  Faculty Senate Office

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Drs. Clarke, Eichberg, Houston, Manny, Middents, Sansgiry & Subhlok.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:  Drs. Kadish, Kugler, Linzer & Schiff
AD HOC COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: None

AGENDA ITEM #1:  Minutes from 9-07-07 meeting

ACTION:  A motion to accept the minutes from the 9-07-07 FAC meeting with minor typographical modifications was made by Dr. Manny and seconded by Dr. Sansgiry.  The motion was unanimously accepted by the committee and the minutes were entered into the record.

ACTION: Dr. Kotarba was invited to the FAC meeting to discuss the C-USA Faculty travel award proposal. He indicated that he would like to wait until C-USA had replied to his draft proposal before meeting with the committee to discuss this matter.

AGENDA ITEM #3:  Feed-back from FAC to UCC on Net Income Distribution Policy Concerning Intellectual Property Commercialization (Ref: UCC Document 0035 07F).

ACTION:  As requested by the Senate FEC, the committee reviewed the proposed new policy contained in UCC Document 0035 07F concerning Net Income Distribution to Inventors. The committee forwarded its suggestions and comments for clarification of the new policy to the UCC.

AGENDA ITEM #4:       Proposed Agenda Items for Fall 2007 FS Retreat

ACTION:  Committee discussion centered on the purpose and goal of inviting legislators to campus and the Faculty Senate retreat and the unique opportunity that this interaction will provide for the University as a whole.  Significant discussion followed focusing on these topics and how to achieve the most positive outcome with regard to forwarding the University of Houston’s legislative agenda at the retreat.  The committee developed a detailed agenda plan that was forwarded to the Executive Committee for comment.

AGENDA ITEM #5:     Proposed Guidelines for Provost’s Faculty Travel Awards

ACTION: After discussion of the amount available from the Provost’s Office, what these funds could be used to support and who would be responsible for distributing these funds the committee formulated suggested guide-lines for obtaining a Provost’s Faculty Award for consideration by the UH Senate FEC.

  
   SCHOLARHSIP & COMMUNITY COMMITTEE, Chair:  Suzanne Ferimer

        The Scholarship and Community Committee met on Monday October 15.  The following items were discussed:

        Revised Net Income Distribution proposal.   The committee has requested additional information and will revisited this at its next meeting.

        The committee voted to forward with a proposal to work with the Houston Alumni Organization.  The faculty of the University will be receiving an e-mail shortly, which asks for faculty volunteers to invite UH Alumni back to the campus and into their classrooms during Homecoming week.

        A discussion of the Scholarship and Community Conference was the final item on the agenda.

   AD HOC COMMITTEE ON PLANNING, Chair:  Steven Craig

        The committee has two on-going projects.   First, the Committee is working with Craig Ness, Executive Director of Academic Budgets and Administration, and Marco Mariotto, Dean of Graduate & Professional Studies, to assist in developing data that describes the level of financial support for graduate students, the number of graduate students by unit, and the source of graduate student funding.  This data has not existed in the past, but it appears the committee will be able to receive data by department and college from at least 2004 to the present (hopefully earlier) for funding levels, sources, and number of students supported.

        The Committee is also pursuing a strategy to respond to a Research Council memo on how to define progress toward becoming a Top Tier University.  The current task in this direction is to develop a list of measurable outputs pertinent to each College, including those reflected in the Scholarship Report.

        Finally, the Committee has made a report to the Executive Committee on its activities and progress this year.  The assessment within the Committee is that the Ad-hoc Planning Committee has discussed topics that would not normally have been handled by the other Faculty Senate standing committees.  Thus the Committee report to the Executive Committee has proposed a format to pursue a continuation of its activities.