UHCN Article
“Misty Eyes”

Joseph A. Kotarba
President, Faculty Senate

As president of the faculty senate this year, I’m proud to say we have accomplished a number of objectives intended to improve the quality of work of our professors, and to move our university along the path to excellence. With the generous support of the administration, we have instituted a faculty travel awards program to enhance the quality of faculty scholarship and to help faculty grow professionally.  We have worked with the office of administration and finance to simplify and clarify the information on our pay checks.  We have completed a faculty climate survey as well as an analysis of the faculty salary structure.  Externally, the faculty senate has achieved leadership positions in the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics and the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.

            There were two events this past year, though, that served to remind me that the essence of university life extends beyond official business and bureaucracy—two events that left me and others a bit misty eyed.  The first was a meeting of the Student Government Association, held coincidentally on the evening of the shootings at Virginia Tech.  My original intent was to express the faculty’s desire to work more closely with SGA to achieve common goals.  As I began my presentation, I scanned the audience and saw some of our finest, most energetic and most dedicated students.  The sad events of the day led me to simply say what I believe faculty truly feel about students: that they are the reason that the university exists, and that we really care about their welfare, their safety, their happiness, and their future.  We should all be proud of the good work David Rosen, Sam Dike, and all the student leaders do for the university.

            The second event occurred over lunch at the faculty senate’s recent MusicAcrossBoundaries conference.  We were blessed to have members of the Moores School of Music perform excerpts from Porgy and Bess, to illustrate the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on George Gershwin’s creativity.  Howard Pollack accompanied vocalists Timothy Jones and Melissa Givens on piano.  As they sang “Summertime” and “I loves you, Porgy,” I noticed there was not a dry eye in the house--the music was stunning.  This performance as well as the other activities at the conference reminded us that the goal of the university is to seek beauty as well as truth in the world.