UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON FACULTY SENATE MINUTES – January 24, 2007

President Craig called the January 24, 2007 Faculty Senate meeting to order in the Rockwell Pavilion of the M. D. Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.  

MEMBERS PRESENT:  [39]
  ARCH:     M. Sabatino                                                                                 
  BUS:        R. Keller                                                                                         
  CLASS:   V. Brady, S. Craig, M. Haun , N. Houston, T. Karner, J. Kotarba, D. Mazella, M. McHenry, J. Middents, D. Montoya, F. Schiff, G. Trail                                                                        
  EDU:        M. Clarke, J. Freiberg, S. McNeil, A. Warner                                  
  ENGR:      A. Kamrani,  Y.L. Mo, J. Richardson, R. Willson        
  GCSW:     H. Karger                   
  HRM:        K. Titz
  LIB           D. Camille, D. Bruxvoort, S. Ferimer
  NSM:        P. Copeland, J. Eichberg, A. Ignatiev, G. Johnson, K. Kadish, T. R. Lee, M. Ru,  J. Subhlok, D. Wells
  OPT:        R. Manny
  PHA:        S. Sansgiry
  TECH:      K. Greenwood

MEMBERS ABSENT:  [13]
   BUS:        W. Chin (w/notice), S. Kadipasaoglu, C. Pirrong                                 
  CLASS:    E. Brown-Guillory, A. Gordon, W. Herendeen, A. Kugler            
  ENGR:      J. Williams                                                                                     
   LAW:        M. Duncan, S. Huber, P. Linzer
  NSM:         X. Gao
  OPT:          S. Quintero

VISITORS:   
Don Foss (UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost), Elwyn Lee (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Student Affairs), Teri Longacre (UH Ombudsperson and Associate Professor, Management), Marco Mariotto (Dean of Graduate & Professional Studies), Ed Hugetz (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor and UH Assistant Vice President for Planning & University Outreach), Miranda Bennett (Assistant Librarian, University Libraries), Library, Oscar Gutierrez (Assistant to the Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement), Joe Papick (Director, Child Welfare Education Project), Evelyn Brass (Associate Librarian, University Libraries),   

MINUTES:  The minutes for the December 06, 2006 Senate meeting were approved.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UH SYSTEM CHANCELLOR AND UH PRESIDENT: Jay Gogue 

      The President reported that the University’s legislative agenda includes seeking a restoration of the 10% budget cut and full funding of the Tuition Revenue Bonds (TRBs) that were approved in the special session.  The University has requested $2.4 million to help cover its Katrina efforts.  Dr. Gogue pointed out that whether UH gets this money or not, helping with the recovery process after Katrina was the right thing to do.  There are still concerns about the changes to formula funding.  The new matrix appears to penalize engineering, nursing and teacher preparation programs at time when there are growing shortages in these service areas.  The legislature will likely look at tuition deregulation again.  There is an expected funding increase of HEAF from $175 million to $225 million and the University is looking for research excellence to be fully funding.  The latter is critical to preparing students for the 21st century workforce and for generating the research needed to fuel economic development in today's economy.  This is especially important for the University of Houston as it seeks to become the state's third top-tier research university, more of which are needed in the state and the Houston metropolitan area.   UH also is asking for continued funding for special items and new funding for exceptional items, to support an array of valuable research and public service programs and leverage external resources.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UH SYSTEM SENIOR VICE CHANCELLOR AND UH SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT:  Don Foss

      The Provost reported on:  (1) an article in the Houston Chronicle, saying that there is no agreement, but there is an ongoing discussion regarding the medical center initiative; (2) the recent Deans Retreat.  The group looked at the University’s strategic position and came to the realization that education is not an either/or proposition; the University can and must focus on both graduate and undergraduate education.   (3) the tuition structure and the possibility of a flat tuition rate as a way to give students incentives to finish their degrees in a timely manner and move on – either to graduate school or into the workforce.  (4) College Budget Hearings are ongoing and a representative from the Senate will be attending each one.  . 

FAREWELL ADDRESS FROM THE 2006 FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Steven Craig

      In my campaign speech for this job, I said my view is that the Senate should be the policy voice of the faculty in the University.  The main reason is to academically advance UH.  It takes a lot of work to change a teaching university into a research university.  We’re unique – rising from a teaching university.

      I also said the Senate was a rowboat, trying to push the UH battleship.  I’ve been rowing like crazy for this year, and its definitely time for me to step aside for another captain.  Because the Faculty Senate President makes no decisions, the only way anything can happen is with a lot of people working, and I’ve been very lucky to have so much support.

      Peter Copeland put me on this path when he nominated me from the floor for an at-large Executive Committee (EC) position.  I have benefited from Al Warner, who happily introduced me to the Presidency.  Joe Kotarba has been very supportive and helpful as the President-elect.  My EC has been terrific, both the people you elected and the ones I selected.  You elected Joe Eichberg and Sara McNeil, as well as Peter Copeland as Sec.  My committee chairs were Dave Papell, Dan Wells, Karl Titz, and Suzanne Ferrimer.  Each of these people contributed in a unique way to the accomplishments of this past year.

      And the Senate itself has worked hard, especially through the committees.  It has been supportive of major initiatives and has made its voice heard by being very effective.  So let me outline what we have done over the past year to push UH towards the status of a serious research university:

1.   Be explicit about our objectives, which leads to clear thinking about hard decisions.

2.   Better measurement, of inputs, and outputs and their relationship.  This leads to better decision making (but data doesn’t replace).  And, more accountability.

3.   We continued to integrate faculty into the decision making process at UH, and used the new processes for important policy improvements.

4.   We improved the effectiveness of the Senate, which plays back into all of the decisions.

      For item one, I believe we have succeeded in focusing our goal at becoming a serious research university.  Our first FS retreat was about long range planning, where I suggested UH needed 400 new faculty and a planning committee which the Senate is implementing.  During this past year, the Senate wrote a new mission statement, which is short, and discusses our focus on applied research relevant not only for Houston, but the entire planet.

      Another outcome of our focus on the goal of achieving serious academic stature has been illustrated in the discussion of new branch campuses.   Any initiative here can only occur, I hope and believe, in the context of how such a move would enhance the research environment on this campus.

      Our discussion is now being routinely reflected in UH policy.  The Senate had nothing to do with the Master Facilities Plan, but it is interesting how close the vision that came out of that process is to the vision that was articulated in the First Retreat.

      We had nothing explicitly to do with the Provost using a big chunk of his new tuition money for expanding the size of the tenure and tenure track faculty.  But I think our discussions of how faculty are the key to research output helped to facilitate his achieving our joint objectives.

      The second front we pushed this year was to improve accountability and decision making.

One of the first things I did as President-elect was to form the Task Force on Achieving Research Excellence.  Recommendations from that group resulted in a request for Scholarship Report that was supported by the Councils and the Senate.  The Provost implemented the report, which will be annual -- and improved!  The implication is that the faculty is accountable to itself, and the rest of the world.

        Another push in this direction was to improve operational data.  Our system of funds accounting is strong, but as our mission changes, so do our data needs.  This too has been implemented without any direct output by faculty, but I believe our encouragement has facilitated the development.  The documents for the budget hearings have a lot of new operational data on faculty size and students over time.  The data will, and needs to, get better still.  But the picture of where we are is clearer, and it makes it more apparent where we are going.  Further, the budget hearing materials discuss what happened with the new money from the previous year.  This reflects a lot of work by the administration, but makes the path to a serious research university much clearer.

      The third front is we continued to integrate faculty into the decision making process, and used that integration to improve policy to reach our objectives.  One important policy accomplishment is the new extension of probationary period for childbirth.  This policy pushes us from almost last to near first for family friendly policies – consistent with getting the best faculty our meager budget can afford.  This policy was originated by the University Commission on Women Commission, not the Senate.  But we were key players in getting it approved, and now implemented.  It shows the potential effectiveness of cooperation across groups, the importance of having many different policy voices, and the effectiveness of getting faculty to unite behind a good idea.

      We implemented the major recommendation from FS-COUG, which is the UCC.  This pilot is still getting the kinks worked out, but shows a lot of promise, I think, both for clarity, and multiple voices.  If it reaches its potential, it will provide multiple faculty voices into a lot of what has hitherto been closed decision making loops.

      A more important avenue was that we used our second FS Retreat to discuss the Quality Enhancement Plans (QEPs) that are required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).  At our retreat, we offered several good ideas.  What I like about what happened here is that after the Senate started its work, the administration picked up the task, and put high level people in charge of developing our QEP with a lot of different faculty. 

      The ideas we generated at this second retreat have already started to enhance the effectiveness of UH.  Our themed housing idea has been given to Elwyn Lee, Vice Chancellor/Vice President for Student Affairs, and he has accepted a faculty committee to advise him.

      Two of the other ideas we raised have been combined into the major undergraduate research proposal.  My prediction is that undergraduate research will become the campus QEP, and I hope we continue to put significant resources into this direction.

        Another policy initiative we took this year was to examine the effectiveness of the UH renovation budget.  We did this in response to comments from particular faculty who are not necessarily Senators.  That people viewed the Senate as the right group in which to raise these concerns is gratifying, and points the FS in the right direction.  That we responded shows their faith is well founded. 

      That, like with the QEPs, the administration saw fit to respond itself to the Senate effort with a committee headed by a high level administrator shows how the University can effectively work together to make our institution more successful.  Of course, we haven’t yet seen any major improvement here.  But I’m sure we will!

      The final set of issues was to raise the effectiveness of the Senate as an institution.  All of these distinctions are somewhat arbitrary, as they all feed into each other.  Only by open communication of common objectives, only by sharing common concerns, only by frankly admitting limitations inherent in our complex environment, can we achieve the objective of raising our academic standing.  So improving the Senate is important for channeling the faculty voice into effective decision making.

      One aspect I worked on was to facilitate communication between faculty groups.  I think the Senate is the natural focal point for changing policy, but the many other groups on campus can often see specific problems more clearly.  We worked with the University’s Commission on Women on tenure clock extensions.  We worked with the Research Council and the Graduate & Professional Studies Council on the Scholarship Report, and in sharing our concerns with the support for the Vice President for Research.  And I have a special place in my heart for our interaction with Student government.  They had a particular concern.  We listened, and interacted in a useful way.  And the result is that UH set a record this semester for the timeliness by which textbooks were assigned to courses.  We are all better off by such interaction.

        Also on textbooks, we discovered the depth and breadth of feeling about the assignment of self authored texts.  We didn’t craft a final policy in this area, but had fruitful discussions, we gave useful policy feedback to the Provost, and maybe most impressively didn’t implode over what turned out to be a divisive issue.  One implication of that process is communication among the faculty is central to developing understanding, and effective policy leadership.  We recently  implemented the second Climate Survey.  Joe Kotarba’s Senate will do the analysis of the resulting data, although preliminarily I believe several useful results will emerge.

        Another group we need to continue to develop communication with is our Regents.  Here Jay Gogue provided a welcome opportunity to speak, and I gave four speeches to the Regents which could give them perspective on how their decisions impact us.  These speeches were also effective because they allowed us to twice invite a couple of Regents to lunch on campus, to have a relaxed but involved interchange.  These lunches lasted over two hours each, which says something about the depth of feelings, and hunger for knowledge, by our Regents.  We need to do more, here.

        Another direction I upgraded our communication were the columns I wrote for the UHCN newspaper.  Most of you probably never saw them, but the administration did.  I used these columns to again discuss important aspects of overall university governance from the faculty perspective.

        The final set of accomplishments was to re-build the Senate staff for the long run.  Brenda Jones, a staff person for the Senate for 25 years, retired last Spring.  When that happened, our other long running staff member, Mary Brantley, was close to following her out the door.  So I did three things to save us, and until you serve on the EC you will never know how important are high quality staff to the Senate’s effectiveness. 

      The first thing I did was to change the minutes.  No one ever said anything, so I sure didn’t.  But unilaterally on Brenda’s departure I told Mary to prepare minutes that run no more than two pages long.  Our previous minutes were essentially verbatim transcripts of the entire meeting, and took a lot of staff time to prepare.  So at our first meeting this Fall, I didn’t say anything, just asked for the minutes to be approved.  And you did.  So I don’t know if you noticed, but if you did, I appreciate your tolerance for this change.  And, we archive the tapes so if there is ever any question of exactly what was said, it is recoverable.

      The second thing I did was to get Brenda replaced, and with an excellent person, Amy Tucker.  You need to understand the administration was in the process of taking a significant budget cut, and we managed to get approval to replace our second person.  Not at all trivial, but a significant statement about the recognition of our policy contributions.

      Finally, again in the face of the administrative budget cuts, the administration approved a significant (and long requested) equity adjustment to Mary’s salary.  The combination of all of these moves has kept up the potential for the Senate to continue its effectiveness, and I’m sure it will with Joe Kotarba’s, and Wynne Chin’s, effective leadership.

      So to wrap up, I definitely rowed this Senate rowboat much more fiercely than I planned when I started down this path.  But the reason I did so, I think, makes at least some sense.  UH is on the cusp of an amazing transformation – into a serious research university.  If we achieve this, I believe we will be the only such university in the country to have done so.  But I am convinced that the entire campus community, including current, past, and future students; the administration, the faculty, and the Board of Regents, really want this.  And frankly, the City of Houston desperately needs us to be successful, as it prepares for this new century.

      It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with you all, but I’m certainly looking forward to being a professor of economics again!  Thank you.         

      Pres. Craig passed the gavel to Sen. Kotarba, signifying the transition of leadership.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS FROM THE 2007 FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Joseph Kotarba

      This is truly a great honor for me.  To serve as president of the Faculty Senate is to serve as a primary medium for faculty concerns and a primary voice for faculty aspirations for the University of Houston.  I come to this point in my work with the Faculty Senate with humility, since I will be the caretaker for one year of an already energetic and successful organization that has done so much to help U of H evolve into the great university we all want it to be.

My year-long stint as president-elect has taught me how to conceptualize and prioritize the work of the president.  Serving as the first chair of the University Coordinating Commission has taught me how to lead a broadly-based university group, conduct meetings, and get things done.  Perhaps the most important preparation I experienced, however, was the opportunity to observe and work with the Faculty Senate presidents who held the office during my six years as a senator, and who taught me by example the wide range of talents and styles these leaders brought to this forum.  Jerry Freiberg’s vision was to elevating the status of faculty by having them take the lead in forging a common trajectory towards excellence among all university components, as exemplified in his leadership in generating the FS-CoUG report.  Joe Eichberg assisted greatly with the work of the FS-CoUG task force, but also continues to serve as my role model for deep and lasting commitment to the university.  Ann Jacobson saw the University of Houston, not only as joining the ranks of the great American Universities, but as a leader in innovative and cross disciplinary scholarly endeavors in its own right.  Giles Auchmuty’s vision was to enhance the profile of the Faculty Senate within our university and across the entire system, for example, by actively involving the other universities in President Gogue’s inauguration.  Al Warner continues to emphasize the value of respect for the orderly achievement of the mission of the Faculty Senate through the design and implementation of projects that, put simply, work.    

      And then there was Steve Craig…. (Pres. Kotarba presented Sen. Craig with a picture depicting a rowboat pushing a battleship and a gavel on an engraved plaque.)

      The question remains as to my vision for the Faculty Senate.  The answer to that question is made possible by the fact that I am blessed with a great supporting cast to help me fulfill my goals:  veteran leaders like Al Warner, Steve Craig, Dan Wells, Sara McNeil, Katy Greenwood, and Suzanne Ferimer will be joined by some exciting new faces on the executive committee.  Richard Willson will chair the Budget and Facilities Committee, David Mazella will chair the Educational Policy and Student Affairs Committee, and Mark Clarke will chair the Faculty Affairs Committee.  As we are all aware, Wynne Chin will bring energy and insight to the role of president-elect. 

      The first part of my vision is to maintain our progress on the path of success my predecessors have paved.  We will continue growing our commitment to key components of the university’s general welfare, by continuing to strive towards key goals such as shared governance, institutional planning, an increase in faculty size, and the continuing evolution of our good friends and partners in library and staff.   

      As we continue to grow the university and the faculty, I feel it is appropriate to let the pendulum swing a bit in the other direction, that is, towards taking better care of the faculty we already have, the faculty who have committed themselves and their careers to the University of Houston.  Thus, the major theme of my presidency will be the enhancement of the role and identity of “The Professor.”     I was the second in my family to attend college and the first to attend graduate school.  When I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego, my good working class mom would proudly refer to me as the doctor in the family, although the fact that I continued to drive my old Dodge Omni after graduation quickly led her to conclude that I was a different kind of doctor than the ones who drove shiny new Buicks.  Nevertheless, Mom continued to lovingly refer to me as “her professor,” a term of endearment that may never be topped.  Now, on a day-to-day basis, we commonly see ourselves portrayed in bureaucratic print as State of Texas employees, FTEs, instructional staff, an employee number, “the department,” and other terms I’m sure are on some document somewhere in E Cullen.  Yet, we are in essence professors, as Plato put it, those who profess the truth.

      And, we do a pretty good job of it.  The Scholarship Report that Dr. Foss so elegantly assembled tells the story—almost a book a day published, among many other scientific and artistic accomplishments.  Much of the high productivity that emanates from faculty is accomplished without major external funding.  Many of us who write books do so between teaching and service assignments, as part of our positions as professors and our vocation as scholars.  I am not saying we do not need external funding, or that we should not increase grants and contracts.  My point is that even modest investment in the quality of work and quality of life for our professors pays big dividends in terms of retention and added productivity.  We will work hard this year to increase institutional support for travel to professional meetings, short-term research support, summer research support, guest lecturers, and other professional activities.  We will work closely with Michael Rierson to develop new funding streams beyond existing sources.  Overall, the Faculty Affairs Committee will take the lead in this initiative.

      Intercollegiate athletics is a topic of great concern both on our campus and at universities around the country.  The time has come to move beyond the “love it or hate it” attitude towards athletics that we faculty have held for too long, to a constructive relationship through which the Faculty Senate demonstrates leadership in helping the university develop an athletics program appropriate to a major research university.  I am proposing that the Faculty Senate approach this issue at two levels.  We will continue to exert leadership at the national level through our membership in the executive committee of the Coalition for Intercollegiate Athletics, whose reform efforts address problems such as fund-raising, commercialization, student-athlete recruitment, academic issues, and other problems that affect all division I-A universities.  We are also exerting leadership among faculty at our sister universities in Conference USA.  All major conferences—such as the Big Ten, the SEC, and the ACC, maintain faculty groups that create scholarly networks across member schools.  With the support of our Athletics Department, I have already begun a conversation with faculty senate presidents at the other C-USA schools to initiate a faculty guest speaker exchange program.              

      At the local level, I strongly believe that our faculty has the expertise and insight to help the Athletics Department do the best job it can, as we do with other university units.  To start, I have asked the Budget Committee to meet with Athletics Department representatives to generate a frank, constructive, and on-going discussion of the athletics budget.

      Finally, I have the privilege of organizing the Scholarship and Community Conference this fall, under the leadership of the Scholarship and Community Committee.  We have chosen the following working theme:  “Teaching Culture and the Culture of Teaching.”  This conference will be cross-disciplinary and showcase some of the cutting-edge instructional designs and practices here at UH.  We will invite colleagues from the community, other universities in the system, as well as from the entire region to join us in this exciting scholarly endeavor.                         

      I want to thank my colleagues in Sociology for their support for my work with the Faculty Senate.  I look forward to a continuing positive relationship between the Faculty Senate and the administration, led by President Gogue and Dr. Foss.  I am asking for your support to accomplish this admittedly ambitious agenda because, as professors, you have the talent we need to succeed.  Thank you.

END-OF-YEAR WRITTEN REPORTS FROM 2005 FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES are available on-line at http://www.uh.edu/fs/FS_Cms_End_of_Year_Reports_012407.html

RESOLUTION TO RESCIND UH SYSTEM COMMITTEES

      Sen. Warner introduced a resolution arising from the Executive Committee and Committee on Committees, moving:

The University of Houston Faculty Senate Committee on Committees moves the Faculty Senate rescind the following University of Houston UH System committees:

University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for Governmental Relations, University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for Legal Affairs and University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for University Advancement.

After a brief discussion the Senate passed the resolution by unanimous vote.

The meeting adjourned at 1:45 p.m.