President Wells called the February 18, 2009 Faculty Senate meeting to order in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion of the M. D. Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.

 MEMBERS PRESENT:  [39]

MEMBERS ABSENT:  [14]

VISITORS: 

Renu Khator (University of Houston System Chancellor and University of Houston President), John Antel (UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost), Carl Carlucci (UHS Executive Vice Chancellor and UH Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance), Teri Longacre (UH Ombudsperson and Associate Professor, Management), Elaine Charlson (UHS Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Executive Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs), Ed Hugetz (Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Vice President for Planning and Outreach), David Bell (Assistant Vice Chancellor and Assistant Vice President, Academic & Faculty Affairs),  Elizabeth Anderson Fletcher (Associate Vice President for Research Operations), John Powell (Assistant to the Chancellor/President, Communications), Oscar Gutiuerrez (Assistant to the Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement), Cathy Patterson (Associate Dean, CLASS, Associate Professor of History, and Chair of the Graduate & Professional Studies Council), David Papell (Professor and Chair, Economics), Lawrence Williams (Instructional Associate Professor of Biology-Biochemistry and Chair of the Undergraduate Council), Mike Emery (Media Relations Rep 1), James Hale (Daily Cougar),

MINUTES:  The minutes for the January 21, 2009 Senate meeting were approved.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Dan Wells

Pres. Wells presented the standard rules of decorum for all Faculty Senate meetings.  He noted that changes were being made to the monthly agenda.  Pres. Wells said that the format would feature reports from the academic Councils and Senate Committees every other month. 

Pres. Wells reported:  (1) Sports at UH, including baseball, basketball and softball, would be free to UH faculty and staff and their families.  He encouraged faculty to attend these events.  (2) Changes to the Faculty Senate website are coming.  Sen. Chin is updating the website and it should be ready by the end of the summer.  (3) An addition to the current website is that each committee has their goals and reports listed under their own committee heading.  This is to continue for stronger shared governance. All of the committees are very active and have been doing a great job.  (4)   The ACE Conference website is linked through the Faculty Senate website.  Attendance for the conference is anticipated to be over 200.  Faculty are encouraged to attend. (5) There seems to be a number of issues with child care on campus which the newly formed Child Care Task Force will study.  Members of the Student Government Association, Faculty Senate and Staff Council will be making recommendations about adequate child care availability, space and location.  Over the next five years UH will need a new or enhanced child care facility.  Dr. Carlucci is working with Dr. Wells and the Task Force on these issues.  (6) The Spring Faculty Assembly will be held on March 25.  This is a general faculty meeting with one held in the spring and one held in the fall.  On the agenda will be the preliminary reports from the Strategic Action Group.  The SAG has a public website.  Dr. Khator has charged this group with coming up with action items with very specific measurements and accomplishments to achieve the six goals that were established by the Board of Regents, including:  national competitiveness, student success, community advancement, athletic competitiveness, national and local recognition, and resource competiveness. (7) The Higher Education Reform package that has come down from the Governor’s office is of high interest.  A subcommittee of EPSAC will be looking at this.  Some highlights are transparency, accountability, incentives & rewards.  This information that has been requested will be very difficult to get. 

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE FACULTY SENATE CONSTITUTION:  FIRST READING

Proposed amendments to the Faculty Senate Constitution were made (available on-line at http://www.uh.edu/fs/Constitution_proposed_amendments_021809.html).   It was noted that a few of the amendments were cosmetic changes while most formally acknowledge actions that are currently in practice, such as representational membership on other bodies (i.e., the University Coordinating Commission and the University Commission on Women).  The most significant change is to broaden the scope and role of the Committee on Committees to become the Faculty Governance Committee.  Sen. Warner moved that the first reading of the amendments forwarded to the senators via email move forward to the second reading at the March 25 Faculty Senate meeting, following the Spring Faculty Assembly.  After a brief discussion, the motion to move to the Second Reading was approved. 

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES COUNCIL CHAIR:  Cathy Patterson

Dr. Patterson reported that the Council is:  (1) studying graduate admissions processes and looking for ways to improve efficiency.  The report is due by the end of the semester. (2) working on a joint Task Force of the Graduate & Professional Studies Council and Faculty Senate to study creating a graduate faculty status.  (3) working with the Strategic Action Group on Student Success with the emphasis on graduate student success.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE RESEARCH COUNCIL CHAIR:  Rigoberto Advincula - David Papell, reporting

Noting that Dr. Advincula is currently out of town, David Papell, the immediate past chair of the Research Council, reported:  (1) the Council is continuing its discussion of Top Tier status and how to double research funding within five years. (2) Reviews of GEAR (Grants to Enhance and Advance Research) are in process.  Applications are down this year and funding is around $300,000. (3) the Council is in the process of reviewing all centers.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UNDERGRADUATE COUNCIL CHAIR: Lawrence Williams

The Undergraduate Council has three committees:  the Academic Policies and Procedures Committee, which works on all sorts of policies and procedures that need to be approved for undergraduates; the Degree Programs Committee, which works on all changes to programs and approves new programs; and the Core Curriculum Committee.  The last group is working to assure UH is in compliance with the State mandated Core Curriculum, which superseded the University's more rigorous curriculum.  The group is raising some issues with the State guidelines, particularly in reference to foreign languages.  The Council will be working with other universities to ask the Coordinating Board to change their requirements.  An Ad Hoc Committee is being formed to address this matter.  Philip Howard is the Faculty Senate representative on this committee and will be working with David Papell from Research Council.  The Undergraduate Council is also interested in improving the admissions process. 

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UH SYSTEM CHANCELLOR AND UH PRESIDENT:  Renu Khator

Dr. Khator congratulated Dr. Wells on his Faculty Senate presidency and said his inaugural speech last month was inspiring.  She thanked Dr. Chin for a job well done as Faculty Senate President. 

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C. with Regents Welcome Wilson and Nelda Blair, Grover Campbell, Vice Chancellor/Vice President for Governmental Relations, and Don Birx, Research, Dr. Khator visited with several legislators about UH's research agenda and appropriations request for fiscal year 2010-2011.  Last year the University received around $600,000, so far this year UH has gotten $5.5 million.  She thanked the faculty, Dr. Birx and Michael Rierson, Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement for their efforts toward securing this funding.

Dr. Khator said she wasn't sure if Texas would accept the funding from the federal stimulus package.  It is not yet clear how these funds will be distributed, but the administration is working on UH's request. She added that Governor Perry had visited the campus to announce the award of a $5.5 million grant to the University of Houston through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF).  The money will be used to hire Jan-Åke Gustafsson, a leader in hormones research.  Dr. Gustafsson is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Assembly.

 The Texas legislature is in session.  The Governmental Relations Office sends out a weekly update on legislative activities and bills being tracked.  There are several possible bills to be concerned about, including freezing and/or reversing tuition deregulation and changing funding from courses attempts to courses completed.  Dr. Khator noted that the cost of an average wedding runs more than most higher education degrees.  The UH legislative agenda focuses on protecting base funding, preventing base reduction and urging the legislature to fully fund the formula, but the top priority is to secure funding for Top Tier.  It will take $100 million for the next five-ten years to accomplish. That includes $50 million from the State and $50 million raised privately.

There will be a budget reduction for the current fiscal year and more cuts may come.  The State has asked for a 2.5% rescission.  Some challenges involved with the reduction are how to take the cuts?  Reduce summer offerings? Furlough employees?  The Endowment Committee has voted to lower annual payout from 5% to 4%. 

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UHS SENIOR VICE CHANCELLOR AND UH SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND PROVOST:  John Antel

Dr. Antel said that it was great to be in front of the Faculty Senate again.  He served for years on the Senate and was Chair of the Budget & Facilities Committee.  He also worked with Jerry Freiberg on the FS-CoUG (Faculty Senate Commission on University Governance) report. 

The Provost noted that the objectives of the Senate as discussed by Pres. Wells are exactly what needs to be worked on as priorities.  Another opportunity is that of student success.  Dr. Antel stated that he has worked with Dr. Wells for years on this issue, including the Enrollment Management Task Force, Achieving the Dream Committee, USD Task Force and Orientation Committee.  Dr. Antel will be a speaker at the March 27 ACE Conference being held at UH-Downtown.  Dr. Antel said that Dr. Khator and he are behind this initiative. 

Last week the administration received word from the Coordinating Board that there would be a 2.5 % budget cut.  This is coming mid-year in the current budget, so the administration is working with the deans to prepare for a 5% cut for next year. 

Dr. Antel said another issue that is being discussed is the Governor’s Higher Education Reform initiatives.  This was passed down from the Governor’s office through the Regents.  The administration has been working with the Regents and communicating back to the Governor’s office.  Dr. Dan Gardner, from the President's office, has been working on this as well.  UH is trying to get some clarification on how to comply with these initiatives. These initiatives were sent to all public universities within the state of Texas.  UH needs to be as responsive as it can.

REPORTS FROM FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES are available at http://www.uh.edu/fs/FS_Committees_Reports_Index.html

The meeting adjourned at 1:38 p.m.