President Eichberg called the meeting to order in the Farish Hall Kiva at 12:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  [32]
ARCH:     B. Bollinger
BUS:        W. Chin, S. Khumawala, D. Rude
CLASS:    V. Brady, S. Craig, P. Gingiss, B. Johnsen, D. Judkins, J. Kotarba, B. Lange, J. Middents, G. San Miguel, T. Tillery
EDU:         J. Freiberg, A. Warner, C. White
ENGR:      T. Cleveland, S. Kleis, R. Metcalfe, G. Paskusz
LAW:       S. Huber
LIB:          M. Jones, J. Myers
NSM:       G. Auchmuty, D. Blecher, J. Eichberg, G. Etgen, E. Leiss
OPT:        R. Manny
TECH:     C. Goodson, K. Greenwood
 
MEMBERS ABSENT:  [20]
BUS:         M. Parks
CLASS:     J. Antel, B. Breitmeyer K. Brown, D. Jacobs,  A. Jacobson, G. Jowett, R. Murray
EDU:         M. Connell, S. McNeil
ENGR:      O. Ghazzaly, D. Shattuck
LAW:        P. Linzer
NSM:        P. Copeland, A. Ignatiev, K. Kadish, D. Wells
OPT:         S. Quintero
PHA:        C. Pedemonte
GSSW:     H. Karger
 
MEMBERS AWAITING REPLACEMENT:  [1]
 HRM: J. Abbott  [Note:  HRM was represented at this meeting by Karl Titz]

VISITORS: Edward Sheridan (UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost), Charles Shomper (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Information Technology), Elaine Charlson (UHS Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs); Marco Mariotto (Dean of Graduate & Professional Studies), David Bell (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs), Mike Emery (Writer, UHCN), Greg Jones (Reporter, Daily Cougar)

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:  The March 27, 2002, minutes were approved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
     The UH 75th Celebration on April 10 was very well attended.  At the formal program the faculty was recognized as making essential contributions and received collectively a gift of a glass plaque that will be mounted in the Senate office.
 Please note that the next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be Wednesday, May 8, at 12:15 p.m. in room 634 of the Science and Research I building.
     All University of Houston faculty and staff are invited to the groundbreaking for the M.D. Anderson Library and Honors College expansion at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 26, on the south side of the library.   Refreshments will be served.  Please RSVP today at (713) 743-8166.
     The Houston Alumni Organization is currently accepting nominations for outstanding faculty and staff.   The deadline is May 3.  For more information, call (713) 743-9550.

KUDOS:
     Faculty recognition at the awards luncheon on April 23 included 2002 Farfel Award Recipient:  Roland Glowinski from NSM; new John and Rebecca Moores Professors:  Vemuri Balakotaiah, ENGR, and Mary Anne Bobinski, LAW; Research and Scholarship Awards: Steven Blanke, Assistant Professor of Biology and Biochemistry; Martin Melosi, Professor of History; and Scott Perry, Associate Professor of Chemistry; Enron Teaching Awards:  Dietmar Froehlich, Architecture; Praveen Kumar, Finance; James Pipkin, English; and William G. Rixey, Civil and Environmental Engineering; El Paso Energy Foundation Faculty Achievement Awards: Saleha Khumawala, Accountancy and Taxation and Faculty Senator; Susan Miertschin, Industrial Technology; and Leang-San Shieh, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Provost’s Core Course Awards:  David Judkins, English and Faculty Senator; and Ross Lence, Political Science; and the George Magner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Academic Advising:  Dr. Lence.
     Sen. Huber asked if the Enron Teaching Awards were endowed so there would be money in the future?  Pres. Eichberg replied that those awards are endowed.
     Special kudos go to Shankar Chellam, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for being named a recipient of the CAREER Award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious accolade for new faculty members.  The CAREER award recognizes scholars who are likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.
     The Faculty Senate offers kudos to Barbara Stewart, Associate Professor in the College of Technology and Coordinator of Consumer Science and Merchandising, for winning the Fluor-Daniel Teaching Excellence Award and the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business National Award for Article of the Year in Customer Relationship Management.
     Kudos to Mechanical Engineering Professors Charles Dalton and Lewis Wheeler who are being honored this week by the South Texas Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  Dr. Dalton will receive the 2002 Dean W.R. Woolrich Award, recognizing him as the South Texas Section Engineer of the Year.
     Dr. Wheeler, interim chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and former Faculty Senate President, will be given the 2002 Dean Claude L. Wilson Award for lifetime achievements of an outstanding Engineering Educator.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Joseph Eichberg
     PeopleSoft:  Pres. Eichberg reported on a meeting regarding PeopleSoft that was held at the request of Jim McShan, Craig Ness and Jenine Bogrand.  The FAST team leaders were seeking input on what concerns faculty had about PeopleSoft.  Pres. Eichberg added that he also had several conversations with Chuck Shomper, UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Information Technology.  Pres. Eichberg said that he senses the problems with PeopleSoft are being addressed.  It is a slow, but open process.  One aspect of this openness has been the initiation of a web accessible Newsletter that describes the conversion issues.  Pres. Eichberg said remaining PeopleSoft concerns can be sent to the responsible office or to him.  Pres. Eichberg said there has been improved communication between Human Resources and Finance and this has helped solve problems that often overlap both of those areas.
    New Science, Engineering, Research and Classroom Building:  The Board of Regents will be asked in May to approve the plan for the construction of the new $51 million Science, Engineering, Research and Classroom Building as a step toward the sale of the bonds to finance construction.  A local construction firm (Vaughn Construction) with extensive experience in building laboratories has been selected.  The ad hoc committee, on which Pres. Eichberg has been serving for the past four or five months, has been working with interested parties including deans, faculty and Facilities and Planning people to develop a plan for the building..  Two building are involved; one of which will house laboratories and the other classrooms.  There will be a variety of classrooms, including a large auditorium with 550 seats, another with  250 seats, two with 180 seats and several with 60 seats. classrooms. The latter two rooms might be divided into 30 seats.  The plan is to complete all of the laboratory building, will be four or five stories and construction using state funds will enable completion of the outer skin and utilities.  The interior will be finished pending the availability of more funds.  The expectation is while the building itself is being constructed fundraising will go forward.  The target date for completion is summer of 2005.
     Sen. Freiberg asked if the laboratory building would have any labs in it at the end of construction.  Pres. Eichberg said that is one of the considerations.  Because various groups are scheduled to be in the building, there will be some differences in the way the building is being constructed floor by floor.  For example the first and second floors will probably be made operational as soon as possible.  The remaining floors will not be finished until sufficient funds become available..  Pres. Eichberg said all of the vertical utilities will already be in the vents, ducts, etc., but they won’t be tied in horizontally to laboratories.  The building may be used as a recruiting tool to attract new faculty.  The idea is that new faculty might prefer to have a say in how their laboratory area is to be finished.  Dr. Sheridan commented that is the extreme scenario.  It may be possible to have all the labs fitted out prior to completion of construction, which is three years away.  Dr. Sheridan said both Deans Flumerfelt and Bear have said they intend to raise money, but some of the labs may be left open for future recruiting.  Dr. Sheridan said the idea is to stretch the $51 million as far as possible.
     Sen. Auchmuty asked whether the building would house any undergraduate labs or will it just be classroom and research labs.  Pres. Eichberg said the plan calls for classrooms and research labs.  Pres. Eichberg said completion of this building will have a subsequent impact on the campus that might be called a rolling renovation.  This includes future renovations for SR1 and SR2 among others.
     Climate Survey:  On April 8, 921 Climate Surveys were mailed.  As of last night, 381 or 41% have been returned.  Of these, 110 envelopes had the identifying tag removed.  Noting that return figures are based on envelopes that had identity labels intact, Pres. Eichberg said in terms of individual colleges returns, TECH has a 50% return; 45% were returned from the LIB; and a number of colleges have around a 30% return rate, including BUS, CLASS, EDU, ENGR, PHA and NSM. Responsiveness among Senators is running a little higher with 52% of senators having returned their surveys.  Dr. Eichberg noted that in spite of setting the deadline of April 19, the Senate will continue to accept the survey, so please urge colleagues to complete and return their surveys.
     Sen. Craig noted the number of people who were worried about anonymity.  He said his sense was the response rate would be much higher had the survey been really anonymous.  Anonymity was an important point for people.  He added that among people with whom he had talked, there was low credibility that anonymity would be preserved.  That is perception.  Sen. Brady said the survey should have been anonymous and shorter.
     Pres. Eichberg said it is hard to determine if there might have been a higher return.  The fact is no one has seen the surveys.  In the Faculty Senate Office, One person handles the envelopes and a separate person collects the surveys.  Sen. Craig said he appreciates the precautions taken, but clearly the researchers themselves were worried about anonymity.
     Sen. Chin said the intent was to be able to check off who had turned in surveys, so that if a second mailing was necessary only people who didn’t return a survey would be contacted.  He added this hasn't been done.  Sen. Craig said he was contacted.  Sen. Chin said, yes, faculty senators were contacted.
     Sen. Huber said different colleges and different occupations have different cultures.  He noted that a lot of his colleagues didn’t fill it out their surveys because they don’t care or because they felt they didn’t know much about how the University operates.  The idea that tenured colleagues are worried that someone might see their surveys and might do something against them isn't a worry in the Law Center because lawyers advocate things.
     Sen. Leiss said it is explicable that some colleagues, who are not on the Senate, might be somewhat worried about how the surveys are handled, but senators know the two people who are handling them and have no qualm about them being very, very professional.  Sen. Craig said the general faculty don’t know that much about the people involved.  Sen. Leiss said the Senate knows that this is going to be treated with complete confidentiality.
     Sen. Paskusz said one way to avoid this problem in the future is have a separate card and ask people to send in the card at the same time they return the survey.  Pres. Eichberg pointed out that people could return the card and forget to send the survey.
     Pres. Eichberg proceeded to conduct the drawing for the four $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com for faculty who returned the surveys in the marked envelopes.  A box containing all of the envelopes was placed at the front of the room and Greg Jones, the Daily Cougar reporter drew out four envelopes.  The lucky winners will be contacted by mail.

DISCUSSION OF “Roles and Responsibilities of University of Houston Department Chairs”
     Pres. Eichberg said the document, "Roles and Responsibilities of University of Houston Chairs," has been circulated by Dr. Sheridan for some months.  Discussions have been held with a variety of constituents around campus, particularly the Senate’s Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC).  The last draft, dated April 10, was discussed by the FAC last week.  The FAC voted to "approve this document as guidelines for the roles and selection of department chairs."
     Pres. Eichberg said that today the Senate will discuss the document.  There is no intention of voting on this document today, rather the Senate will allow people to express themselves and allow for any changes which might be incorporated into the document before a final vote is taken.  He added that the discussion would be divided into sections, beginning with the introduction and responsibility section of the document and then continuing with the processes of selecting and reviewing Chairs.
     Sen. Leiss asked if the document applied only to chairs or did it also apply to department searching for a head.  Dr. Sheridan said the intention is for the document to apply to any chief executive officer of a unit, whether that position is called chair, head, director, etc.

PART I:  Discussion of introduction and chair responsibilities
     Sen. Auchmuty said he was given comments to present on behalf of Sen. Pedemonte, PHA, who is busy with a dean search at present.  Sen. Auchmuty said Sen. Pedemonte has three comments about the responsibilities of chairs: "(1) The document suggests that the Chair’s position is a full year rather than the academic year.  It is important, then, that budgets and salaries reflect this.  I believe that in most academic units, the Chair’s position is not funded any differently than other faculty positions, many only 9 months and almost all less than 12 months.  The only funding supplement is the $5,000 Chair’s stipend.  This is not equivalent to a full year salary.  I support this year-long position concept, but suggest that a commitment to obtained to financially support this concept if it is to be included in this document.  (2) The fundraising potential of the chair may be significantly limited by the priorities and activities of the college and institution.  For example, the development office limits the contacts that can be made with potential donors, reducing fundraising potential. (3) The ability of the chair to perform many of the duties outlined in the document are going to be directly impacted by the department M&O resources available to support these activities.  In my opinion, these resources are inadequately funded by the institution, are the last place where new resources are allocated, and have not kept pace with the changes in the mission of the institution.  At a time when more and more responsibilities are being returned to the departments, no resources are provided to support them.  Recent reductions in central administration of research accounting, with no additional resources to meet this increased load, is one example.  If more research overhead costs were being returned to support this shift in responsibility, the shift in responsibility might be justified.  In reality, this shift of responsibility, along with implementation of PeopleSoft, has exponentially increased and departmental staff workloads with no resource increase."
     Sen. Craig said in some sense this document overstates the role of the chair.  A chair is more of a preference aggregator, not the intellectual leader.  The chair is the administrative leader.  Sen. Craig said he realizes the point of the document is to get people of stature in a department to serve as chair, but it fails to recognize that the faculty are all individual entrepreneurs.  That is one of the things that makes universities interesting and different from corporations; ideas and creativity come from the individual faculty members.  It is the chair's job to channel these energies and administratively facilitate them.  Faculty don't just work on the chair's idea.
     Pres. Eichberg said he thinks it comes down to what a leader is.
     Sen. Warner commented that some areas of a chair's responsibility, which are already built into other policies, have been omitted.  For instance, unless it has changed, the University policy on Academic Honesty very clearly makes the chair the person who would must be notified of any allegation of violation of academic honesty.  This policy has specific time limits for responding to charges, holding hearings, etc.  The same holds true in terms of the grievance policy. Sen. Warner said he hoped that these other pieces can be incorporated at some point to provide an overall picture of what the true responsibilities of a chair are.  He added that an Academic Honesty case could come up in the summer and there is no leeway in terms of the time limits, many of which are stated in terms of five or ten working days.
     Sen. Freiberg asked whether chair compensation questions are going to be open to the various colleges or will the University address them, at least setting minimal levels.  It might be useful to have a statement in this document that sets minimal levels of compensation for the chair position.  If colleges have the resources to go beyond that minimum, that would be fine.
     Sen. Huber asked whether there is an expectation about the chair during the summer?  He added that he has taken it upon himself to tell all newly elected presidents-elect of the Faculty Senate to forget about summer during the year they are president.  Senate presidents can't do the job right unless they are here.
      Dr. Sheridan said most chairs are on campus during the summer and the vast majority of the chairs are compensated for chair duties.  The question is where the money originates.  Dr. Sheridan said UH has an inappropriate system for the summer budget.  In some colleges much of the so-called summer budget goes to the chairs, not to teaching.  The Provost has been pulling out administrative costs, so everyone will know what the true summer budget is.  The true summer budget should be a teaching budget.  People need to know how much money is available for classes.  It is rare that a chair can't be found in the summer because of the issues that have been raised here.  Things do come up like academic honesty cases and policies clearly state the chair is to be contacted.  There are a few units where the chair is not compensated in the summer and is not there.  That is the real issue, especially when students, both graduate and undergraduate, are looking for a department chair and have to wait three months.  That doesn't make a lot of sense.
     Sen. Johnsen said when chairs are away from departments, they deputize someone to handle issues that arise, to sign paperwork, or to do what has to be done.  He added that he was a chair for a long time and watching the current chair in his department, his sense is that the workload of a chair has grown beyond belief since he left the office eight years ago.  The workload has grown to the extent that if the question of serving as chair came up now, he can't imagine anyone in his or her right mind taking the job without major compensation.  It really is an incredible load.  His department has a chair who seems to be able to do everything.  But his department was faced with a situation in which no one wanted to be chair.  Real pressure had to be put on someone to be chair.   Sen. Johnsen said his guess is that this is not an uncommon situation.  The point is serious people are doing serious work they would much rather be doing than running a department.  To attract people who can do the job well the issue of compensation must also be serious.
     Dr. Sheridan said compensation is certainly implied in the document.  Clearly the person should be compensated. (S)he is being asked to work eleven months and should be properly compensated.
     Pres. Eichberg agreed with Sen. Johnsen, saying large departments need to have rather elaborate administrative structures.  This means having an associate chair to whom specific duties are assigned, and who can operate in the chair's absence. This requires some kind of consideration for compensation, but for small departments that option is a little harder to fill.
      Pres. Eichberg asked that additional comments or suggested changes to be sent to Sen. Auchmuty or himself.

PART II:  Discussion of process for selecting a chair:
     Sen. Paskusz said he had two problems with this section.  One is that the introduction which states,  "the dean in consultation with departmental faculty members" is very vague.  It should read, "the dean, in consultation with the departmental faculty."  The other problem occurs where the dean may feel that the membership of the search committee is not diverse enough and so the dean may appoint additional members, including the statement that the department may take that step itself.  The description of the search procedures should alert faculty to the fact that UH is looking for diversity.  There is no need to do this afterwards.  Sen. Paskusz then offered the following substitute wording to solve these particular problems and also make some other editorial change:

 "The search will be governed by the following conditions:  The process of recommending candidates will be performed by a departmental search committee (which may be a committee of the whole).  Before the process of selecting candidates begins, the dean will be informed of the membership of the proposed search committee.  If the proposed committee lacks diversity, the dean may then appoint additional members to make the committee more representative.  The search committee will report one or more possible candidates to the dean.  If the dean is not satisfied with the choices, the dean may request an extension of the search; otherwise the dean will appoint one of the candidates submitted as chair.  If tenure is to be recommended for an external appointee, current applicable procedures for granting tenure must be followed."

 "The dean, in consultation with departmental faculty members, and in accordance with college bylaws, will decide when a search for a chair will be initiated and will decide whether the search will be restricted to current UH faculty members, or whether an external search will be made."

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT – Jerome Freiberg, Chair
     The Committee on Committees has met several times to fill vacancies on the University of Houston Standing Committees.  With six nominations pending acceptance to serve, the Committee has nominated 71 faculty members to 31 committees.
     In addition, the Committee on Committees (COC) has met with the leadership from the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) and the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women  (PCSW) to discuss the proposed merger of the two bodies.  A drafting committee,  composed of representatives from each body, has been formed to work on details.  This group includes:  Ann Christensen and Saleha Khumawala from the CSW, Kathy Anzivino and Anne Jacobson from the PCSW, and Jerry Freiberg and Carolyn Meanley from the COC.
      To increase the two-way flow of communication, the COC is also inviting Chairs from some of the Standing Committees to meet with it to discuss how their committees are performing and see if there are any challenges or problems with which the COC or Senate could help.  On April 10, the Committee met with David Jacobs, Chair of the Promotion and Tenure Committee.  Future meetings are scheduled for April 29 with Laura Oren, Chair of the Grievance Committee, and Kathleen Sheridan, Chair of the Athletics Advisory Committee, and for May 13 with Dennis Adams, Chair of the Information Technology and Computing Committee, and Robert Herrington, Chair of the UH System Fringe Benefits Committee.
     The Faculty Senate received 128 ballots for the Grievance Committee election.  Elected for three-year terms:  Bruce Webb, ARCH; Ruth Manny, OPT; Bruno Breitmeyer, CLASS; Michael Benedik, NSM; and Irma Guadarrama, EDU.  Elected for a one-year term:  Robert Keller, BUS.  These terms will begin on October 1, 2002.  The Faculty Senate and Committee on Committees thanks all of the candidates for their willingness to stand for election.

EDUCATIONAL POLICIES & STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT – Katy Greenwood, Chair
     The Senate Committee on Educational Policy and Student Affairs met on April 8, 2002.  Two issues were the focus of this meeting:  1. How will the University of Houston comply with H.B. 1641 – the 2001 bill that requires universities to consider other factors than simply test scores in graduate admissions and the granting of scholarships?  Dr. Marco Mariotto spoke to the committee – the summary of his prepared message is:  “The Office of Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS) is implementing a series of steps to ensure that the university admission and competitive award processes for graduate and professional students is in full compliance with state statutes (including HB 1641), best practices, and valid and ethical uses of information, including standardized test scores.  These steps include:  (1) Publication on the GPS web-site of a statement regarding the overall University Policy for admissions and awarding of competitive fellowships.  This statement was published in November of 2001. (2) The development of a set of policy guidelines for academic units.  These guidelines relate to the entire admission/award process and are intended to offer both prescriptive and proscriptive assistance for those involved in admission/award decisions.  The Graduate and Professional Studies Council is currently working on reviewing a final draft of this document.  (3) A series of workshops for academic units to assist faculty in the design of admission and award procedures that will maximize the validity and utility of their decisions.  I hope to have a schedule for such workshops in place for next academic year.”  (Dr. Marco Mariotto – electronic transmission, April 14, 2002 – email:  mmariotto@uh.edu).  2.  Members would like more clarification of the role of this committee.  The issue was raised regarding duplication of effort between both the Undergraduate Council and the Graduate and Professional Studies Council, and the work of this committee.  That issue will be addressed at the Committee’s next meeting on April 29.
 
FACULTY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT - Giles Auchmuty, Chair
     The Faculty Affairs Committee has met twice since the last Faculty Senate meeting.  On April 9th, 2002, the committee met with Dr. Sheridan to discuss a previous version of the document on the “Roles and Responsibilities of UH Department Chairs.”  There were 19 faculty in attendance and there was considerable discussion of the document and of the changes in University procedures that might result from general acceptance of its approach.
     The main topic of concern was the apparent lack of specific departmental faculty involvement in the selection of a department chair.  There also were a few specific wording changes suggested and a number of related issues were discussed in an excellent exchange of concerns and viewpoints.  As a result Dr. Sheridan made considerable revisions to the document and later in the week provided the Senate with the copy that it discussed this afternoon.
     The committee met last Wednesday, April 17th, to discuss this revised version of the document.  After considerable discussion the committee resolved, with one abstention:

 “The Faculty Affairs Committee approves this document as guidelines for the roles
   and selection of department chairs.”

LEGISLATIVE & COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT – Tyrone Tillery
     With the appointment of the Legislative and Community Relations Committee Chair by Faculty Senate President Joseph Eichberg, the Committee met on April 2, 2002.  The Committee spent the bulk of its time trying to define the mission of the Legislative and Community Relations Committee.  The Committee agreed that the mission listed in the Senate Constitution seemed “all inclusive” but elusive of any real mission or contributions that emanated directly from this Committee.  A quick review of the Committee found that little in the way of specific projects or program activity to achieve the stated mission of the Committee had been done.  This was particularly evident in the Community Relations component of the mission.  While the discussion revealed that a number of activities involved in Community Relations were being done, the “proverbial right hand did not know what the left hand was doing.”  It was agreed that a large part of the problem seems to result from the failure of the University to establish a central clearinghouse for information relating to what other departments, colleges, administrative offices and programs were doing in the way of legislative relations, but more importantly in the area of community relations.
     In the coming months the Committee agreed that in order for it to function effectively and not duplicate functions and activities currently being done by others within the university community, it will seek discussions with key individuals on campus to get a better idea of what is being accomplished in Community Relations.  With this in mind, the Committee, to create a sense of continuity between this committee and the last, has invited immediate past chair Ms. Carolyn Meanley to become an “ex officio” member of the Committee.  While this will be an ongoing process, Committee members have been asked to devote some thought to developing projects or activities specifically developed by the Legislative and Community Relations Committee to assist the University of Houston’s mission in community relations.  Once this process is complete the Committee will submit its findings and recommendations to the Executive Committee for consideration.  Already a number of suggestions have come to the chair, among them:  the establishment of a University/Community Consortium (collaborations between the city/business, etc. community and the University to use faculty to address problems for the various entities); the establishment of an office of Community Relations or even possibly an office of Vice President of University and Community Relations; a Center for Community Relations to act as a clearinghouse of all activities in community relations; the development of an Evening College to allow the completion of degrees solely by attending evening and weekend classes; and/or the development of a Weekend College to help achieve the same goal.
     The Committee extends an invitation to other Senators to share their ideas with the Legislative and Community Relations Committee.

REPORT FROM UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM SENIOR VICE CHANCELLOR & UH SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS/PROVOST:  Edward P. Sheridan
     Dr. Sheridan said discussions like the one the Senate is having about the chairs document ought to go on regularly.  He added that it is important to try to draft position papers, whether they come from the faculty or administrators as a way to talk about important issues.  In many ways the conversation may be the most important part of what is done.  Dr. Sheridan added that he is most interested in the first part of the chairs document.  If the document has to be modified so people feel better about certain procedures that is not really his issue.  Dr. Sheridan said his issue is that academics have to work hard to involve the faculty in choosing their leaders carefully.  The person who becomes chair chooses to accept leadership.  That person isn't just taking it on as a job but rather as a challenge and an opportunity.  Every department needs someone who can take advantage of opportunities.
     The Promotion and Tenure process has just been completed. Dr. Sheridan said it is one of the highlights or his job.  When he sees the dossiers come forward, he knows UH has a very talented faculty.  Most of the documents are so compelling.  The people UH is granting tenure and the people it is promoting to full professor are impressive.  Currently, almost no one who comes up for tenure is being turned down.  One reason is that departments no longer fear losing a faculty line if an individual is not meeting their expectations.  Departments can search again and are hiring strong people.
     Currently candidates for the Vice Chancellor/Vice President for Administration and Finance are being interviewed.  UH is about to bring in candidates to be interviewed for the Dean of Pharmacy.  The search for the Dean of Hotel and Restaurant Management is a little behind, but the plan is to bring in candidates during the first week in May.  David Bell has been leading and staffing all of these searches.  There is also a search for an Assistant Vice President for Faculty Affairs.  This is a position that the Provost's Office has left vacant for about four years while trying to figure out how to reorganize.  A search has just started for a new director of KUHT. Jeff Clarke, who has done a marvelous job, is going to be the president of the public television station in San Francisco.  In some cases public television stations are tied to a university like KUHT.   In other cases they are free standing, like San Francisco, so the head of the station is the president who reports directly to a Board of Directors.  UH will be looking to raid some other good station to fill this position.  KUHT is the first and oldest educational television station in the country. The station is very good.  It has lovely quarters and does many creative things. That is attractive to potential candidates, so UH can expect to get a good pool of applicants for that position.

NEW BUSINESS:  none
 
The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.