President Chin called the May 7, 2008 Faculty Senate meeting to order in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion of the M. D. Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  [28]

ARCH:    M. Sabatino      
BUS:      W. Chin, R. Keller        
CLASS:  E. Brown-Guillory, M. Hernandez, P. Howard, J. Kotarba, A. Kugler, D. Mazella, M. McHenry, J. Middents, F. Schiff, G. Trail  
EDU:      M. Clarke, C. Craig, A. Warner 
ENGR:    K. Mohanty     
HRM:      F. Hall Jackson
LAW:     S. Chandler
LIB:        M. Bennett, D. Camille, S. Ferimer
NSM:     P. Copeland, A. Ignatiev, J. Subhlok, D. Wells
OPT:      R. Manny
PHA:      S. Sansgiry

MEMBERS ABSENT:  [24]

CLASS:  A. Bencomo (w/notice), A. Gordon (w/notice), M. Haun, W. Herendeen, D. Montoya, J. Sposato (w/notice)             
BUS:      K. Newberry, C. Pirrong           
EDU:      J. Freiberg (w/notice)              
ENGR:   S. Chellam, A. Kamrani, Y.L. Mo, R. Willson     
GCSW:  D. Alexander
LAW:     M. Duncan (w/notice), P. Linzer
NSM:     X. Gao, G. Johnson (w/notice), K. Kadish , T.R. Lee, M. Rea (w/notice), M. Ru              
OPT:      S. Quintero
TECH:    K. Greenwood (w/notice)

  VISITORS:   

Don Foss (UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President and Provost for Academic Affairs), Carl Carlucci (UHS Executive Vice Chancellor and UH Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance), Grover Campbell (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Governmental Relations), Elaine Charlson (UHS Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Executive Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs), Teri Longacre (UH Ombudsperson and Associate Professor, Management), Daniel L. Gardner (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor for Planning & Initiatives), David Bell (Assistant Vice Chancellor and Vice President, Academic & Faculty Affairs), Agnes DeFranco (UH Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Studies), Giles Auchmuty (Professor, NSM)

  MINUTES:  The minutes for the April 16, 2008 Senate meeting were approved.

  REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Wynne Chin

Pres. Chin noted that Dr. Khator would not be attending the meeting as she had an invitation to fly with the Blue Angels.  (2)  There was an article in the Houston Chronicle on May 3 about the UH brainstorming session.  This event, which included Senior Administration, Deans, and Leadership from the Staff Council, Student Government Association and Faculty Senate, discussed issues from the 100 Days Campaign and possible strategies for the University.  (3)  An end of term newsletter will be coming out in the Summer or Fall.  Each committee chair will write a column about what has been happening with his/her committee.  It will explain a little of what the Faculty Senate has been doing.  (4) The Information Technology Planning & Policy Committee proposal should provide a better governance structure for information technology.  (5) The Faculty Senate Executive Committee will be holding a Retreat to discuss issues and line up work for the remainder of the year.  It will be a planning & prioritizing meeting.  The Executive Committee will also be working in conjunction with the administration.  (6)  Dr. Khator agrees that the Senate should engage in more interactive dialog at Senate meetings.  The Senate may want to formulate questions prior to the meeting, so please send suggestions to Pres. Chin at wchin@uh.edu.  (7)  The Executive Committee will be moving forward on plans for a University Club.  (8)  According to the Faculty Senate bylaws a reapportionment of the Senate must be done every four years.  This is to proportion the number of seats on the Senate.  For 2009, the College of Optometry will lose one Senate seat while College of Pharmacy gains a Senate seat. 

  REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE UHS EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR AND UH EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT:  Carl Carlucci 

Dr. Foss introduced Dr. Carlucci, who said that he is very impressed by what has been accomplished at the University.  He reported that (1) this is Day 7 for him.  (2) a brief overview on the benefits issue dealing with changes to the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) -- the IRS is requiring reports from all insurance providers.  These providers have to meet the IRS requirements and many of them will not meet the requirements and so will close out ORP offerings.  He noted that most faculty at UH are working with major providers and should not experience any problems.  There is a possibility that UH will move to more mainstream providers.  Administration & Finance will be working with the Faculty Senate to get out information to the faculty.   

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

Dr. Foss congratulated all the recipients of faculty awards, noting that this year’s Farfel Award went to David Francis, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychology.  The Provost reported on:  (1) The Faculty Travel Awards program is underway.  There are seventy-five awards available; of which forty have been approved, seven or eight applications have been declined, and the rest are pending.  The deadline is mid-October for applications.  The program will be reviewed after a year.  (2)  The Board of Regents tabled discussion of the tuition/fee item at its last meeting.  The Board will take it up again at its May 15 meeting.  The worksheets are due out to the deans soon.  (3) The University is stepping up to meet the needs of the State of Texas with two new degree offerings; a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Science and a degree in American Sign Language.  (4) Raymond Nimmer has been named Dean for the Law Center.  The Search for a Dean for the Honors College will continue through the summer.  David Bell is staffing that search.  (5) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has passed a recommendation to change the funding model from counting semester credit hours (SCHs) being attempted on 12^th day count to SCHs of students who complete the course.  This will be phased in as 75%-25% the first year; 50%-50% the second year, 25%-75% the third year and 100% the fourth year onward.  The change will benefit UT-Austin and Texas A&M but will have a negative impact on UH, which has the largest decline in SCHs from 12^th day to the last class day.  The administration is working in concert with the Undergraduate Council and Enrollment Management Task Force to make changes.  The University adopted the 6 Drop Rule which has reduced the drop rate by more than 50%.  An additional 17 advisors have been hired.  The course completion rate increased dramatically from 84% to 96% from Fall 2006 to Fall 2007.  There is a need to communicate with students and move them along toward their degrees.  UH needs to better facilitate students who transfer here and do a better job of orienting them as they come on campus.  The administration and faculty will continue working on these issues.

A question was raised about moving the last drop date earlier.  The Provost said that would be a good topic for the Faculty Senate and Undergraduate Council to discuss.  Another question was asked about the formula funding changes costing UH $10 million per year.  Dr. Foss said that would be a recurring hit, but the administration is working moving students toward a culture of completion.  This isn’t just a problem for the University as students who drop experience opportunity costs like potential loss of future income.  There is still a process of making adjustments toward student retention.  Students need to complete their graduation pledge of thirty hours in 12 months.  In doing this, they receive $500 off the next tuition payment and this continues as long as they follow the plan.  In the end it would save them up to $3000.  (5)  There are a few four-year institutions in the nation involved with the “Achieving the Dream.”  This program helps students succeed and stay in school.  UH is the sole research university working with this program.  Agnes DeFranco, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, stated that the program has hired six advisors to work at the top feeder schools.  By having advisors at these schools, they can help student prepare to come to UH by taking the proper classes.  The program will pay attention to transfer students and help them succeed.

Dr. Foss reported that at the recent Board of Regents Retreat consultants discussed the role of regents and what types of issues the Board will want to pursue, such as how to hold the administration accountable, components of a Tier 1 Research University and what compromises student success.  Dan Gardner, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Planning and Initiatives, presented American Research University Measures and discussed what Tier 1 means and what would be appropriate measures.  On June 6 the campus leaders will be briefed on these matters.

  REPORT FROM THE UNIVERSITY COORDINATING COMMISSION, Chair:  Dr. Chin

The process to consider policy changes begins when a governance group sends a proposal to the Commission (UCC).  The UCC, in turn, sends the policy to those groups on campus it feels may be affected by the changes.  The groups are asked to send comments back by a designated date.  The UCC only certifies that relevant groups have had an opportunity to review and comment on proposed policy or changes.

  REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES, Chair:  Joseph Kotarba

The Committee on Committees (COC) has been very busy filling annual vacancies on UH Standing Committees.  The COC reports the following people have been elected to full three-year terms on the UH Faculty Grievance Committee:  Karim Alkadhi, PHA; Peter Bishop, TECH; Stephen Huang, NSM; James Phillips, BUS; and Lois Zamora, CLASS.

The committee met on May 5 with Joan Nelson, Executive Director of Human Resources.  She is working to reactivate the Human Resources Committee and the Fringe Benefits Committee.  Ms.Nelson is considering restructuring the Fringe Benefits Committee from a system-wide committee to a campus committee.  She may combine the HR and FB Committees into one group.  (3)  At the May 5 meeting, the COC also met with Barbara Chapman and Dennis Adams to discuss the proposal to restructure the Information Technology and Computing Committee into the Information Technology Planning and Policy Committee.  This proposal will be discussed with the Executive Committee as Committee on Committees passes this on to Pres. Chin.

  REPORT FROM EDUCATIONAL POLICIES & STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, Chair:  David Mazella

Sen. Mazella stated that student success will take on some urgency in the coming year.  This summer EPSAC will work on a white paper for this topic.  To produce the changes the University is looking for, the white paper will look at benchmarks and institutional models that exist elsewhere.  Changes will need to be relevant to the Houston Metroplex and its demographics.  The topic of combining the academic and work lives of the students will be considered, including producing more work-study and internship opportunities.  Sen. Mazella invited everyone to forward their ideas to him at DMazella@uh.edu.

The meeting adjourned at 1:37 p.m.