UNIVERSITY HOUSTON FACULTY SENATE MINUTES – May 9, 2007

President Kotarba called the May 9, 2007 Spring Faculty Assembly and Senate meeting to order in the Rockwell Pavilion of the MD Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT:  [33]
ARCH:     M. Sabatino            
BUS:       W. Chin, R. Keller, C. Pirrong
CLASS:   S. Craig, W. Herendeen, N. Houston, J. Kotarba, D. Mazella, M. McHenry, J. Middents, D. Montoya, G. Trail  
EDU:       M. Clarke, J. Freiberg, S. McNeil, A. Warner
ENGR:     A. Kamrani, J. Richardson, R. Willson
HRM:      K. Titz
LAW:      M. Duncan 
LIB:        D. Bruxvoort , S. Ferimer
NSM:      P. Copeland, J. Eichberg, G. Johnson, T.R. Lee, M. Ru, J. Subhlok, D. Wells
PHA:       S. Sansgiry
TECH:     K. Greenwood

MEMBERS ABSENT:  [18]                
BUS:      S. Kadipasaoglu,                 
CLASS:  V. Brady, A. Gordon, E. Brown-Guillory, M. Haun (w/notice), A. Kugler, F. Schiff
ENGR:    Y. L. Mo, J. Williams
GSSW:   H. Karger
LAW:      S. Huber, P. Linzer
LIB:        D. Camille
NSM:     X. Gao, A. Ignatiev, K. Kadish
OPT:      R. Manny (w/ notice), S. Quintero

VACANT SEATS:   [1]
CLASS:  1 (term ends 12/31/07)

VISITORS:   
Elaine Charlson (UHS Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and UH Executive Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs), Marco Mariotto (Dean, Graduate & Professional Studies), Ed Hugetz (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor and UH Assistant Vice President for Planning & University Outreach), Teri Longacre (UH Ombudsperson and Associate Professor, Management), Diane Murphy (Associate VP, Student Affairs Administration), Patrick Leung (Professor, Social Work), Augustina Reyes (Professor, Educational & Cultural Leadership), Yali Zou (Professor, Educational & Cultural Leadership and Director, Asian American Studies Center), Eric Bittner (Associate Professor, Chemistry), Evelyn Brass (Associate Librarian, Miranda Bennett (Assistant Librarian, University Libraries), University Libraries), Laura Koltutsky (Assistant Librarian, University Libraries), Marilyn Lovett (Visiting Scholar), Mike Emery (Writer/Editor2, Internal Communications)

MINUTES:  The minutes for the April 18, 2007 Senate meeting were approved.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT:  Joseph Kotarba

(1)  Eventually Cullen Boulevard will be closed, but it will be a slow process involving getting Board of Regents approval, writing letters to the appropriate governmental agencies, and erecting temporary barriers for a trial closing period. The next window of opportunity to close Cullen would be Summer 2008.  (2) The University Coordinating Commission (UCC), the brain child of the FS-CoUG, is circulating information and ideas about proposals as quickly as possible.  The focus of the UCC is on working with the councils, committees and administration to get proposals out to all interested parties.  (3) Two senators have been honored for achievements:  (a)  Peter Copeland has received the Teaching Excellence Provost’s Core Award; and (b) Jaspal Subhlok has received the Teaching Excellence Award for Innovation in Instructional Technology.

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

(1)  A letter was sent to the city approximately 18 months ago in regards to the closing of Cullen.  The City has not responded to that letter yet.  (2) The City of Houston has signed an agreement with the UH System and HCC to provide educational opportunities for its employees. It is estimated that about half of the 22,000 city employees want to pursue higher education.  (3) In the past few days, the President and Provost have been meeting with academic leaders from India to discuss creating partnerships with their higher education programs.  Dr. Gogue pointed out that there are agreements already in place in a number of units.  (4) The legislature is still in session and it appears things are still going well for higher education.  (5) This year’s graduating class is one of the largest in UH history. There is a wide range in ages and diversity. 

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

(1)  The oldest student graduating is 92 years of age.  (2) Next week the Board of Regents will be meeting in Victoria.  There are two new degrees proposed, a Ph.D. in Pharmacy Administration and a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences.  (3) Within the system, the Sugar Land campus is undergoing some realignment.  UH-Victoria will be taking over the Business and Criminal Justice programs.  It is likely some programs from UH will be invited to participate in Sugar Land.  Dr. Foss noted that both the southwest and northwest sides of Houston are important.  There are large numbers of students in these areas.  How best to serve these students is an issue that deserves more discussion.  (4) Health and medical education is being explored with Weill Cornell University.  (5) UH’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) will be on Undergraduate Research.  (6) A committee to search for the next UHS Chancellor/UH President has been formed.  An announcement about the membership of that committee should go out today.  An interim president will be announced soon.  Interviews of candidates will be conducted in the Fall 2007 with a hoped for start date of January 2008.  (7) The Board of Regents approved an overall range of budgets dependent upon the outcome of the current legislative session. 

RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT GLBT STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF:

The Faculty Senate Faculty Affairs Committee by majority vote and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee by majority vote elected to bring to the full Senate a resolution in support of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans-gender students.   A friendly amendment was offered to the resolution to include faculty and staff, too.  The amended resolution states:

The University of Houston is presently the most ethnically and culturally diverse urban university in the United States. 
To maintain this status and foster a supportive campus environment, the institution and its faculty are committed to
supporting the rights of both individuals and groups to freely and openly express their disparate positions.  As such,
the Faculty Senate of the University of Houston is supportive of students, faculty and staff who are part of the gay,
lesbian, bisexual and trans-gender (GLBT) university community and those services provided by the university to the
GLBT community that promote a culturally diverse campus body.

The resolution was approved by unanimous vote.

PRESENTATION OF CURRENT RESULTS OF THE 2006 CLIMATE SURVEY:  Joseph Eichberg

A slideshow was presented a preliminary overview of the 2006 Climate Survey.  The final report will not be ready until Fall 2007.  The initial report is available on-line at:

mhtml:http://www.uh.edu/fs/PRELIMINARY_CLIMATE_SURVEY_REPORT_050907.mht!PRELIMINARY_CLIMATE_SURVEY_REPORT_050907_files/frame.htm

REPORTS FROM THE FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES are available on-line at:  http://www.uh.edu/fs/FS_Committee_Reports_050907.html 

Please visit this site to read about the variety of work being done by the Senate’s committees.  Of particular interest this month is a report on the Educational Policies and Student Affairs Committee meeting with John Antel, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Chair of the UH Enrollment Management Task Force, to discuss the new Drop Policy.

CLOSING REMARKS:  Dr. Kotarba

Pres. Kotarba said the administration is working on providing some of the Faculty Excellence Funds to be a source for faculty to buyout classes to finish a book or get funding for conference travel.  The idea is to provide a flexible, less formal way for faculty to get funding for professional development.

Pres. Kotarba reminded everyone that the 2007 Scholarship & Community Conference would be on Wednesday, September 26, 2007.

The meeting adjourned at 1:50 p.m.