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UNIVERSITY HOUSTON FACULTY SENATE MINUTES – October 17, 2007

President Kotarba called the October 17, 2007 Faculty Senate meeting to order in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion of the M. D. Anderson Library at 12:15 p.m.

MEMBERS PRESENT: [36]
ARCH:    M. Sabatino
BUS:      W. Chin, S. Kadipasaoglu, R. Keller, C. Pirrong
CLASS: S. Craig, M. Haun, W. Herendeen, J. Kotarba, A. Kugler, D. Mazella, M. McHenry, F. Schiff, G. Trail
EDU:      M. Clarke, J. Freiberg, A. Warner
ENGR:    A. Kamrani, Y.L. Mo, K. Mohanty, R. Willson
GCSW: D. Alexander
LIB:        M. Bennett, D. Camille, S. Ferimer
NSM: P. Copeland, J. Eichberg, G. Johnson, K. Kadish, T.R. Lee, M. Ru, J. Subhlok, D. Wells
OPT:      S. Quintero
PHA: S. Sansgiry
TECH: K. Greenwood

Don Foss (UH System Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost), Jim McShan (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance), Grover Campbell (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Governmental Relations), Donald Birx (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Research), Elwyn Lee (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Student Affairs), 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), Marco Mariotto (Dean, Graduate & Professional Studies), Ed Hugetz (UHS Associate Vice Chancellor and UH Associate Vice President for Planning & University Outreach), Wendy Adair (UHS Associate Vice Chancellor and UH Associate Vice President for Development Communications), John Powell (Assistant to the Chancellor/President, Communication), Oscar Gutierrez (Assistant to the Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement), Diane Trippel (Administrator, IT Web Technologies), Cathy Burkholder (Web Project Manager, IT), Darcie Champagne (Director, University Marketing), Haluk Ogmen (Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering), George Lupercio (Reporter, The Daily Cougar), Liza Navaro (Reporter, The Daily Cougar), Joan O’Connor (Music Library Coordinator, Moores School of Music), Christina Chan (Research Assistant Professor, NSM), Terae Oubre (Student), Kari Koteras (Student),

Pres. Kotarba commented that (1) He had spoken with the finalist for UH President/Chancellor search, Dr. Renu Khator. She will be talking to the Faculty Senate soon. She is the Provost and Senior Vice President at the University of South Florida (USF) and at one time was the President of the USF Faculty Senate. Her next visit to the University of Houston will be early in November. She will try to make time for a brief meeting with the Executive Committee. (2) Music Across Boundaries, the September 26, 2007 Scholarship and Community Conference, was a great success with over 240 attending. There were great musical performances and scholarly discussions that explored interdisciplinary studies through music. (3) The Senate wishes Karl Titz a speedy recovery. He had an emergency appendectomy and still let the office know that he would miss today’s meeting. (4) The Budget and Facilities report is well crafted with good data. The next step is to make a recommendation to the Administration. (5) The Fall Faculty Senate Retreat will take place on October 26, 2007. Texas State legislators have been invited to discuss the legislative session. There will be a panel and a brainstorming session in order to prepare for the next legislative session. Mark Clarke, Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, is helping to coordinate the Retreat

SALARY ANALYSIS REPORT FROM THE BUDGET AND FACILITIES COMMITTEE, Chair: Richard Willson

On behalf of the Budget & Facilities Committee Dr. Willson moved the Senate approve the Salary Analysis report. He stated: (1) the purpose of the report is to analyze salary data across the University. This issue was discussed first in 2004. There is a vast diversity of employment with additional various levels of expertise. The first set of data was difficult and complicated. This report is not perfect but it is a good report. The report and its appendices will be available on the Faculty Senate website (http://www.uh.edu/fs/2007_UH_Salary_Analysis_Report_Coverpage.html). (2) The Administration worked hard on this report as well as the Budget and Facilities Committee. (3) The reports draws the following conclusions: (a) the quality of personnel data available for decision-making needs to be improved; (b) there is significant salary compression across campus, with inversion in a few department; and (c) UH salaries are broadly comparable to those of Carnegie I and II institutions in view of the relatively low cost of living in Houston. Salaries of Associate Professors skew low with notable exceptions in some units; and (d) Increased length of time at UH does not reliably correlate with increased salary; in many cases the correlation is an inverse one. The relative contributions of individual performance, changes in departmental expectations and the external market can only be assessed at a local level. (4) The report recommends: (1) for efficient operation of the entire University, reliable data on faculty salaries should be continuously maintained by the central administration. (2) The salary increases associated with promotion to Associate Professor and to Full Professor should be increased. Setting the amounts of these increases require further study by the Faculty Senate in partnership with the Administration. (3) There are local inequities which need to be addressed; these cannot all be resolved in a single year. There should be annual reviews of compression/inversion at the departmental and college level, and a separate pool of funds for compression/inversion adjustments should be maintained at the University level. (4) Faculty should go over the data for their departments carefully.
The Senate voted unanimously to approve the report.

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

Dr. Foss reported: (1) Dr. Khator will do a wonderful job and will be in place January 2008. He said the Search Committee did a great job. (2) The report from the Budget and Facilities Committee raises some interesting points. The Provost pointed out that the raise pool for faculty promotions was not taken from the merit raise pool. He added that the Deans should direct their departments to be aware of compression/inversion issues as these are best solved locally. Dr. Foss said he was most interested in having good data and appreciated the Senate calling things to the administration’s attention. (3) The budget hearings will be held this fall. The administration will look again at what it would cost to continue programs, what it would cost to do quality enhancements and what its would cost to do both. (4) Enrollment does affect the University’s budget. Recruiting students is everyone’s job. (5) UH is looking at some new ideas for Fall 2008, including an intra-break session for Winter 2008-09. (6) Don Birx is taking the lead on completing the design of the SERC building. (7) The Health Science Initiative is going well and there will be a draft of ideas in the next 30-45 days. John Antel, Dean of CLASS, is helping with this activity. UH administration is working to maximize formula funding for the College of Pharmacy and Optometry. (8) UH is forming a Strategic Energy Alliance Task Force.

REPORT ON THE 2006 CLIMATE SURVEY: Joseph Eichberg, Chair or the 2007 Climate Survey Report Committee

            On behalf of the 2007 Climate Survey Report Committee Dr. Eichberg moved the Senate approve the Climate Survey report (available on-line at http://www.uh.edu/fs/2007_Climate_Survey_Report_Coverpage.html). He then thanked the committee, including Wynne Chin, Allen Warner and Dan Wells. He also thanked Jon Lorence & Patrick Leung for their statistical expertise, hard work and effort in both the formulation of this survey and in analyzing the results.
            The first survey, done in 2002, recommended that a climate survey be carried out every three or four years and suggested expanding it to include information on colleges and departments. The current survey was prepared late last year and done on-line. The notice of the survey was sent to 1227 full-time faculty. Of that number 46% responded. The response rate for tenured, tenure-track faculty was 56%. Response by college varied from 24% to 89%. There were few gender differences in responses. Overall faculty viewed the Climate at UH in 2006 substantially more favorably than in 2002. They felt faculty were more engaged with the administration and felt that the administration valued faculty opinion. While faculty felt shared governance was still important, it was not an overriding concern.
            The top-rated areas were: fostering diversity in the University, developing appropriate intercollegiate athletics programs, and execution of administrator’s position with honesty and integrity. In fact, at all levels, administrators were viewed as carrying out their jobs with honesty and integrity. The lowest rated areas were: allocating resources to colleges, obtaining private support and development and obtaining financial support from the state legislature.   The top rated future initiatives include increasing salary and benefits for existing faculty, increasing research support, increasing undergraduate student quality and increasing faculty size.
            This survey went beyond considering concerns with the central administration. It attempted to survey climate in colleges and departments. Overall, faculty responses showed that the closer one was to one’s own environment, the more favorable the view; departments were viewed most favorably, then colleges, and finally the central administration.
             The recommendations from this report include: (1) Shared governance should continue to be a high priority in the selection of a new Chancellor/President and other administrative leaders within the University of Houston. (2) The new Chancellor/President should receive a copy of this report and should be briefed on it by Senate leadership on the major faculty concerns it reflects. (3) Each Faculty Senator should review the entire report, especially elements particular to his/her college. In cases where issues are raised for specific colleges, the Senator(s) should discuss those issues with the Dean. (4) Efforts should be initiated immediately to plan for the next Faculty Climate Survey to be conducted during 2009-10 academic year.