December 10, 2003 FS Minutes

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

MEMBERS PRESENT: [34]
BUS:       W. Chin, S. Khumawala, M. Parks, D. Rude
CLASS: K. Brown, V. Brady, B. Byrnes, S. Craig, W. Herendeen, A. Jacobson, P. Gingiss,
               J. Kotarba, B. Lange, J. Middents, R. Weldon
EDU:     S. McNeil, A. Warner, C. White
ENGR:    O. Ghazzaly, G. Paskusz
HRM:     K. Titz
LAW:     S. Huber
LIB:     S. Ferimer, J. Myers
NSM:    G. Auchmuty, P. Copeland, J. Eichberg, K. Kadish, D. Wells
PHA:      C. Pedemonte
OPT:       R. Manny
TECH:    C. Goodson, K. Greenwood
GSSW: H. Karger

MEMBERS ABSENT: [16]
ARCH:    D. Kacmar
CLASS: B. Breitmeyer, G. Jowett, R. Murray, G. San Miguel
EDU:      M. Connell
ENGR:    T. Cleveland, S. Kleis, R. Metcalfe, D. Shattuck
LAW:     P. Linzer
NSM:    D. Blecher, G. Etgen, A. Ignatiev, E. Leiss
OPT:      S. Quintero

VISITORS: Jerry Strickland (Interim UHS Senior Vice Chancellor and UH Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost), John Rudley (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance), Charles Shomper (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Information Technology), Dona Hamilton (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel), Elwyn Lee (UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Student Affairs), 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), Ed Hugetz (UHS Assistant Vice Chancellor and UH Assistant Vice President for Planning & University Outreach), Ed Apodaca (Associate Vice President Enrollment Management and Admissions), Mary Beth Thomson (Senior Associate Librarian), George Trail (Associate Professor of English), John Powell (Executive Speechwriter), (Mike Emery (Writer, UHCN), Matt Dulin (Reporter, Daily Cougar)

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The November 19, 2003, minutes were approved.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION FROM THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT: Anne Jacobson

Pres. Jacobson said senators should have received a memo about the provost search. The Senate has convened a Task Force to work on the provost criteria and principles and strategies document. The Executive Committee has reviewed the material and the Senate will discuss it later today.

The provost search has some very good candidates from which the committee will select five or six finalists. Candidates’ visits will not start before January 26. The names are going to be made public soon. Any information that faculty gather on these people should be forwarded to any member of the search committee.

There have been a lot of suggestions about including more time in the Faculty Senate for discussion. In particular, it was recommended that the oral committee reports be shortened to allow more time. The written reports will be circulated before the meeting and people may ask questions about any item in the reports.

The Executive Committee (EC) has asked Interim Provost Strickland about what is happening with the Report on Scholarship or Excellence in Scholarship or Research. There are several different groups working on this report. The EC is going to be meeting with the Provost, the Research Council and Dr. Mariotto.

Pres. Jacobson said over the break she would be meeting with Sens. Eichberg and Auchmuty to work on a draft proposal for the Committee on Shared Governance. They will take the recommendation to the Executive Committee in January and bring to the Faculty Senate at the January 28 meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senators are encouraged to visit the Texas Council of Faculty Senates Website at: www.facultysenates.org, which shows some of issues and concerns facing faculty in other Texas universities. While there be sure to check out the Summer Internship Program; senators are encouraged to apply for the program. (This link was e-mailed to senators yesterday.)

February 4, 2004 is the deadline to nominate faculty for the Awards for Excellence in Research and Scholarship Program for 2003-2004. Separate awards of $3,000 each will be made to three faculty members. For details and a nomination form, please visit the Research Division website at www.research.uh.edu or by telephone at extension 3-9660. Please note: only faculty may make nominations for this award and each person is limited to one nomination per rank of professor, associate and assistant.

February 20, 2004 is the deadline to make a nomination for John and Rebecca Moores Professors. For details, please visit the Provost’s website at: www.uh.edu/provost/awards/award_Moores.html.

The deadline for applications for the Faculty Development Initiative Program is March 5, 2004. This program provides funding to faculty engaged in innovative teaching with technology. Individuals interested in developing electronic course materials may submit proposals for Program A grants (maximum award of $4,000). Teams of faculty interested in developing electronic course materials for a group of courses may submit proposals for Program B grants (maximum award of $25,000). For FY 2004, approximately $350,000 has been identified for these programs.
Particularly encouraged are proposals that: (1) effectively and creatively integrate video in the delivery of instruction in a manner that is easily accessible to students; (2) explore hybrid models of instructional delivery; and/or (3) lead to the creation and delivery of course materials or courses that are interdisciplinary in nature. Complete details may be found at: http://www.uh.edu/uhdistance/eto/ETO_fdip.htm. Questions should be directed to Dr. Marshall Schott at 3-0749 or mschott@mail.uh.edu.

KUDOS:

Kudos to Richard C. Willson III, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Jason Murphy, who earned both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UH in 1998 and 2002, on being awarded a U.S. patent for a new process for the separation and assay of biochemical cultures by compaction agents. The U.S. Patent 6,605,470 is expected to have a substantial impact on the production of DNA and other nucleic acids, a multi-million dollar enterprise.

Kudos also go to Stuart Long, Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor and Associate Dean in the Cullen College of Engineering, on being named Director-elect of Division IV of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, or IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society.

Kudos to the College of Education which has been award a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education 2003 Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program for pre-kindergarten instruction. The College of Education expects to help nearly 30,000 Harris County students by the end of the two-year period. Out of 114 applicants, only seven institutes were funded. The College of Education was the only institution in Texas to receive a grant.

Kudos to Bruno Breitmeyer, Professor of Psychology, and Haluk Ogmen, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Center for Neuro-engineering and Cognitive Science, for their NIH supported conference “The First Half Second,” which brought to UH noted vision scientists from around the world to present papers over a three-day period. They have been offered contracts for the resulting book by both Oxford University Press and MIT Press.

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT – Joseph Eichberg, Chair

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES: Joe Eichberg (NSM), Katy Greenwood (TECH), Stephen Huber (LAW), Judy Myers (LIB), Jerry Paskusz (ENGR), and Dale Rude (BUS)

There were two absentee ballots cast. Pres. Eichberg thanked the senators who agreed to stand for office.

The following members of the Faculty Affairs Committee were present for the December 3 meeting: David Blecher, Valentini Brady, Brian Byrnes, Steven Craig, Howard Karger, Stanley Kleis, Peter Linzer, Jonathan Middents, Dale Rude, Roberta Weldon, and the Chair, Katy Greenwood.

The issues that the sub-committees are working on will continue to be a focus through January, 2004. These are:

The committee did not formally meet since the last Faculty Senate meeting. It did, however, pursue issues related to improving faculty input to university policy on development and communication.

Wendy Adair, Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, is assembling a system-wide committee on development and communication. She invited Sen. Kotarba, as chair of this committee, to participate.

Johanna Wolfe, Executive Director of Major Gifts, has indicated that University Development is now working with consultants to design the next major campaign, to begin in early 2005. Sen. Kotarba said he has asked President Gogue to seek faculty input at the highest possible level of the campaign planning specifically, as well as in all University development more generally.

The Faculty Senate formed a special taskforce to consider the characteristics most important in the next provost. The taskforce met on Nov. 24, 2003.

Taskforce Report: The taskforce recognizes the importance of having a provost who can contribute to all aspects of the University’s mission. However, the taskforce members’ first priority is to select a provost with the leadership, vision, experience and research excellence to accelerate the University’s already significant growth in the production of important new knowledge. They also note that the Faculty Senate’s document, “Achieving Excellence: Principles and Strategies,” (see below) clarifies the importance of research to other major aspects of the University’s mission, and should provide guidelines in choosing a provost.

The Faculty Senate endorses the taskforce’s report. It asks that President Gogue select a provost who will strongly appreciate the value research brings to the whole University, and who at least broadly agrees with our principles and strategies for achieving excellence.

Goal 1: Increase tenured/tenure track faculty
Goal 2: Retention of senior faculty
Goal 3: Create more endowed chairs
Goal 4: Help to enhance/strengthen faculty’s professional ties (support editorship of journals and provide travel funding)

Institute peer/faculty review for major decisions about the University’s research agenda.

Goal 1: Increase staff (and staff pay) to provide stable environment for faculty

Share the benefits of research, scholarship and artistic activity with the community.

Goal 1:
Goal 2:

Goal 1: Tackle problem of salary inversion/compression
Goal 2: Total Compensation package

Pres. Jacobson said the Task Force members who met and discussed this document were: David Blecher, Joseph Kotarba, Jerry Paskusz, Carlos Pedemonte, Roberta Weldon and Dan Wells. Having discussed the initial list of criteria for the Provost, the group agreed to highlight the importance of the provost function in the many different aspects that emphasize research. The section on Principles and Strategies indicates areas in which research can impact the University’s mission. The group wants to recommend to Dr. Gogue that UH needs a provost who has the view that research is integral to the quality of the University. Sen. Pedemonte suggested specific goals be added.

Sen. Eichberg recommended that under research, add “improve research infrastructure.” Also, under 2B put “interdepartmental” research.

Sen. Copeland said a great way to foster faculty productivity is to make sure that the staff are happy. If staff don’t turn over in a department or if staff are really loyal to a department, faculty can get more done. That is part of research infrastructure. Staff could make a big difference. Pres. Jacobson responded that she is proud to say that the Senate Executive Committee has initiated the request for staff equity. Departments need this to retain staff who often leave for higher salaries.

Sen. Kotarba said he would like to see a goal established for the University to do more to enhance faculty relationships outside the University, relationships with their colleagues in their professions and in their disciplines. For example, provide support for faculty who take on the editorship of a journal. That is very important and should be supported. Travel support is always an issue.

Sen. Gingiss said he is impressed by all these suggestions. He is very much in favor of a provost who can spend more money, but he would like to hear more about what deserves less support so that the money saved could go into priority areas. Sen. Copeland responded that we could hire fewer faculty. He added that the faculty UH has are darn good. It is much less expensive to make sure that the faculty who are here now are ready to do their jobs. Hire fewer faculty and have more staff and more infrastructure. Sen. Gingiss said that is a concrete suggestion; increase tenure track faculty.

Pres. Jacobson said there is also a suggestion to look into what is being happening to increases in Indirect Cost Recovery (IDC) funds. Universities now get 100% of IDC, and the Senate has some suggestions about where this new money can be used to enhance faculty productivity. Dr. Gogue has also commented a number of times on the amount of bureaucracy in this institution.

Sen. Greenwood expressed a concern that the Senate might leave something out of the document that is really important. It is hard to put everything in and the Senate needs to connect the document back to the things that have been very important in its committees’ work, like compensation for faculty and the total package of benefits and insurance, etc.

Sen. Lange recommended the Library be added to the research section. It is part of the infrastructure. Sen. Myers said she appreciated some comment on the value of the Library in this document.

Sen. Karger said it was his understanding that there will be a review of the administrative bureaucracy. Presumably, that will result in some cost savings. There is a problem in the retention of competent or outstanding senior faculty. One of the things to look for in a provost is whether (s)he will encourage deans and department chairs to retain good faculty. One way to retain good faculty is to create more endowed chairs. Faculty don’t want this University to be a stepping-stone where people get their first job, build a career and then leave. Pres. Jacobson noted that UH is vulnerable precisely to that. Sen. Myers said that would make a good goal under Research 1, “create more endowed chairs.”

Sen. Paskusz wanted to come back to hiring more tenured and tenure track faculty. UH should reduce the number of adjunct faculty and replace them with tenure track faculty. That would enhance the research environment. It may result in UH having to reduce the number of students it can accommodate but it would be an overall benefit.

Sen. Auchmuty said one issue that has been discussed in the Faculty Senate over many years is the question of salary inversion and compression. That should go under D2, promote fairness. Pres. Jacobson commented that it certainly seems a matter of fairness. Someone had also suggested to her that UH should give equity increases to assistant professors to promote faculty retention.

Sen. Pedemonte said it is not very clear what the Senate is asking. We should ask the administration to develop a plan, ask the colleges to develop strategic plans and ask faculty to participate in this process. At this moment the Senate is talking about interviewing a provost. This body should come up with five or six main points that are critical. If the University wants to grow, it needs money. If there is no money, close the door and go home. There is nothing to do about that. This is a way that all the systems work. The administration is very clear on that point. They need resources to improve the University. Researchers ask for money from NIH and for every $100,000, the University receives $50,000. This $50,000 is supposed to be used by the University to improve and maintain the infrastructure for research. At the same time there is a pool of researchers who are very productive and they should have a say on how those funds are spent. Sen. Pedemonte said one of the goals he suggests is that “UH should improve tenure track faculty by 10%” and “UH should duplicate the grants it gets in five years.” There is a lot of money that comes to the University to support the research, so ”UH should increase the number of researchers by 10% and the number of grants by 50%.”

Sen. Auchmuty agreed that the Senate should identify just a few major issues, and one of the most important is not listed here: namely, that the provost must be able to function well with the other universities in the system and with the deans. How the provost interacts with the deans of the various colleges to promote collegiality in the University is an overriding issue. Pres. Jacobson said the second sentence reads “the taskforce members’ first priority is to select a provost with the leadership, vision, experience and research excellence to accelerate the University’s already significant growth in the production of important new knowledge.”

Sen. Auchmuty said a hierarchy diagram of who reports directly to the provost would include the other campuses and the deans. Those are the most significant interactions and faculty want them to be done right.

In discussions about hiring a provost, Pres. Jacobson said the search committee felt that the other campuses interaction was 10-15% of the job. Dr. Strickland added that it is not any more than 15%, but much of that is concentrated time when one cannot devote any time to anything else. There is an academic responsibility that the provost position has. The person must be able to communicate well. They must be sensitive, in addition to being able to walk on water.

Pres. Jacobson asked Dr. Strickland for the timeline for colleges to develop a strategic plan. Dr. Strickland said the system is developing its plan and that process is just being kicked off. It will start and finish during the Spring semester. The Board of Regents and all the colleges will be involved as will the faculty and Faculty Senate. Dr. Strickland said he has been given the responsibility of leading that process.

Pres. Jacobson said that is an additional reason for getting the shared governance committee working. It is very important to faculty in the colleges.

REPORT FROM AND DISCUSSION WITH UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SYSTEM INTERIM SENIOR VICE CHANCELLOR & UH INTERIM SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS/PROVOST: Jerald W. Strickland

Dr. Strickland said: (1) UH currently has 56 faculty searches underway in all of the colleges on this campus. UHV has five faculty searches,UHD has 12, and UHCL has six searches in progress. (2) The Faculty Handbook has had people working very hard on it. The General Counsel and Dr. Charleson have been working on the handbook and after the first of the year, before the spring semester begins, should have an improved document ready. (3) With regard to the provost search, Dr. Strickland encouraged the senators to continue working on their principles and goals project. It is important. He added that the Senate will want to boil that down to the precious few. UH doesn’t want to scare anyone off. (4) The Board of Regents recently approved a position statement regarding the use of race and ethnicity in student admissions. Based upon this, some units of the University System may come forward with plans to the Provost and the General Counsel for admissions that include race and ethnicity. These plans will be reviewed and eventually approved. So far only the UH Law Center has submitted a policy. The Regents passed this new policy statement on November 20, 2003. (5) The Office of Academic Affairs will be responsible for getting the strategic planning initiative completed. It will be a system-wide operation and he is developing a process that will include the Presidents, the Provosts and the Faculty Senates of each of the campuses plus other folks. It will involve all faculty and much of the staff in some way. Some of the information is being gathered now. A staff questionnaire has gone out to assess staff needs. Information like that will be useful. (6) The ground breaking for the new Science, Engineering, Research and Classroom Complex was December 5. This is a $76 million project. About $51 million of that is coming from tuition revenue bonds and the remainder is coming from fund raising. Everyone is excited about the architecture and the classrooms the complex will provide. There is a new auditorium that will seat 550. There will also be about 12 other classrooms in that complex, but these are university-wide classrooms, not science and engineering classrooms. They are for all disciplines to use and will be scheduled that way. There are 1,700 seats in the new complex. That is impressive. Dr. Strickland expressed thanks to Dr. Sheridan and Dr. Charlson for looking after that project, very much needed on this campus. The research building is five stories tall and has 153,000 square feet. It is going to be an unique design, open labs, not requiring a great deal of renovation whenever UH changes directions. It will also contain one of the top clean rooms in the entire Houston area. It will also be a beautiful facility. There is artwork, a water treatment sculpture that is designed and will fit right in. It is intended to be a multi-disciplinary environment. (7) Dr. Strickland closed his comments by wishing all senators Happy Holidays!

Sen. Copeland inquired which units the Provost envisions would submit new admissions policies in light of the Regents’ statement allowing race and ethnicity to be considered? Dr. Strickland said he anticipates any such proposals to come from colleges. Dr. Strickland said he has a copy of the statement to be placed in the minutes. There are three components to the approved policy, a background stating why UHS wanted to do this, and the process by which it can be done.

Sen. Craig asked about the financial impact of the football team going to the Hawaii Bowl. Dr. Rudley said this is a new experience for the administration. He signed an invoice yesterday to purchase the airfare for the trip for about $260,000. While UH gets about $750,000 for the bowl, there is a charge of about $130,000 in conference services so the beginning balance is actually $565,000. Dr. Rudley added that he hoped UH will have something left when the team comes back.

Sen. Herendeen asked about the planning process for the system-wide strategic planning document. Dr. Strickland responded that he has a set of planning assumptions that came out of Academic Affairs. The Board of Regents and Dr. Gogue have looked at them. Perhaps 30 or 35 of the planning assumptions relate to what a provost should be doing. How does one measure a provost? Dr. Strickland said he will be glad to share the assumptions with the Faculty Senate, but he didn’t bring the document along. He added that it is important to realize that it is a draft. Ed Hugetz worked on that for the President. The President has also been active in its development.

Sen. Brady asked for Dr. Strickland’s thoughts on the Senate formulating principles and strategies. To what extent is this really going to make a difference? Any candidate for the position of provost who comes here will be able to answer these issues. The question is how does the Senate empower the search committee and President with extra sensory perception so they can actually see whether the candidate is being truthful when (s)he says (s)he believes in shared governance and will act upon it. Dr. Strickland said it starts right at the top. The faculty have a commitment from the President. Shared governance is important. Dr. Strickland said the document that the Senate passed in April 28, 2003 is the kind of document that he was thrilled to see. And to the best of his knowledge Dr. Gogue was pleased to see it, also. The final judgment will not be with the Provost. It will be with the President. He is a good judge of character.

Pres. Jacobson said the search committee is really aware of this and is very concerned about the candidates. At this stage members have only been able to do directed interviews with direct references. First of all the committee is going to be asking for a track record of continuing commitment to shared governance. And once the names become public, it is everyone’s duty, if they are in a position to do so, to investigate.

Sen. Middents asked if the search committee is looking at specifically addressing past relationships with a body similar to the Faculty Senate? Pres. Jacobson responded that some candidates being considered are deans and so they might not have interacted with a Faculty Senate, but the committee is very concerned about a track record over a number of dimensions for shared governance with faculty.

Sen. Pedemonte said many times he has read in the student paper complaints about the parking for the students and other situations that are problems for students. For example, they complain that after six p.m. they don’t have any place to go. Everybody disappears. Is there any plan on part of the administration to improve this condition? For example, the reason for the wellness center was to make the University more interesting to students. So is there a plan to do something? Dr. Strickland said there is probably a plan but he is not familiar with it. Dr. Strickland said student life has been an issue and has been addressed generally on a day-to-day, problem-solving basis. Dr. Strickland said there are certainly plans to work on the parking issue.

Dr. Rudley said he has a report on parking plans that he will share with this body on January 28, 2004 if he can get on the agenda. At that time he will outline some of the problems are and what the base terms might be with such a project. The current idea is to build a parking garage with retail shops on the first floor. He talked with the Student Government Association last week. As he talks with each constituency, a better plan is developed.

Elwyn Lee, Vice President for Student Affairs, said for the past several years Student Affairs has been trying to enhance the campus life. UH has been adding student housing in the area so more students live here full time. Another project his division is in the process of trying to institute is bus service to the mall.

Sen. Lange said she is concerned about strategy for dealing with the legislature. Dr. Strickland said there is great interest in what is going on in the interim session right now. The President’s Cabinet got a report this morning from the Vice President for Governmental Relations about the current legislative issues are and how UH ought to address them. He added that he is working with Dr. Rudley who serves on the committee that makes recommendations on formula funding for the next legislative session. The whole process is flawed and needs attention. There are very competent people doing that. Dr. Strickland said the lucky part for him is that he has a wonderful staff so the Office of Academic Affairs has managed to keep moving.

Pres. Jacobson asked about the idea of management training on the campus. Dr. Strickland said there is great interest to make available to campus academic leaders a series of development opportunities, including developing a curriculum of opportunities for department chairs. Elaine Charlson, Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs, has done this for the deans. There are all kinds of competencies within their roles with regard to personnel issues, HR issues and immigration issues. Dr. Strickland said he would begin working on this now. He added that some faculty may end up being involved. That would be an important topic.

Sen. Craig asked about the college bylaws for CLASS. He pointed out that approval for these bylaws had been delayed due to one issue that people thought was a problem for the current Provost’s immediate predecessor, but now apparently isn’t. He asked if there is any way to get resolution (and approval) before a disaster happens. Dr. Strickland said the short answer is yes. Dr. Strickland said he has met with the principals and met with the dean and there is a plan that resolves the issue.

Sen. Wells asked if the 56 faculty searches noted earlier were just for this campus. Dr. Strickland responded that the figure is for this campus.

Sen. Myers said the fund raising for the Library construction has gone very well. It involved an addition being funded between $25 million of HEAF and what is to be $20 million from private donations. So far $19.35 million of that has been raised. If another $150,000 is raised by December 31, 2004, UH will receive a $500,000 matching grant. If not, the University has to raise the other half-million itself. If anyone is planning to make a donation to the Library for the building program, please do so at this time. Sen. Myers urged the senators to pass this message on to their colleagues.

Sen. McNeil asked if someone pledges so much a year for a number of years, does that total count for the internal match? Sen. Myers responded that such pledges do count.

Pres. Jacobson reminded the senators that Dr. Gogue is holding a party for the Faculty Senate at Wortham House on December 11 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. She added that she hoped all would be able to attend.

Dr. Lee announced there would be a television party on Christmas Day in the UH University Center’s Cougar Café. He invited everyone to come and watch the bowl game.