FS Cms End of Year Reports 012407

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES
2006 END-OF-YEAR REPORTS

BUDGET & FACILITIES COMMITTEE, Chair: Karl Titz

The Budget and Facilities Committee met on January 27, February 22, April 26, September 27, October 25, and November 29

The Year began with committee participation in the College Budget Hearing participation. Each College Budget hearing was attended by a member of the Committee. Following the Hearings, the BFC recommended to Dr. Foss:

The committee chair met with John Rudley, UHS Vice Chancellor and UH Vice President for Administration & Finance, and Libby Barlow, Executive Director of Institutional Research, to resolve data issues which emerged. Each college was asked to verify their respective college faculty salary data. In instances where there were discrepancies, the system of reporting and coding were checked and corrected. The final two Colleges reported back to Dr. Barlow’s office shortly after the returning from the 2006-2007 holiday break. Dr. Foss is reviewing the final data base and the information should be released to the committee shortly. The committee expressed concern about the amount of time the process has taken. Dr. Barlow expressed frustration with the moving target and committee turnover. However, the process has allowed for the administration to evaluate systemic problems with faculty data input and coding. Dr. Barlow shared the committee’s concern with the amount of time the process is taking and felt the systemic approach will reduce future reporting time and variance. The committee felt strongly – UH should continue with the salary data in the form as originally requested. This is the data reported by the administration to the University Of Houston Board Of Regents, the Texas State Legislature, and outside reporting agencies. To address the frustrations expressed by the Faculty Senate Budget & Facilities Committee and Institutional Research over the length of the process and turnover on the Committee
– it was agreed a mechanism for a periodic review and report is in order. Dr. Barlow will present the salary data at the November BFC meeting. The BFC will examine mechanisms for a periodic reporting process to reduce the problems encountered and insure faculty and administration have reliable information upon which to base salary decisions.

A series of meetings were held with Dr. Rudley and Dave Irvin, UHS Associate Vice Chancellor/UH Vice President for Plant Operations, to examine processes related to Lab start-up and build-out. Currently there is no Division of Administration review of start-up packages or space identification/allocation. This has resulted in delayed build out and insufficient start-up allocations. This conversation continues with Peter Copeland chairing an ad hoc committee on Laboratory build-out.

The Committee began a conversation on classroom capacity utilization and management. Mr. Irvin and Mr. Anketell presented an analysis done by the Coordinating Board on capacity utilization and policies and procedures for classroom scheduling. UH was ranked 14th out of 34 institutions in the 2004 report. The Coordinating Board established 38 average weekly hours of use (AWHU) as the guideline during the 2004 reporting cycle. UH AWHU for UH was 33.9. Six out of thirty-four institutions met the guideline. The current calculations do not take into account the number of students in the scheduled class. However, the Coordinating Board is in discussion to include this variable in future reports. This is an important data point in the determination to build new facilities.

This past year the Committee on Committees achieved the tasks assigned to it in the Senate Constitution. Appointments are completed (with the exception noted below) to the 36 committees with which COC is charged. In the past few years COC has also required a written annual report from each committee, with varying degrees of response. We are pleased to report the 32 reports are in hand from the 36 committees this year, and Senator Huber summarized each of those reports. The summaries were transmitted to the incoming Committee on Committees through an inaugural transition meeting between COC outgoing members and incoming members on January 19. Appointments to the Athletics Advisory Committee await action by the incoming Committee.

The Committee on Committees thanks all faculty who have given of their time and expertise in these voluntary capacities over the past year.

The Committee on Committee also joins the Executive Committee in the following recommendation:

University of Houston Faculty Senate Committee on Committees Resolution to Rescind the University of Houston System
Faculty Advisory Committees for Governmental Relations, Legal Affairs and University Advancement
(Unanimously approved by the UH Faculty Senate Committee on Committees on December 13, 2006)

The University of Houston Faculty Senate Committee on Committees moves the Faculty Senate rescind the following University of Houston System committees:

University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for Governmental Relations, University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for Legal Affairs and University of Houston System Faculty Advisory Committee for University Advancement.

The initial agenda of topics for the year that was established in January included:

1. Examining the organizational structure and coordination of undergraduate related activities.

2. Continuing to develop a close working relationship with the Undergraduate Council.

3. Continuing interactions with the Student Government Association to discuss issues of mutual concern.

5. Continue to coordinate efforts with the Enrollment Management Taskforce to improve admissions, orientation, and retention issues.

7. Evaluation of interest and feasibility of developing a Center for Teaching Excellence

During the year objectives 1-5 were accomplished. For objective 1, EPSAC (both as a group and individually) meet with Dr. Agnes DeFranco, Interim Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Studies on a number of occasions to discuss the organizational structure and coordination of undergraduate related activities. This goal of this ongoing dialog is to exchange ideas and to insure faculty input into administrative organization and policies. Objective 2 was largely accomplished by the EPSAC chair attending UC meetings and through personal discussions with UC members. For objective 3, we worked with the student government on a number of faculty/student issues including textbook abuses, the textbook buyback program, concerns about the University bookstore. Objective 4 culminated in the recommendation by the full Faculty Senate for adoption of sections 1-3 of the Provost's Textbook policy. Issues concerning section 4 of the Policy were deferred. For objective 5, we had on going discussions and updates from the University Enrollment Management Taskforce on a number of issues including:

Objective 6 was an initiative proposed by the Provost in the previous year to develop a few standardized questions for all student teaching evaluations. This has been put on hold by the Provost. Objective 7 was also put on hold by EPSAC.

The first topic that the FAC considered was the Textbook and Educational Materials Policy. While the resolution proposed by the committee was not adopted by the Senate, it served to identify a direction that the Senate was not prepared to follow and contributed to the ultimate resolution of the topic later in the year.

The most substantive accomplishment by the committee was, in conjunction with the University Commission on Women, to pass a Policy on the Extension of the Probationary Period for Childbirth or Adoption and a Policy on the Extension of the Probationary Period for Emergencies. These policies were passed by the Senate, reviewed by the University Coordinating Commission and the Council of Deans, approved (with small changes) by the Provost and President, and became effective on January 16, 2007. The most important change is that an untenured tenure-track faculty member, who becomes a parent due to the birth or adoption of a child and who is responsible for the primary care of that child, will be given a one-year extension of the probationary period, with or without a leave of absence, and that the granting of the extension is not up to the discretion of the Department Chair, Dean, or Provost.

The committee next considered the issue of Copyrights in Works of Authorship. While this was primarily the work of the previous year’s committee, there were some unresolved issues that needed to be addressed. The FAC met with Paul Janicke, Professor of Law and member of the Intellectual Property that originally proposed the policy, and proposed a policy that was passed by the Senate.

The final topic for the committee was the Scholarship Report. The committee met with the Provost and expressed (informally) strong support for, in accord with the Faculty Senate Resolution passed in the fall of 2005, producing a Scholarship Report annually.

I would like to thank the members of the committee for all of their time and effort during the year.

The Scholarship and Community Committee met twice with Michael Rierson, Vice Chancellor/Vice President for University Advancement. The committee will stay involved with Advancement and try to assist this office in the on-going development campaign.

SCC met with Wendy Adair, Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Vice President for Public Affairs and Steve Hall, President and CEO of the Houston Alumni Organization, to discuss how the Faculty can continue the positive interaction it has between UH students and alumni.

The Committee drafted a new University of Houston Mission Statement, which was approved by the Faculty Senate and submitted to Provost Foss.

The Chair of the Committee served on the UH Web Redesign Selection Committee and the UH Homecoming Committee as the Faculty Senate representative. The Chair also represented the Faculty Senate on the planning of the Faculty Recognition Dinner.