EDITOR'S NOTE: The video of Dr. Gogue's Inauguration is available online . Viewable with RealPlayer

October 5, 2004

Jay Gogue’s first year on campus came and went with many accomplishments but little fanfare. It was fitting, then, that Gogue was finally formally inaugurated as University of Houston System chancellor and University of Houston president at the Joint Faculty Assembly, Friday Oct. 1 in Cullen Performance Hall.

“If I would have known you were going to be so nice to me, I would have let you inaugurate me earlier,” Gogue said, standing in front of a red backdrop with a white UH logo emblazoned upon it.

Although the UHS community wanted to honor his arrival much sooner, Gogue’s busy schedule took precedence over any celebrations. While plans for the event were made and changed throughout his initial year, Gogue focused on a number of tasks, particularly the system’s strategic planning process.

When it was finally time to be inaugurated on Friday, Gogue received praise from academic and political leaders.

“We need a national leader and I am grateful that we have one to take UH into the 21st century,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. “He is a man who will continue to guide the university as he is guided by the adage ‘what can we do for others?’”

Salutations also were delivered by Joe Papick, Staff Council president and director of the Child Welfare Education Project in the Graduate School of Social Work, as well as several UHS faculty members, who commended Gogue for his attention to the concerns of the system universities.

Emily Sutter, professor of psychology at UH-Clear Lake, cited Gogue’s endorsement of collaborative academic programs between the system universities, as well as the system’s strategic plan’s attention to system development.

“The plan suggests that the system can be greater than the sum of its individual campuses,” she said. “Dr. Gogue, you’re our idea of a system chancellor.”

Following speakers’ comments and after being formally inaugurated by UHS Board of Regents chair Morgan Dunn O’Connor, Gogue was modest as he addressed the audience and dignitaries. He said he felt that recent UHS successes were shared efforts between faculty, staff and students.

He also cited immediate goals and issues including the retention and diversification of UH faculty. No segment of the UH community is more important than faculty, he said.

“There have been examples where universities have lost all of their buildings and within a month, if they have all of their faculty, they resume business,” he said. “You can lose all of your presidents and administrators, but you cannot lose your faculty.”

Gogue also discussed UHS’s uniqueness as a higher education institution and its accountability to its constituents. He said that the system’s individuality often draws scrutiny from a number of sources, but such attention should be welcomed.

“This system is very different than the other systems in Texas,” he said. “While we welcome accountability, we will be measured differently than other institutions, and I do not consider that anything but a wonderful set of circumstances. We should be excited that the public cares enough about our educational capabilities that they want to see us measured.”

Gogue emphasized that for UHS to excel as a system, it’s important that faculty, staff and students are “not on the same page” – so that they engage the external community on many different levels to effectively promote the system and its goals.

“A long time ago, universities conducted very few activities to engage people outside of the university,” he said. “In today’s world, particularly for UHS, we don’t need eight or ten big events a year. We need to have an event every single day that is focused on the interests of a host of individuals. We have to be on hundreds and hundreds of different pages, so that we engage and excite people about what this system can be.”

The UHS Faculty Senates and UHS Board of Regents sponsored the assembly, which was hosted by Giles Auchmuty, UH Faculty Senate president and professor of mathematics. Guest speakers also included Ron Sardessai, UH-Victoria Faculty Senate president and professor of business administration and management; L. Kirk Hagen, UH-Downtown Faculty Senate president and associate professor of humanities; Jon D. Quintanilla, UH Student Government Association president; Stephen K. Huber, UH professor of law; and Elwyn Lee, UHS vice chancellor and UH vice president for student affairs.

Entertainment was provided by the UH Jazz Ensemble, directed by Noe Marmolejo, director of jazz ensembles, and the UH-Downtown (UHD) Jazz Ensemble, directed by Robert Wilson, UHD lecturer in fine arts and humanities.

Mike Emery
memery@central.uh.edu