Office of the President :: President's Cabinet

9:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Meeting Minutes 

Present:  Dahlstrom, Di Leo, R. Faulk, Ferguson, Hudson, Lindley, Neill, Rice, L. Smith, Wang

 Absent:  Beran, Jaeckle, LaBrecque, Norgard, Phillips, Stansell  

Attending for Dr. Ramamoorthy:  Dr. Cindy Schnebly 

Guests:  Genaro Cortez, Greg Fanelli, Michael Ruland, Marci Wallace 

I.          Business 

A.     Emergency Preparedness—Greg Fanelli and Genaro Cortez 

Greg Fanelli provided cabinet members with an update on the forecast for Hurricane Dolly.  Mr. Cortez and Mr. Fanelli distributed the updated UHV Business Continuity Plan binders. A review and discussion followed on the Hurricane Watch and Hurricane Warning sections of the Hurricane Plan.   

B.      Presidents Climate Commitment—Michael Ruland

Mr. Ruland presented a PowerPoint presentation on the Presidents Climate Commitment.  He announced President Hudson signed the commitment in August 2007 and was the first university president in the state of Texas to sign.  Currently there are 558 colleges and/or universities that have joined this initiative as leaders in addressing climate change.  The commitment states, 

The fight against global warming will shape the 21^st century.  Colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and
throughout society by modeling ways to eliminate global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates
to achieve climate neutrality.  Campuses that address the climate challenge by eliminating global warming emissions and by integrating sustainability
into their curriculum will better serve their students and meet their social mandate to help create a thriving, ethical and civil society. 

Mr. Ruland had a long list of what UHV has done to date in addressing this commitment.  A few of those efforts are:

·         UHV  recycled 12 tons of paper in 2007

·         Moving toward an all battery powered operation, but continue to operate some electric and gasoline powered equipment

·         Are phasing in “Green” chemicals into the daily cleaning products and have changed to “Green” chemicals for grounds and landscaping efforts

·         Changed out all T-12 fluorescent lamps and ballasts to more efficient T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts

·         Recycled 275 gallons of crushed bulbs, to eliminate the introduction of mercury into the landfills 

Mr. Ruland provided a list of UHV’s goals; this is a partial list— 

·         Add the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) logo to our web site citing our support of sustainability

·         Implement the policy to set all printer and copier default settings to double sided print, if feasible

·         Implement the change to purchase only recycled paper

·         Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standard or equivalent 

C.    Mission Statement 

The mission statement was tabled until the next meeting. 

II.    Organizational Business 

The minutes of the July 9, 2008, meeting was unanimously approved as written. 

III. Roundtable 

Mr. Ferguson reported the Sugar Land fiber project has been delayed slightly due to the city having to finalize easement locations.  He also announced UHV’s new web site will be launched in a few days.     

Dr. Rice passed out a handout of the President’s Regional Advisory Board (PRAB) members, noting it can be found on the web under the “Office of the President.”  Diane Prince, Tim Berkey and she continue to move forward on our Adult and Higher Education Certificate.  This is an online five course graduate certificate for people who teach adults in various settings.  The first marketing focus for this certificate is community college faculty and staff.  Dr. Rice shared a handout that provides information about the certificate.  She taught one of the courses offered for the certificate this summer, Adult Development, and stated it had been a wonderful experience and the students, who were faculty and staff at Austin Community College, had been very enthusiastic about the opportunity to obtain the Adult and Higher Education Certificate.

Ms. Lindley announced Student Senate members are working on back to school bags and will be contacting the schools for contributions.  The bags will be delivered to classes in Victoria and sent to the UHSSL and UHSCR campuses.  She announced she is working on the “Meet the Leaders Social” and plans to invite city leaders to this year’s social. 

Mr. Faulk reported Friday is the deadline for the Staff Council elections.  He stated due to scheduling problems, the upcoming Staff Council meeting has been rescheduled.  The Fitness Release Program “Employee Wellness” has been posted to the web for the required 10-day posting.  Mr. Faulk brought up the issue of going to a 4-day work week.  It was noted that there is probably a state regulation concerning this issue but the subject would be better addressed at the System-wide staff council.  

Since this was Mr. Faulk last cabinet meeting as President of the Staff Council, Dr. Hudson thanked him for his service and input.  Ms. Denise Prescott will serve as President for FY 2008-2009. 

Dr. Dahlstrom announced the library position interviews are beginning.  He stated he will keep cabinet informed of the discussions with the city on the shared integrated library system termination. 

Dr. Di Leo shared a handout on "The Writers Edge" conference sponsored by UHV's School of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with Universidad Internacional.  This international conference will be held next spring at the Universidad Internacional campus in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  There will be workshops on innovative writing practices, panels on trends in contemporary fiction, one-on-one conferences, reading and multimedia events.  Students from UHV and elsewhere will be able to earn academic course credit for their conference participation.  Also, there will be a $500 fiction prize donated by Tim Hudson and Javier Espinosa, presidents of the host institutions.    

Dr. Schnebly had no report for the Faculty Senate. 

Dr. Neill announced the School of Nursing received approval on their second degree program at the Board of Nursing hearing on July 17.  Questions by the Faculty Senate on the SoN’s representation were addressed at the faculty retreat.  The Nursing forum is still on schedule for August 7.   

Ms. Smith reported the new application tracking system is working well.  She is currently arranging for prospective employees that do not have access to a home computer to be able to come to campus and have access to a computer to apply for positions.  There are also computers available for use in the library and Texas Workforce Commission.  Ms. Smith announced summer enrollment is here and time for employees to make changes to their coverage for dependent health, dental coverage, and add or drop optional coverage.  No rate increases for the new year, except for 1 dental plan will go up by 5%. 

Dean Wang: Growth:  International partnerships went on well.  1) 12 students from XISU at Xian and 2 from Hohai University at Nanjing will arrive in mid-August for GMBA.  2) XLRI School of Business and Human Resources from Indian will be on Sugar Campus for partnership conversations.  Quality: Wang announced that the School of Business Administration’s Executive Team is in place and has run 5 meetings in June and July working on issues that required by the AACSB:  their strategic plan for 2008-2009 and faculty qualifications.  SoBA ET has drafted criteria for professional qualification (PQ) for recruiting and maintaining adjunct instructors quality while the school has done a good job in academic quality (AQ) for participating faculty with 1.4 referred journal publications per person in 2007.  The Business Dean’s Advisory Council is composed of 30 outstanding community members and with this foundation the school will be able to continue to serve the Fort Bend community.  Jane and Lee Keeling are helping to reorganize Victoria Business Dean’s Advisory Council.  Enrollment:  Enrollment is up by 38% compared to this time last year.  The growth has kept very steady since the first day of registration.  

Dr. Hudson reminded cabinet members of opting to work with Advancement by buying a brick for birthdays or other special events as this money goes into the general scholarship fund.   He also brought to cabinet’s attention that as leaders they need to be prudent in the number of representatives the university allows to participate in off campus events.  Dr. Hudson announced he is the System president representative on the search for the new UHS vice chancellor of academic affairs.  In the interim Dr. Jerry Strickland will serve as the interim provost.   

Meeting adjourned at 11:20 a.m.
Submitted by Kathy Walton