PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COUNCIL
March 5, 2002
Minutes

Present: Alcorn, Alvarez, Bauer, Blackwell, Elder, Flournoy, Hanna, Haynes, Kvinta, McGuill, Murphy, O'Connor, Reed, Rivera, Schwartz, Simons, Soto, Welder.

Absent: Brockman, Goodson, Heinold, Hernandez, McCrohan, Moya, Peace, Reddell, Ross, Smith, Stafford, Stovall, Walker, Warzecha.

• Organizational Business

• Approval of minutes of December 4, 2001, meeting. The minutes of the December 4 meeting were approved as written.





• Election for officers will be held at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Mr. Elder will chair the committee with Dr. Rivera, Mr. Welder and Mr. Bauer.

• President's Presentation

A. The history of UHV. The question was raised if audio will be available with this presentation in the future. Dr. Haynes will look into it.

• President's Report

• A successful outreach event was held on February 19 by Mr. Alvarez and Mr. Reddell. Another will be held on April 24 by Mrs. Schwartz and will probably have a third this spring. The decision was made to have three a year. They initiate good dialogues and partnerships in the community.





• Talk of the Town was very successful. It was enjoyed by everyone with many good comments made. Demand for faculty and staff scholarships have risen in the last four years.





• President is hosting 19 coffees this spring for faculty and staff in groups of eight to ten. It gives them an opportunity to ask questions and give suggestions. This will be the first year it's been held in Sugar Land. Wednesday, March 6, is the first of the coffees.





• Facilities update: the building in Fort Bend will be ready in several weeks, but still needs parking lots. UHV will have three modular buildings on site in addition to the new building. Facilities is involved in the planning of that building, plus the need for a new building here in Victoria. We will build a smaller building next to the University Center and Facilities, Human Resources, and Administration and Finance will move into it. There will also be a building for equipment only. This building will free up space in the University West building for further development. Ground breaking is planned for late summer, but will depend on the Board of Regents. Cost of renting the building now housing facilities is too high and the cost of buying plus renovating is excessive.





• UHV received four ADDY awards this year. We have maintained a consistent, dynamic image in the community with our brochures and printed materials. A news release is included in the meeting handout. Due to the success of UHV receiving ADDY awards again this year, Emett Alvarez recommended OUA consider offering CE classes to help other organizations and non-profits with publications and marketing.





• The Coordinating Board met in Austin, March 4. It stayed focused on "closing the gaps", making it a high priority. There is a drive to increase state funds and the request to give to the Commissioner recommendations for the best interests of Texas as opposed to the best interests of each institution. They want to see an increase for faculty tenure funding. Dr. Haynes has been on the committee for three years.





• Budget: we are hoping for staff and faculty merit raises, as well as the funding to hire more employees. Budget presentation to the Chancellor is April 1. UHV is stretching to meet all enrollment demands and assume there will be a 12 percent increase again next year. The Board officially approves the budget in August. UHV will be using Wharton County Junior College biology labs for the Fort Bend campus for the present. We will need to hire more faculty although it has been increased dramatically in the last few years. Specifics will be provided later.





• Discussion: A question was raised regarding the possibility of receiving research dollars. It would take a change in the mission statement which would have to be approved by both the Coordinating Board and the Board of Regents. On-line courses were discussed from a management aspect as well as faculty involvement. UHV may be moving out of ITV courses in the next few years due to staffing and reliability problems. On-line courses are usually set up better than classroom courses. Instructors teach both classroom and on-line courses. Also discussed was the possibility of a school of engineering at UHV. The demand from the community would have to be large and research done. There is a general process in place to go forward with any new programs. The suggestion was made that UHV could possibly be listed as a resource for information on an engineering program. A suggestion was also made to have a professor attend the next PAC meeting to give an on-line presentation.

• Updates

• UHV Website update given by Marci Wallace. Currently in place is an area-based website, but the new design will be a user-based site. Pictures will be rotated on a regular basis. New features include pop-up menus; campus and building maps, and a search option. There will be a new President's page and the PAC has a page with the black and gold brochure included. OUA will include past events, development opportunities, current events, future events, community relations, static information, awards, marketing, logos, links for fund-raising and more. There will be standard left navigation throughout the site. Scholarship information and where to apply will be listed. Some applications will be interactive. The site should be ready soon, but IT will need to check some information before releasing. It will have a link to the UH System.





• Talk of the Town update given by Angela Collins. The success was attributed to the teamwork of UHV employees along with outside organizations and businesses. Eleven faculty and forty staff members participated in presentations, planning and execution. Two employees from the University of Houston-Clear Lake volunteered to help and are considering planning a similar event of their own. OUA is still waiting on the final billing before obtaining the final dollar amount raised. Regent O'Connor complimented all UHV on the event, stating everything went like clockwork and was a wonderful evening on every level.





• Line Items update given by Wayne Beran. It's a tight budget this year, but will renew attempts to receive more funding. UHV wants to expand on-line courses, but needs $350,000 from legislature to give us a jump-start. He stated that systems are not being funded, but instead they are funding by campus. The Chancellor wants an initial run for a budget review, but we will hear more the closer it gets to the legislative sessions.





• Spring Enrollment update given by Richard Phillips. UHV has hit an all-time record and can anticipate significant growth in the future. Several issues have changed UHV including that fact that graduate students now comprise over half of all students, the headcount has increased and Victoria County is only 28 percent of the student body. In the future, Enrollment Management will do report by zip code for accuracy. Reports are changing, but don't show true picture because of on-line courses. In headcount, Victoria County is No. 1, Fort Bend is No. 2 and Harris County is No. 3. Although we are gaining in enrollment of black students, it still is not a reflection of the numbers in the area. Recruitment has been added in specific areas such as undergraduate education in the Fort Bend area.





• UHV is one of the sponsors for the South Texas Woman Award to be held on Saturday, March 23 at the Victoria College Student Center. Nancy Blackwell, Morgan Dunn O'Connor and Carole Oliphant are all recipients.





• Suggestion made that the President's Advisory Board needs members from the Fort Bend area.

• Meeting adjourned