Suggestion:      1048

Subject:            LEAD Website

Forwarded to:   Manager, LEAD

 

I have been trying to get information on the LEAD for several months now and their website says it is under construction.  On what date will the LEAD website be avilable? 

 

Response

 

Thank you for your suggestion.

 

Since August of 2007, LEAD has been working to implement new strategies aimed at helping minority/underrepresented students achieve higher levels of educational attainment through the educational opportunities that exist at the University of Houston-Victoria. These strategies are being carried out through partnerships with area high schools, organizations and community colleges. As such, much of our focus in this initial time period has been towards direct communication with these institutions and prospective students. Indeed, a fundamental premise that LEAD operates on is the importance of direct, personal interaction and building relationships between students, their families and the university.

 

Nevertheless, LEAD recognizes the value a website has, in terms of communicating to a broader audience (particularly in our day and age). As a result, we have been working to create an entirely new LEAD website. It has taken some time to develop because the program itself continues to evolve and undergo small changes. In any case, we plan to have our website completed in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I encourage you to contact us directly with any questions you may have or if we can be of any assistance.

 

Thank you for your patience and your continued interest in LEAD.

 

Suggestion:      1049

Subject:            LEAD

Forwarded to:   Manager, LEAD

 

I understand that the LEAD is now recruiting students.  They need to provide information to the UHV community about what they are doing.  How many students have they brought to UHV?

 

Response

 

Thank you for your suggestion.

 

While our goal in LEAD is to ultimately recruit students to the University of Houston-Victoria, the importance of the LEAD initiative is in addressing concerns with respect to educational attainment levels among minorities and underrepresented students. Presently, large discrepancies exist between ethnicities, in terms of college participation rates. UHV recognizes that if we are to stay on target, as it relates to federal and state mandates, and ensure the future economic success of our region, we must continue to make efforts to engage the youngest and fastest growing sector of our population.

 

LEAD has implemented a number of strategies with this goal in mind. Currently we have partnerships at the high school, community college and community level. We also conduct outreach efforts through various cultural and educational activities. Thus far, the majority of our communication efforts have been focused towards our partner institutions, for the purpose of developing our programs. As far as internal communications, LEAD maintains communication with those departments and offices that are directly involved with our day-to-day activities and ensures that information relevant to other departments and individuals is communicated through the appropriate persons. However, with respect to broad communication amongst the UHV community, we are working towards the completion of a redesigned LEAD website, which we plan to have online and operational in the next few weeks.

 

LEAD is a young program with a very important mission and I feel that we are off to a promising start. If you have any suggestions, or other communication practices that are commonly being used, please feel free to bring those to our attention. We’re proud of what we are doing in LEAD and would love to “toot our own horn”, but have not had a lot of time to do so. We appreciate your interest in our program and hope that you will consider finding ways that you can become involved with helping us to achieve our goals, because they are goals that will affect us all. If you’d like to find out more about what we’re doing or ways that you can help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

Suggestion:      1050

Subject:            MBA Program

Forwarded to:   Dean, School of Business Administration          

 

I am an MBA student in Sugar Land campus and would like to know if you have plans to offer face-to-face day time MBA courses. Evening classes from 7 pm to 9:45 pm is quite Inconvenient for students coming from far off places like North Houston. I live around 1960 area and my commute time is lot more then class time. Thanks!

 

Response

 

We are considering a pilot study of day MBA courses at either the Sugar Land or Cinco Ranch campus next fall or spring.

Suggestion:      1051

Subject:            Employee of the Month

Forwarded to:   Director, Human Resources

 

I think it's great we have the EOM, but I'm wondering if it's possible to see who was nominated each month too? I think it would be just one more way to say: We think you're great! Thanks.

 

Response:

Currently the guidelines state, "The winner will be announced each month."  However, I will take your suggestion to Staff Council for input and ask if we need to consider a change in the guidelines.  Thank you for your suggestion.

 

 

Suggestion:      1052

Subject:            Merit Raises

Forwarded to:   VP Administration & Finance

 

I'd recommend that we replace merit raises with a cost of living raise.  Over the years, I've seen merit raises do more to lower morale than to provide any benefit, and I believe that many employees actually equate merit more with cost of living then reward for meritorious service.  Also, it becomes extremely difficult to distinguish employees in any meaningful way with the current merit system.  Also, I think it would be interesting to determine what percentage of our employees receive anything other then 3% which has been our standard merit pool for the past several years. 

 

           

Response:

 

The Texas Legislation mandates the faculty raises be through the merit system and to remain consistent throughout the University merit has also been adopted for staff.    Merit raises, if done correctly, stimulate the employees effort to  excel and achieve goals.  Merit increases the potential of each employee by putting the power to move forward into the employee’s hands.  Cost of living, however, fails to stimulate continued improvement and can generate, over time, a complacent workforce.  In across the board raises, there is no incentive to accept challenges and to go beyond the standard.

Suggestion:      1053

Subject:            UHV In The News

Forwarded to:   Director of Marketing

 

What is the deal with all these 'UHV In The News' email messages I am receiving in my student email account? I didn't sign up to receive them - and they are filling up my Inbox! It is very cumbersome to try and sort through them all just to get to the important ones like Financial Aid and Admissions status. 

 

Perhaps there should be some sort of 'list-serv' where students can elect to receive these email messages. I think that would be a good solution.

 

Response:

As a student at the University of Houston-Victoria, we value you as a member of our university community. We believe all of our faculty, staff and students need to be aware of both the positive and the negative stories that appear about UHV in the local media. We have had quite a bit of media coverage lately on the topic of downward expansion, as well as our UHV Jaguars softball and baseball teams. Be assured that we will only send out UHV in the News on the days that the university is mentioned in the local media.

 

I apologize if these messages have been cumbersome for you. In my discussions with our information technology department, I have discovered that our current list-serve technology does not allow for us to edit-manage the list. It is an all-or-nothing list. However, it is possible that you will be able to opt out of receiving UHV in the News as our technology is updated in the future.

 

We send out UHV in the News under that title followed by the date in the e-mail subject line. We hope that you will find UHV in the News worthwhile to read. However, if you do not choose to read the e-mail, it should be easy to identify and delete.

 

Thank you for your question.