Victoria Advocate | "UHV faculty members do more than teach" by TimHudson

UHV faculty members do more than teach

By TimHudson in Hudson On Higher Learning
November 23, 2009

If you have ever been to a University of Houston-Victoria commencement ceremony, you may have noticed that the person who starts and ends the whole affair, the Alpha and Omega, if you will, is the Faculty Senate president. This person also introduces the keynote speaker. Why? Well, for starters, I do this to emphasize the centrality of the faculty in the institution. It wouldn’t really be a university, a place of learning, without this highly qualified corps, now would it?

At UHV, and most universities, the faculty does way more than “teach.” The new president of the UHV Faculty Senate, Dr. Cindy Schnebly, describes the role of the faculty like this:

A significant part of a faculty member’s job is to teach, yet the role of faculty members is broader than that, as Dr. Hudson notes. All full-time faculty members are members of the Faculty Council, which deals with issues that directly affect faculty. That group meets twice a year. A smaller, more flexible body, the Faculty Senate, represents the larger faculty in discussions that take place three times during each semester. The president and vice president of the UHV Faculty Senate serve on the University Faculty Executive Committee at the University of Houston System level. That committee, composed of presidents and vice presidents of faculty senates at the four UH campuses, meets nine times a year to share information about academic issues related to all the campuses.

Faculty members are involved with the functioning of the university at multiple levels. Through their schools, they frequently serve as members on hiring committees for faculty and administrators. For example, I, along with four other faculty members, two staff members and one dean, served on a search committee last spring to hire a new dean for the School of Education & Human Development. During the same semester, other faculty members served on a hiring committee to select a new dean for the School of Business Administration. Lawrence Rossow was hired as dean of the School of Education & Human Development, and Farhang Niroomand was named as the dean of the School of Business Administration as a result of those searches.

Faculty members also serve on committees that review proposed curricular and policy changes, the annual budget, promotion and tenure decisions, and grievances; and select recipients of teaching, service and research awards. Two curriculum committees at UHV, one undergraduate and one graduate, review proposed program changes and course changes and subsequently recommend that those changes be adopted or perhaps ask for additional information. Our new core curriculum for downward expansion is going through that curricular process right now. Six faculty members serve on each of those committees. And next month during UHV’s annual budget hearings, the three members of the Budget Oversight Committee will attend the two-day hearings and then update the Senate on budget implications for the upcoming academic year. Faculty members also play critical roles when the university makes major changes, such as serving on the committee to recommend downward expansion.

Another very significant role of the faculty is research. Faculty members at UHV are actively involved in research within their fields of study. Some design and carry out scientific studies, while others engage in research that also advances the body of knowledge in their respective fields, such as marketing, economic development, curriculum and instruction, math or computer science. Still others produce creative works, such as stories, novels or nonfiction essays, or help with production of the journals produced through UHV’s recent publication efforts.

One more role of faculty members is to give back to their communities. Many of you are familiar with the DeLeon Symposium, for example, which UHV faculty members, along with community members, have organized for more than 20 years. Other faculty members serve on boards of community organizations, such as the Literacy Council, mentor students at area schools, lead book group and work in conjunction with local business groups.

As you can see, UHV faculty members stay busy. They teach and they counsel; they read, study, research and publish; they volunteer time in the community; and they participate in the overall management of the university, especially in the critical area of curriculum and program development. They work as colleagues for the benefit of our students – and ultimately for the many constituencies we serve.