It was a busy inaugural year for UH System (UHS) Chancellor and UH President Jay Gogue.

After hitting the ground listening, Gogue participated in the development of the system’s Strategic Planning Process, initiated the construction of a new parking garage and championed the creation of a UH staff scholarship program.

His second year at UH will be equally active, but Gogue will take time to finally be inaugurated as UH’s twelfth president and UHS’s seventh chancellor during a Joint Assembly of the UHS Faculty Senates at noon Oct. 1 in the Cullen Performance Hall.

Coordinated by the UHS Board of Regents and the UHS Faculty Senates, the event is open to the entire system community.

“President Gogue has brought a coherent vision to the system,” said Giles Auchmuty, professor of mathematics and UH Faculty Senate president. “This inauguration will exemplify that and the assembly will be the very first meeting of the system’s Faculty Senates.”

Several guests will speak at the joint assembly, including Jon D. Quintanilla, UH Student Government Association president; Joe Papick, director of the Child Welfare Education Project and UH Staff Council president, and Elwyn Lee, UHS vice chancellor and UH vice president for student affairs. (See box for complete list of guest speakers)

Faculty Senate representatives from UH, UH-Clear Lake (UHCL), UH-Downtown (UHD) and UH -Victoria (UHV) will also address the assembly.

“We feel that the regents have made an excellent decision in bringing President Gogue to Houston.” said L. Kirk Hagen, associate professor of humanities at UHD and UHD Faculty Senate president. “He has our full support.”

Following presentations from the scheduled speakers, UHS Board of Regents chair Morgan Dunn O’Connor will formally inaugurate Gogue as UH System chancellor and UH president.

The event, Auchmuty said, also will provide an opportunity for colleagues from different parts of the system to become acquainted, and in a sense, more unified.

“This event is a chance for people throughout the university system to meet each other,” Auchmuty said. “As UHS grows, there will be a need for groups from its different areas to meet on a regular basis. This event is just the start of more meetings like this and of future collaboration across the system.”

Mike Emery
memery@central.uh.edu