October 14, 2004

University of Houston President Jay Gogue was all ears and all answers during the Staff Council Fall Forum.

He wasn’t alone in replying to staff questions on Tuesday, Oct. 12 in the Shamrock Room of the Hilton University of Houston Hotel. With his cabinet providing support, Gogue addressed concerns such as training, compensation and the staff scholarship program.

Regarding staff scholarships, Jerald Strickland, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost reported that this semester, 110 staff members each received scholarships for $750 and that applications for spring scholarships would be accepted between Nov. 1 and Jan. 7.

“We only spent about one-third of the $300,000 that was set aside for these scholarships,” said Gogue. “It’s important to me that we don’t have a lot of money left over in this fund at the end of the fiscal year because people may question the need for a program like this. I know the need is there, so look into this program and see what opportunities it can offer you.”

There were also queries regarding whether future staff scholarships could be applied toward continuing education classes or toward courses at UH System universities or community colleges. At this time, staff scholarships are applicable only toward degree programs at UH.

Gogue turned the microphone over to John Rudley, vice president for administration and finance, who said that the Staff Scholarship Advisory Committee, which is comprised of staff members, was looking into such matters.

“When we started this process, we knew that there might be modifications to this process,” Rudley said. “Some of the items that we did not review this year will be reviewed by the committee for consideration next year.”

One questioner asked if Gogue would be as committed to offering staff raises as he is to providing faculty salary increases. Gogue said that when he refers to ‘faculty,’ he means all university employees and that an area study would be conducted to compare UH staff compensation with compensation for other Houston employees.

“I am not consciously using the term, ‘faculty’ to differentiate between faculty and staff members,” he said. “We will look at the study and review it based on total compensation, including benefits, not just salary. If there are areas where we have inequities, then we have an obligation to bring salaries up to parity.”

In answering a question concerning his plans to improve staff retention, Gogue acknowledged that UH needed to work toward achieving lower turnover rates. He said that he was surprised to learn from last year’s Staff Assessment Needs survey that 50 percent of staff members had worked for UH for less than five years.

Another attendee wondered if there was a way staff members could make supervisors aware of university policies without being reprimanded. Gogue said that in fairness to supervisors, UH has so many policies and procedures that it is hard to be completely familiar with each and every one of them. Still, the university has taken steps improve training on campus.

Rudley added that the Department of Human Resources developed a new booklet, “Summary of Opportunities: A Guide for Your Professional and Career Development,” which lists training courses in several areas, including information technology, management, affirmative action and safety.

In addition to this publication, a new training program is being developed by Dona Hamilton, general counsel for UH; Robert Herrington, assistant vice president for executive development and training; Abel Garza, executive director for the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity and Jose Rangel, deputy general counsel.

“We came together to create a curriculum that will help supervisors become better supervisors,” Hamilton said. “It will also deal with the conflicts that arise when someone steps into a supervisory position.”

Mike Emery
memery@central.uh.edu