Commencement ceremony
returns to Saturday
By Ed De La Garza
Daily Cougar Staff
Wednesday's Faculty Senate meeting turned
out to be quite eventful, and not just because it featured the passing
of the
gavel from H. Jerome Freiberg to incoming
president Joseph Eichberg.
Lorrie Novosad/The Daily
Cougar
Joseph Eichberg looks over
the agenda before being inaugurated as Faculty Senate president Wednesday
in the Kiva Room
of Farish Hall.
UH President Arthur K. Smith, addressing
the senate after Eichberg made his inaugural speech, made the announcement
that the University's commencement ceremonies
would be moved back to Saturday morning.
The move was made to encourage more student
attendance.
"I asked Provost Ed Sheridan to work with
the Dean's Council and try to come up with some alternatives as to how
we might
try to make this commencement a special
one, marking the culmination of a 75th anniversary celebration," Smith
said.
Four colleges — law, pharmacy, optometry
and social work — will still hold their convocations on Friday. All others
will hold
their ceremonies Saturday afternoon.
But Smith acknowledged that asking people
to arrive at the University early Saturday morning and then stick around
for an
entire day may be asking too much without
giving them something aside from a well-known speaker (UH alumnus and
president of the Motion Picture Association
of America Jack Valenti will do the honors this year).
"In order to entice people to come to the
general commencement and the convocation, we're going to feed them," Smith
said.
Smith also told the senate that faculty
and staff could expect a raise of about 4 percent in September. It would
be the second
such increase in two years.
Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
and Provost Edward Sheridan told the senate a new science and research
building, to be built near the Science
and Research Center, would be completed by Spring 2005.
Library Dean Dana Rooks asked the senate
for help with the final stages of the addition to the M.D. Anderson Memorial
Library. The addition will have its ceremonial
groundbreaking in April. The project will increase the library from 300,000
square feet to 455,000 square feet, with
135,000 square feet going to the library and 20,000 going to The Honors
College.
Eichberg said the senate, through its subcommittees,
should continue monitoring the integration of PeopleSoft into the
University's infrastructure, the Athletics
Department deficit, new construction and campus security. He also said
there should
be more communication between faculty
and the deans.
