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Auchmuty asks faculty to join advisory groups

Filling empty committee seats benefits University, Faculty Senate head says

By Lisa Street
Senior Staff Writer

After nearly one month in office, Faculty Senate President Giles Auchmuty is encouraging senators to play a proactive role in University development by serving on advisory committees to counsel administrative offices across the campus.

Faculty members are working well on advisory committees for the library and Athletics, but many positions need to be filled on other committees as well, Auchmuty said.

"There could be considerable benefit to all of us if a number of other areas of the administration had regular faculty input and counsel," he said.

With 30 UH standing committees to choose from, senators can now make their selections via the Internet by filling out the Faculty Committee Preference Survey on the Faculty Senate's Web site, www.uh.edu/fs.

"My hope is that many more faculty, than at present, will return the committee selection forms and offer their expertise and time to help the University in their areas of interest and knowledge," Auchmuty said. "This should help make this a much better institution for all of us."

Auchmuty joined the UH Department of Mathematics in 1982 and is teaching Calculus I this semester. His research interests include bifurcation theory and div-curl boundary value problems.

Auchmuty has authored at least 64 scientific publications, several of which have received reviews by the American Mathematical Society. He has also served as an editor for the Houston Journal of Mathematics for the past 10 years, for three of which he held the managing editor position.

To better inform faculty about campus goings-on and increase faculty response and participation, Auchmuty said he is trying to make the Faculty Senate's Web site a center of information about the University.

"We are going to have the Faculty Senate provide information to the faculty about things going on," he said. "For example, we are going to develop a calendar of activities that interest faculty and provide links to other Web sites about the University as well."

Reviewing faculty governance in the various colleges is also on Auchmuty's agenda this year. The Senate's Faculty Affairs Committee will be researching colleges' bylaws to make sure they are up-to-date and being followed.

Faculty participation in college planning and decision-making and the relationships between deans and faculty members will also be evaluated for commonalties between the colleges, Auchmuty said.

"It seems that the time has come to review and compare the way our colleges are organized and how they involve their own faculty in their activities," Auchmuty said. "There appears to be an excellent opportunity to change the recent UH atmosphere and culture for the better."
 

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