Faculty Senate

UHCL faculty actively participate in University governance through the Faculty Senate, University committees and boards.  The Faculty Senate makes recommendations to the UHCL President concerning matters of interest to the faculty. 

Purpose

• To provide the means to share responsibility among members of the faculty, administration, staff, and students for UHCL's direction and policy making;
• To work toward accomplishing the mission of UHCL;
• To support the letter of the law House Bill 199, which created UHCL;
• To represent the faculty of UHCL in all matters relating to faculty welfare, opportunities, responsibilities, administration, both internal and external; and
• To provide the faculty of UHCL with an effective instrument for communication with all other aspects of the institution and the system.

Meetings

Regular meetings are scheduled from 1-3 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month during the academic year.

Faculty Assembly 

Membership

The membership of the Faculty Senate consists of a president, vice president, and immediate past president along with eight Senators elected from each of the four schools that comprise the University of Houston-Clear Lake.  These Senators hold membership in the University's Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC), the Facilities and Support Services Committee (FSSC) and  the University Life Committee (ULC). The Senate also has four internal committees:Curriculum and Teaching, Faculty Life, Budget and Research.

Officers serve one year in each of the three officer positions (president, vice president, and past president).  Only full-time tenured faculty members are eligible to be officers of the Faculty Senate.  Both the president and vice president must have been members of the Faculty Senate for at least two long semesters when their terms of office begin.

The vice president of the Faculty Senate automatically becomes president of the Faculty Senate upon the expiration of the term of the president of the Faculty Senate or upon that officer's resignation, ineligibility or removal. The president of the Faculty Senate automatically becomes the immediate past president upon expiration of the term of his/her term as president and serves in an advisory capacity for the fall semester after completion of his/her term.

Excluded from eligibility to serve on the Faculty Senate or on a governance committee as a faculty representative, are the President, Provost, and all other academic vice presidents, deans, associate deans, any person with administrative responsibility who participate in faculty merit evaluations and/or the promotion and tenure process and any faculty member teaching less than two courses per semester due to administrative release time (except when the release time is for Faculty Senate authorized work).