Fountain Residential Partners plans to complete The Vue, an all-inclusive housing complex for students, by Fall 2014. The apartments will include furniture, a 50-inch flat screen television and a queen-size bed. | Courtesy of Fountain Residential Partners

As the campus welcomes Cougar Place and Cougar Village II in the coming year, students will have yet another housing option to follow in Fall 2014.

Fountain Residential Partners, a Dallas-based company that has completed more than $1 billion in student housing construction across the country, is building The Vue on MacGregor, a five-story building with nearly 350 beds, that will be located at Calhoun Road and South MacGregor Way across from Bayou Oaks.

It will be the first privately owned off-campus community at UH, and as such, will differ from other housing options in that the University owns the land and leases it to a campus housing firm, the company told the Houston Chronicle.

Although the University won’t have direct control of the apartment property, the new complex will still help UH reach its Tier One potential of housing 25 percent of the students on campus.

“I’m excited because I think that the new complex will give students an opportunity for affordable living near campus, as well as a different style of living,” said nutrition junior Breanna Larsen, executive vice president of the Residence Hall Association.

“Students can form networks and bonds from their school experiences but also feel like they are out in the real world, living on their own and doing something for themselves.”

According to a Houston Chronicle blog post, Fountain Residential Partners has had its eye on the site for five or six years and believes the timing is right to expand in Houston.

“It shows up on the national radar,” said Brent Little, president of Fountain Residential Partners, in the post. “It’s a 41,000-student Tier One research institution. You look at the amount of new construction, the athletics, the education — all of it is hitting the national radar.”

Although pricing has not been set, students will lease by the bedroom and share common spaces, similar to Cougar Place. Rent will include furnishings, high-speed internet, flat-screen televisions and queen-size mattresses.

Many students are looking forward to this all-inclusive housing option that, while not directly tied to the University, benefits UH in many ways.

“I love the idea. The expansion of housing means that we are moving away from being a commuter campus,” said economics sophomore Marcela Arevalo.

“Our school is expanding and becoming bigger and better. Coogs are taking over, and we are turning Houston red.”

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Fountain Residential Partners plans to complete The Vue, an all-inclusive housing complex for students, by Fall 2014. The apartments will include furniture, a 50-inch flat screen television and a queen-size bed. | Courtesy of Fountain Residential Partners

Short

Paula Short has been appointed as provost after serving as interim provost this semester, President and Chancellor Renu Khator said in an email.

The Board of Regents will have to approve the appointment in its meeting on June 17.

The semester-long search process chose three candidates in May, and Short was not among them. Rather than rallying behind one of the candidates in the running for the position, the committee began gravitating toward its interim, Short.

Khator said after careful consideration of the two remaining candidates neither were a right fit for the needs of the University at this time.

“This week, I went back to presidents, vice presidents, deans, the UH Faculty Senate and the UH Student Government Association for another voice, and they are unanimously and strongly in favor of appointing Dr. Short,” Khator said.

In early May, Khator and Short announced an academic reorganization through the elimination and creation of positions.

The new structure has strategically designed positions to address major areas in academic affairs.

Students and faculty alike “should see a more responsive, supportive Office of Academic Affairs that is effective in helping faculty and students achieve success at UH,” said Richard Bonnin, interim associate vice president of UH Marketing and Communication and interim associate vice chancellor of the UH System.

Included in the reorganization is filling the provost position, also under the title senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost. A large part of the job involves academic leadership to optimally coordinate the UH System.

“The provost serves as the chief academic officer for a university and is a very crucial position,” said Student Government Association President Cedric Bandoh, a member of the provost search committee.

“All of the deans report to the provost, and this position oversees all academic programs and policies of the University. The provost also implements the chancellor and president’s vision as it pertains to student success.”

Additionally, the provost’s office initiates and oversees a broad range of programs that benefit students, which includes undergraduate, graduate, continuing and distance education programs.

The provost’s office also sponsors the progressive constructivist Charter School for grade school-aged children in the Houston community.

Although many of the duties of the provost may seem to fall in to faculty grounds, this position also means positive changes for students.

“Students should care because the provost can play an integral role in moving the University forward academically. Also, in terms of getting all of the colleges on the same page, such as with advising and career counseling, the provost can be the one that gets all the deans on board to move things forward in a timely and efficient manner.”

“We work closely with the provost on all things academics,” Bandoh said.

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In preparation for hurricane season, which began June 1, UH Facilities Management created a campus-wide exercise in which University employees responded as if a category 3 hurricane would make landfall in 36 hours.

“This is the first time an exercise of this kind has occurred,” said Executive Director of Facilities Management Melissa Rockwell-Hopkins. “The goal will be to conduct two exercises annually — one for pre-event preparation and one for post-event response.”

During the drill, the campus was split up into zones. Employees were sent out to the zones and evaluated as they inspected their assigned areas.

From this exercise, Rockwell-Hopkins said Facilities Management developed a plan to strengthen the University’s emergency-response teams and the collaboration between them.

Different University departments participated in the exercise, like the Fire Marshal’s Office and Emergency Operations Bureau.

In addition to monitoring tropical weather throughout hurricane season, the Bureau posts a Hurricane Planning Guide on its website, detailing how the Bureau prepares and responds to hurricanes.

Pre-storm protocol requires the Bureau to notify the campus to prepare for a possible suspension of normal operations. This decision would be made by the University’s administration.

If suspension occurs and the campus community has been informed through emails and text messages, Ride-Out Team members will be the only University personnel allowed on campus.

These team members are essential to keeping the University’s operations functioning; they would be responsible for distributing situation reports to University administration during the storm.

Post-storm, the Bureau would work with University Communication and Relations in order to communicate with students, faculty and staff.

Team members would work to quickly restore critical infrastructure components and conduct preliminary damage assessments of buildings.

“Facilities with basements are the most susceptible to water damage,” Rockwell-Hopkins said.

Not only does the University have hurricane-preparation plans for the campus community as a whole, but for its residents as well.

Student Housing and Residential Life has 25 buses reserved for evacuating students who have no evacuation destination.

“The specific location (of the buses) is to be determined,” said Don Yackley, executive director of Student Housing and Residential Life. “Based on such things as the safest distance in relation to type of hurricane and the damage or potential damage that is expected.”

But the department urges all students living on campus to fill out an Evacuation Plans Form, available at check-in.

If evacuation is announced by University administration, residents should already have an evacuation destination, according to Housing.

Students should protect their belongings left at their campus residence, the University said it will not take liability of damaged items.

“Residential students are encouraged to have renters’ insurance,” Yackley said. “If belongings are damaged in a storm-type situation, they would need to address this with their insurance company.”

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LaSaundra Cotright was one of 11 employees honored at the Staff Excellence Awards luncheon this Friday where she received the UH 2013 Charles F. McElhinney Distinguished Service Award, UH’s highest staff honor that includes a $3,000 stipend.

Cotright

“When I won the Staff Excellence Award in 2011, I felt honored and grateful and didn’t think twice about winning anything beyond that,” said Cotright, business administrator for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.  “I am thrilled to be this year’s McElhinney Award recipient.”

Cotright began her career at UH as executive secretary in the department of biology and biochemistry in 2000.

After several promotions, she now manages NSM’s administrative, financial, budgetary and human resource operations. Cotright is tasked with a range of responsibilities including budget planning, supervising department business managers and office coordinators, and reviewing and approving the reconciliation of accounting records with university reports and financial statements.

“Her leadership skills, fairness and dedication are her best attributes,” said Elsie Myers, business administrator of the Department of Chemistry and immediate past president of Staff Council. “I truly appreciate LaSaundra. I’m extremely happy that her hard work and dedication have been recognized.”

Fred McGhee, executive director of college operations at NSM, said Cotright is the “epitome of staff excellence.”

“She is relentless in the pursuit of perfecting organizational efficiency, developing employees’ skills and leadership, and representing the University of Houston as Tier One,” McGhee said.

Cotright credits her success thus far to her college education, which was made possible by a scholarship to attend Louisiana State University at Eunice. She now holds a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University, and is currently working on receiving her Masters of Business Administration in strategic management from UH-Victoria in December.

“This is truly a family award for us,” Cotright said, referring to her husband, son and daughter. “We sacrificed valuable family time so that I can complete my education and do well in my career.”

Cotright says she enjoys the UH community, and is thankful to be a part of it.

“I’m always amazed when the professors we assist with day-to-day business functions are featured in news stories describing amazing research results that have practical applications,” Cotright said. “It is gratifying to know that the long hours and hard work that the staff and I put in are a critical part of fulfilling their research needs.”

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The Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory and Substance Use Treatment Clinic in the Department of Psychology is a place where students can study the connection between anxiety and substance use while patients receive help through a variety of treatments.

“We’re providing the best available care in the entire world,” said AHRL-SUTC Director Michael Zvolensky.

The clinic-lab focuses on understanding the connection between anxiety and addiction, but the patients who use its free services have behavioral problems ranging from smoking cigarettes to panic attacks.

In order to help patients, the one-year-old clinic builds their tolerance toward emotional events by having them confront their fears in safe conditions. Another way of treating patients is by encouraging them to change their thinking patterns, such as being more mindful of their day-to-day routines, said Zvolensky.

But the clinic also functions as a lab that trains undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral and visiting scholars to study anxiety-substance use.

Chad Brandt, a clinical psychology graduate student, works at the lab and said he thinks it is a great place for undergraduate students to experience what research is like.

“When you work in a treatment facility like we do,” Brandt said, “you never know exactly what you’re going to see.”

Although the clinic treats anyone 18 to 65 years old, Zvolensky said it prioritizes UH staff and students.

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An aggravated robbery near campus was reported by a visitor at approximately 7:55 p.m. Friday.

Three black males described as teenagers approached the man on the 4000 block of Elgin Street and asked to use his cellphone. One of the black males displayed a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded the visitor’s phone and wallet. The suspects then ran north towards Rosalie Street, the UH Department of Public Safety said in a security alert.

The three males are approximately 5’9″, wore dark shorts and are thin or medium builds.

Updates to this alert can be found online.

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UH’s own C. T. Bauer College of Business has been ranked among the 10 most popular business schools in the nation by U.S. News.

The rankings were based off of highest yield rates, or percent of students who choose to enroll in an institution after being offered admission, and surveyed over 500 business school throughout the nation.

According to U.S. News, Bauer’s yield rate of 72.8 percent is part of a large surge in popularity among public business schools, which make up six places in the top 10 list.

“This acknowledgment from U.S. News signifies not only the growth that we are seeing in our conversion rate at Bauer but also stands to show that the college is becoming a destination of first choice for students,” said Dean Latha Ramchand in a Bauer press release.

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The C. T. Bauer College of Business received a legacy gift from the foundation named after Houston’s Weingarten Realty Investors’ chairman and his wife, to create The Stanford Alexander Center for Excellence in Real Estate.

The Center will support and complement Bauer’s graduate real estate program in partnership with Houston-area real estate leaders by bringing professional practice into the classroom.

“The Stanford Alexander Center for Excellence in Real Estate will be one of the cornerstones of the specialized programming in the practice of real estate development offered at the C. T. Bauer College of Business,” said dean Latha Ramchand.

“Here, we look for opportunities to customize learning for our students, giving them not just a degree but an experiential learning opportunity, where they learn about best business practices from academic and industry leaders. The Alexander Center will help us to fulfill that mission by providing practice-based learning for graduate students interested in the real estate industry.”

The center will offer career scholarships, internships, counseling and placement, as well as a “best practices initiative” beginning in 2014 to promote collaboration between students, faculty and real estate professional through the exploration of different segments of the industry each year. The initiative will result in the publication of a paper, research seminar, conference and awards ceremony.

John E. Walsh, director of the graduate real estate program and former president of Friendswood Development Co., said the Center will be dedicated to instilling students with Stanford Alexander’s values, which are of the highest level of professional expertise and personal integrity.

“The Center, with its unique mission of advancing expertise in the professional practice of real estate, will establish the UH Bauer Graduate Real Estate Program as a leader among the 64 universities in America that offer an advanced degree in real estate,” Walsh said. “Mr. Alexander represents the best in real estate professionals and is an outstanding role model for students, faculty and staff of the graduate real estate program.”

The Stanford Alexander Center for Excellence in Real Estate will build on the vision set by its founders by giving students expertise and experience because “creating great cities” is a guiding principle of the real estate program, and it reflects the industry’s commitment to serve the community through responsible development of the built environment.

“For over 50 years, Stanford Alexander has set the standard of what a Houston real estate executive should be,” said Welcome W. Wilson Sr., founding chair of the program’s Executive Advisory Board and former chair of the UH System Board of Regents. “Now, because of his leadership, Houston will have one of the nation’s most attractive programs in real estate education.”

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In the midst of the ongoing immigration debates, UH and the Student Government Association stand strong by their stance on reform.

During the Bandoh-Harris administration, SGA passed a resolution, authored by Senators Guillermo Lopez, a political science senior, and Mafe Alfaro, a recent political science graduate, in support of a Texas Senate bill that allows undocumented students who attended high school in Texas three years prior to graduation to qualify as a Texas resident for tuition purposes.

Additionally, the resolution works to urge the Texas Congressional delegation to work in a bipartisan manner to pass a comprehensive reform bill. However, this is just the first step in a long process.

“This resolution is very important because it shows our commitment to ensuring access to higher education and the American dream for all students,” said supply chain management senior and SGA president Cedric Bandoh.

“We have a significant number of undocumented students and as the immigration debate intensifies this summer, we want to ensure that we speak out against any attempts, whether statewide or nationally, to deny these students benefits.”

Bandoh said whether the benefits are derived from the DREAM Act or STEM Jobs Act, SGA wants the undocumented students to succeed with the provisions provided by these laws with the hopes that it eventually leads to comprehensive immigration reform.

Yet, immigration reform is still overcoming hurdles in Congress. Just this week the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the Gang of Eight plan, their first major victory, which, if enacted, will help most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country establish citizenship under certain requirements.

Similarly, student leaders still have work to do to further their point. Though the bill passed in the 49th administration, members of SGA are still working to ensure that the progress continues.

“I am currently meeting with other student government leaders from other universities to lie out a course of action for when the immigration reform bill hits the floor of the Senate,” Lopez said. “We plan on actively speaking to our senators on this issue and eventually our representatives in the House of Representatives when they have a bill ready.”

In addition to this, Bandoh will be discussing the matter nationwide with the National Campus Leadership Council as well as other student body presidents, while the UH Law Center will continue to help students apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to help undocumented individuals apply for work permits if they meet certain requirements.

“Since we passed the SGA resolution, the bipartisan Gang of Eight has introduced a bill to the committee that lays out many of the things we outlined in the SGA resolution,” Lopez said, “and we expect a bipartisan coalition of students and student leaders throughout Texas to fight for this issue that means a lot to thousands of students and their families.”

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A new position within the recently integrated Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services was announced Wednesday.

Shefman

Pamelyn K. Shefman will assume her role as Director of Assessment and Planning beginning July 8.

As the first director in this position, Shefman will coordinate at the Division level all assessment activities the strategic plan, partnerships with Institutional Research, department and program reviews, contributions to the President’s Progress Card and assist in the accreditation process. In addition, she will advise the Division’s Assessment Committee, manage annual reporting and continue to evolve the culture of assessment throughout the Division.

“Pam’s ability to build collaborative partnerships with students, faculty and staff in her work will enhance the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services contributions to supporting student success at the University of Houston,” said Daniel Maxwell, associate vice chancellor and associate vice president for Student Affairs.

Shefman recently completed her course work for a doctorate in educational psychology and individual differences with a concentration in higher education administration and leadership at UH’s College of Education and bring more than 15 years of experience in Student Affairs to the position.

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