Tuesday, April 9, 2013 // Issue 102, Volume 78
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Teaching fellows’ voices heard Natalie Harms News editor
A chalked statement outside of Ezekiel W. Cullen Building advertises the English teaching fellows’ campaign to attain a raise. | Nichole Taylor/The Daily Cougar
The English department’s teaching fellows have made their voices heard by the administration, requesting a re-consideration of a wages, and President Renu Khator has responded, saying she will take the necessary actions to make their requests a reality in a statement to the UH community. Khator said she was away celebrating the birth of her granddaughter for the last ten days, but was immediately briefed on the goings-on in her absence. She said the budget restrictions make it difficult for any immediate salary adjustment. “While decisions related to TF and TA salaries are entirely under the domain of the colleges and departments based upon their priorities,” Khator said, “I understand that colleges’ decisions may be shaped by budgetary allocations from the University.” While the president’s office does not directly control individual salaries, Khator said she will allocate funds to the deans, along with the provost, who will decide how
the money is distributed. “Funding will come from monies designated to support our broad commitment to student success,” Khator said. “This pool of money will provide assistance to TFs and TAs, whose salaries are most compressed and who teach undergraduate CORE classes.” Secondarily, Khator said she will create a “university-wide task force on Graduate Assistant Success.” The TFs sent an email to members of the press acknowledging Khator’s statement. They said they appreciate the promise to take action and now wait on College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean John Roberts to find out more details. “We are waiting on a concrete wage adjustment figure from Dean Roberts, who has been working closely with us throughout this process,” the TFs said in the email. While they wait to hear more details, the sit-ins have been suspended, according to the email.
S I N C E
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OPINION
Early rising gives benefits LIFE+ARTS
Art, science come together SPORTS
FELLOWS continues on page 3
COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Students improve payroll process Makenzie Seman Contributing writer
The Lean Six Sigma project team has been working on a process to reduce payroll-processing errors for the UH System payroll department. Team members, who are enrolled in the Quality Improvement in Project Management course, have ironed out the wrinkles for a
smoother process and have helped prepare the UH Payroll Department for a rollout of a new electronic payroll process Kovach later this year. “Lean Six Sigma concentrates on improving efficiency and reducing
variability in all types of business processes,” said Jamison Kovach, an assistant professor in the Project Management Program. “This level of performance is a tremendous improvement over where most organizations currently operate.” The department’s investigation, which began last year, was looking for ways to implement electronic time reporting for biweekly
employees. However, members soon found that major process advances were needed before employing a new system. While investigating, it was discovered that the payroll department was continually running payroll, sometimes as much as twice a week during off-cycles. After analyzing
In a Corpus Christi competition that required building a working canoe using only concrete, UH engineering students took home third place against 24 other schools.
thedailycougar.com
TOMORROW Learn about a graduate student’s plan for the a Houston landmark.
ONLINE XTRA
Cougars’ concrete canoe cruises to third Staff writer
GET SOME DAILY
PAYROLL continues on page 3
ENGINEERING
Darlene Campos
Officially a hall of fame member
The American Society of Civil Engineers sponsored Texas/Mexico Regional Concrete Canoe Competition also brought the UH canoe team, Cougar Construction, second place in a Texas Section ASCE Centennial, to host the University of Texas at a later date.
Jerry Rogers, associate professor of civil engineering, said the first Texas ASCE concrete canoe race was on the San Antonio Riverwalk in 1975. The competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and is completely
student-run, said Reagan Herman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. Herman said the ASCE has more than 140,000 members worldwide and it is America’s oldest national CANOE continues on page 3
UH showcases Indian culture in dance competition.
COUNTDOWN
6
Days until the last day to file your taxes.
We think this is worse than a paper due. This is real life.