UHD's 49th Commencement exercises will be held at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros at 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 19, where more than 1,500 students will receive bachelor's and master's degrees.

The ceremony can be viewed live via the internet at http://www.uhd.edu/publicaffairs/commencewebcastwel.html .

This ceremony is one of the first "green" commencement ceremonies in the Greater Houston area.

Caps and gowns students are wearing are made of recycled plastic, and organizers say each cap and gown is made of 25 recycled plastic bottles - bottles that didn't get sent to a landfill.

In addition, UHD continues its tradition of using paper with 10 percent recycled content and soy-based ink for the commencement program.  Electronic copies of the program will also be available online today for those who view the ceremony over the Internet.

UHD students can donate their caps and gowns at the end of today's ceremony, and UHD will make arrangements to donate them to a local school.

UHD staff members expect Commencement attendance to top 15,000 as family and friends turn out to watch their loved ones cross the stage in recognition of their obtaining a college degree.

The UHD Purchasing Department is sponsoring the HUB Vendor Show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, in the Buffalo Bayou Room, A-300, Academic Building.

The show is a way to introduce UHD departments to Historically Underutilized Businesses so they can include HUBs in their procurement opportunities. The vendors will give away door prizes so bring business cards for a chance to win the drawings.A flyer is available here.

UHD's Office of Student Accounting and Cashiers will no longer mail paper fee bills starting with the spring 2011 semester in an effort to become more environmentally conscious and cost efficient in these challenging economic times.

Fee bills for the Spring 2011 semester will only be available electronically. Fee bills for winter 2010 semester will be mailed to the address on file, but are now also available for electronic viewing. 

To see their fee bill online, students can go to the UHD website at www.uhd.edu and click on the myUHD logo in the upper right corner of the home page or enter http://myuhd.uhd.edu/. Select the My Payment option, View Account Summary, Select Semester and then View Fee Bill. A flyer is available here.

Responses to UHD's Budget Discussion are now available online on the President's web pages, http://www.uhd.edu/presidentsoffice/budget/.

UHD President Bill Flores asked the UHD community to consider two questions:

Do you have a good idea about how the university can (a) cut costs, (b) generate additional revenue, or (c) become more efficient?

Have you encountered any practice or requirement in the university (at department, college or university level) that makes no sense to you or seems redundant or unnecessary?

He then asked people to send ideas and comments to suggestionbox@uhd.edu. Those suggestions are now available at http://www.uhd.edu/presidentsoffice/budget/.

Candidate for Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Brian Chapman talks with Faculty Senate President Phil Lyons.

Videos of candidate visits are available online

Candidates for Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs visited campus this week and videos of their visits are available at a secure area of UHD's website.

The videos can be accessed at http://www.uhd.edu/publicaffairs/provostsearch/candidates.html. An evaluation form is also available at that site. The deadline for submitting the forms was Monday, Dec. 13.

Additional information about the candidates is available at the same web location. The candidates are:

 Manuel Avalos, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Support and Development, Division of Academic Affairs, University of North Carolina, Wilmington;

 Ben Latigo, Ph.D., Dean and Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia;

 Brian Chapman, Ph.D., Professor of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; and

 John Ronnau, Ph.D., Director and Professor, School of Social work, College of Health and Public Affairs, University of Central Florida.

Provost candidate John Ronnau talks with College of Business Dean Don Bates before his open meeting with faculty and staff.

UHD  faculty and staff can access video archives of the 16^th annual SLOAN-C International Conference on Online Learning held in early November.

UHD's Academic Technology Committee and Information Technology Department secured the licensing to make it available to the UHD community.

The conference focused on the latest in research, effective practices, and promising new technologies for online learning.  This year many conference sessions were webcast and those webcasts were archived and made available for viewing through Nov. 1, 2011. The webcasts include:

• Retaining Online Students
• Colleges for the 21st Century: The New Ecology of Learning
• Are You Experienced? Determining Online Teaching Readiness in Newly Hired Faculty
• Recent Large Scale Research on Online Learning Effectiveness
• Measuring Student Retention in Online Courses

If you are interested in viewing any of the webcasts, please click here.  To return to the archived webcasts at anytime, consider bookmarking the webcast page within your browser. 

Also note, if your computer does not have an application called "Silverlight" you will be required to download and install the software before proceeding. To install Silverlight, follow the onscreen instructions or click here for complete step-by-step instructions for viewing the webcasts and installing Silverlight. 

Please call the Help Desk at 713-221-8031 or Technology Learning Services at 713-221-8200 if you are unable to view the webcasts.

ESO offers Star12 Training options for UHD employees at a discount

 Has your professional development budget suffered due to the current financial environment?  STAR 12 has cut membership prices for UHD's staff and faculty down to $150 per employee for a 1 year unlimited STAR 12 membership.

This membership includes unlimited training for 1 year for the following:

For an additional $30 per person, you can add MINDLEADERS, which includes 300 of the most popular E-Learning courses available.

If you wish to join, have questions, or need additional information, please contact Bobbie Horack, ESO Coordinator, at 713-222-5318 or horackb@uhd.edu.

Last year's Best of Show was the College of Public Service.

Staff Council sponsors holiday Office Decorating Contest; entries due Dec. 17

The Staff Council is sponsoring an Office Decorating Contest with multiple categories and the deadline to enter is Dec. 17.

Departments can enter for the office decorations or their door decorations, but not both. Office decorations will be judged on the categories of most creative, most traditional, most humorous, best door and best theme.

Email entries to Michelle Henninghaus at henninghausm@uhd.edu with the following information:

-          Contact name and extension,

-          Department and room number and

-          Door or office decoration theme

Judging will be held throughout the day Monday, Dec. 20, and the winners will be announced Tuesday, Dec. 21. A flyer with photos of last year's winners is available here.

UHD will hold its first online Winter Term from Dec. 27, 2010, to Jan. 14, 2011.

Currently enrolled UHD students will be able to take one course during the session, and registration for Winter Term will open today.
 

For more information, go here.

Here is the  list of courses list of courses for the all-online Winter Term:

IT Training for Faculty/Staff/Alumni

Register for IT training opportunities at the links below.  To schedule a one-on-one appointment or other assistance, please call 713-221-8200.

Blackboard Vista

Today

10 - 11 a.m.- Blackboard: Communication Tools

Thursday, Dec. 16  

1 - 2:30 p.m. - Blackboard: Mail, Calendar, and Who's Online 

Monday, Dec. 20 
2 - 3:30 p.m. - Softchalk: Lesson Builder

Tuesday, Dec. 21

1 - 2 p.m. - Blackboard: Customizing Your Blackboard Course

Wednesday, Dec. 22

10 - 11 a.m.- Blackboard: Managing Course Content

Classroom Tools

Friday, Dec. 17
10 - 11:30 a.m. - Useful Classroom Gadgets

Microsoft Excel

Thursday, Dec. 23

10 - 11:30 a.m. - Excel Basics

See all current IT training available