The Daily Cougar counted seven fire trucks, five rescue vehicles and two ambulances. | Stefani Crowe/The Daily Cougar

Students evacuated the Calhoun Lofts Tuesday evening when flames and smoke were seen by residents coming from an apartment.

“Calhoun Lofts was evacuated after a fire started earlier (Tuesday) evening in a room on the third floor of the building. Police and fire fighters responded. Flames are no longer visible, the situation is now under control and there are no injuries,” said Richard Bonnin, interim associate vice president and vice chancellor of marketing and communication.

The Houston Fire Department extinguished the fire and an investigation is underway.

“A cardboard box placed on top of a stove is thought to be the source of the fire,” said Director of Media Relations Shawn Lindsey.

Residential Life Coordinator Jamica Johnson said to residents in an email at 8:21 p.m. that they would be displaced from the fire until HFD gives the all clear — something she said could take an hour and a half.

A rehearing was filed at the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday in an attempt to reverse its initial decision of siding with UH on a Texas Whistleblower case.

The University of Houston v. Stephen Barth has been a decade-long court battle, which had its most recent decision delivered on June 14, when the Texas Supreme Court ruled that university policies are not equal to state laws when it comes to reported violations to be protected by the Texas Whistleblower Act.

“The University strongly believes the Texas Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss Stephen Barth’s lawsuit in its entirety was appropriate and is consistent with the Texas Supreme Court’s previous Texas Whistleblower Act decisions, as well as other case laws in Texas,” said Richard Bonnin, interim vice president and vice chancellor for marketing and communication.

Barth, who is a tenured professor for the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management is using five issues to justify the grounds for a rehearing.

According to court documents Barth’s motion for rehearing introduction said the case should be reheard because the Court failed to adequately consider evidence in the record and its opinion relies on several erroneous conclusions regarding the evidence at trial. 

Barth said that the faculty and staff of the University should understand how the ruling would affect them.

“If this decision stands, it will have a severe chilling effect on faculty and staff coming forward, which is their obligation under the UH policies, so it puts them in a real catch 22 (situation),” Barth said. “The real question is why would an organization want to dis-incentivize its constituents from reporting corruption and abuse in the organization?”

If the Texas Supreme Court grants Barth’s motion for a rehearing, the case will go back to trial.

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Days after the graduation ceremonies, President and Chancellor Renu Khator announced a reorganization of the Office of Academic Affairs and that she would begin making personnel and administrative changes.

Since then, the inner workings of UH’s administration has been nipped and tucked, and the transformation is not finished yet.

The changes come after a long process of consideration. In August 2012, the University began a relationship with Pappas Consulting Firm in order to decide what needs to change and — more importantly — how. As of May 20, the firm was paid more than $211,300 that was funded from private contributions, said Provost Paula Short.

As a staff, we agree on the mantra “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Except something seems to be broken at UH. The six-year graduation rate at UH is lower than the average. According to UH Institutional research, the six-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time students was 46 percent in 2012, while the nation averaged 58 percent in 2011, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. This data excludes transfer and part-time students.

There is something amiss and Khator is trying to find out what that is and fix it. We believe that rearranging the University at its core is a valid option for improvement at this time.

One thing we would like the administration to remember when making changes to the system is who UH represents.

As Hugh Roy Cullen, who gave about $70 million total to the University, said, “I have only one condition in making this gift. The University of Houston must always be a college for working men and women and their sons and daughters.”

Despite graduation rates and how UH looks on paper, the administration needs to keep that as an integral part of its decision-making process.