Core Committee on Women

Current Projects

Core Committee for the Support of Underrepresented Ethnic Groups
Meeting Highlights
January 10, 2007

Present: Jason Glenn, Jose Gonzalez, Chair, Clifford Houston, Pamela Keys, Raymond Lewis, Freddy A. Paniagua, Suzanne Peloquin, Norma Perez, Amanda Porter, Rebecca Saavedra, Robinlyn Sayers, Kathy Shingleton, John Stobo, Guest, Melvin Williams and Miguel Ybarra.

1. Approval of Minutes
The December 13, 2006 minutes were approved.

2. Old Business

a) Diversity Reports – Kathy Shingleton/Melvin Williams

Kathy Shingleton and Melvin Williams provided members with several summary reports, including Ethnicity and Gender Staffing as of August 31, 2006, with the data broken down by department and by the four schools; Promotion of UTMB Full Time Benefit Eligible Faculty by Ethnicity Over the Years from 1997 through 2006; UTMB Full Time Benefit Eligible Faculty by Ethnicity Over the Years; and Institutional Turnover by Entity from September 1, 2005 through August 31, 2006. Melvin informed the group that numbers from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) show that only 7% of students enrolled in U.S. medical schools are minorities.

Dr. Stobo informed the group that UTMB has one of the most diverse medical school classes in the nation which should place us in an excellent position to increase our minority faculty. We need to get minority students to stay at UTMB to start their careers, thus increasing our minority faculty numbers. It was pointed out that students don’t want to go into faculty positions with the amount of student loan debts that they have accumulated; faculty positions don’t pay enough. No trend data was available to compare to see if our minority faculty numbers may be lower than years ago. Dr. Stobo informed the group that UTMB is not making much headway and we are losing market share in the minorities’ Health Professions. Dr. Gonzalez informed the group that the Committee’s Action Plan will address some of these issues.

Dr. Stobo informed the group that he had recently met with Rudy Guerrero and David Ketchens, past and current chairs of the Institutional Diversity Council respectively. One of the key issues under discussion was the institution’s Diversity Week activities which do not properly address diversity in such a short timeframe. The institution needs more consistent activities over the year in order to properly promote diversity. Dr. Stobo informed the group that he would provide the money to make this happen. A key stumbling block of the institution is the mentorship/orientation of underrepresented minorities. Dr. Stobo informed the group that a mentoring program would be terrific.

b) GAP Funding Initiative – Raymond Lewis

The gap funding initiative has been on hold because of issues with the wording of the document, some of which is not legal. Gap funding would give department chairs the dollars they need to fund recruitment of underrepresented minority faculty. The School of Medicine did away with “bridge” funding last year. Dr. Stobo informed the group that Dr. Garland Anderson would be presenting bridge funding to the Strategic Executive Council this Friday. One million dollars would be budgeted for this initiative and Dr. Stobo informed the group that he would like to see $250,000 to $300,000 of this bridge funding go to the recruitment of underrepresented minorities.

3. New Business

a) Core Committee Action Plan Workgroup – Miguel Ybarra

There wasn’t sufficient time left during the meeting to address Miguel Ybarra’s subcommittee action plan workgroup findings and recommendations so the handouts were collected and this item was tabled for the next meeting.

b) Announcements by members; agenda items for next meeting

Dr. Paniagua, filling in for Dr. Gonzalez, announced that Anita Mercado had resigned from the committee due to her workload and that committee members should send recommendations for a replacement to Melvin Williams prior to the next meeting. Dr. Paniagua also reminded the committee that we needed to invite the next Chair or Dean to a meeting to give a report on the recruitment and retention of minority faculty in their department or school. As part of diversity initiatives in Human Resources, the committee would like to see a report on A/P Faculty and Classified. The Committee would like to improve the process for the selection of search committees and training of search committee members to enhance the recruitment of underrepresented minorities.

4. Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007.

Meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Recorder: Sheryl Lashway, Office of the President