UTMB Faculty Senate
April 11, 2005
Caduceus Room
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

MINUTES

Senators Present: T. Albrecht; S. Ayachi; C. Baker; M. Best; C. Boodley; D. Breitkopf; B. Budelmann (Chair); B. Camune; A. Cass; C. Christiansen (ex officio); J. Dallas; P. Gallagher; J. Gallagher; N. Hughes; H. Jordan; M. Kanz; R. Lederman (Past Chair); R. Leonard; H. Li; M. McGinnis; K. Mossberg; C. Phillips; L. Phillips (ex officio); L. Primeau; R. Rahr; M. Winters (Chair Elect)

I. Approval of Agenda of 4/11/5

II. Approval of Minutes of 3/14/5

III. President’s Report – Dr. John Stobo
• The BP Explosion was a tremendous disaster, but also one of UTMB’s finest hours. 22 people were brought to UTMB from the explosion because we are the closest level one trauma unit to Texas City. 350 people donated blood over the next 24 hours. 5 victims are still in the hospital, 3 of which are in the ICU.
• NIH has signed an environmental impact statement and production can begin in the next few weeks
• Newspapers announced a budget cut for UT Systems. It’s not final. It still has to go to a conference committee. The committee will give us the opportunity to have issues addressed. Overall, the session is better than last session and no major changes are planned.
• The Tuition Revenue Bond is money the state puts forward that is essentially a gift to UTMB. We have to pay the interest on the debt service, which typically equates to half. It is money we get cheaply for research and education. It cannot be utilized for clinical purposes.

IV. Chair’s Comments
• The senate needs to formulate points of concern from faculty that the senate can address. Current possibilities are scholarships and the lack of interests in graduate school

V. Chair – Elect Comments
• The Senate Executive Committee reported there are projects that started last year but have fallen to the wayside. There is a form for tracking issues and projects brought forward to the senate. This form will be sent out electronically for review.

VI. Past – Chair Comments
• Readdress the issue of making available tenure track for part time employment for those professors who are already full time tenure. The Board of Regents endorsed this statement verbally but no statement regarding part time tenure was formally made. Our IHOP states faculty may request part time tenure; we want to expand upon this statement; want to indicate faculty will retain tenure.

VII. Translational Research Development Faculty Leave Program – Dr. Patel
• This is a committee that belongs to the School of Medicine
• A year and a half ago, the project was picked up because Translational Research needed a boost. It was hard to get clinicians involved in the process because they were not readily available. This would allow on campus mini-sabbatical programs to professors for a certain amount of time to develop research. This was presented to the AEC and they thought this was a good idea, but wanted to know where the money would be coming from to fund this project.

VIII. Committee Report – Governance – Drs. Breitkopf & Albrecht
• There are over 100 cores on campus currently. No investigator can have all techniques used for competitive research today. Technology is already behind before it is even installed. The problem is the money needed to set up cores is not joined with the maintenance money from them. Money for upkeep is needed to maintain and create state of the art standards.
• Regarding the handout: Any input from the Senate would be helpful to the committee in preparing this document for presentation to Dr. Stobo. It would be nice to define what a real university supported core is like.

IX. Committee Report – Faculty Quality – Dr. Baker
• Faculty Club—tour site; consider naming; consider ‘opening’ celebrations/PR
• Faculty Satisfaction Survey—representative (Primeau); input to questions • Benefits PR--article to highlight ‘perks’ available to faculty and employees (needed since provided on the personal compensation and rewards statement?)
• Parking—pursue if short-term options are available for personnel to attend meetings on campus
• Other items as delegated

X. Dr. Budelmann asked that all committees prepare a bulleted guide for the next faculty senate meeting that presents their current projects and the status of them.

Meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Next Faculty Senate Meeting 05/09/05