UTMB Faculty Senate

November 12, 2012

4:30 – 6:00 pm

MINUTES

 

Present: Drs. C. Wiggs, Chair, S. Al-Arabi, B. Ameredes, J. Badalamenti, P. Boor, W. Braun, L. Cain, S. Clark, P. Crane, S. Croisant, R. Ellis, S. Elsaid, S. Fisher, J. Graham, A. Jones, L. Lawrence, B. Leonard, B. Luxon, J. McBride, R. Rupp, T. Wen, H. West, D. Wild and D. Young

 

Absent: Drs. J. Davis, N. Mendias, A. Oberhauser and S. Sarna

 

I.        The meeting was called to order at 4:30 pm by Dr. Carol Wiggs, Faculty Senate Chair.

 

II.           The Approval of the October 8, 2012 minutes.  The minutes of October 8, 2012 were voted and approved by email on October 24, 2012.

 

III.   Provost, VP and Dean’s Report

 

      VP for Education and Dean, School of Nursing – report provided by Dr. Watson.

      VP and Dean, School of Health Professions – report provided by Dr. Protas.

      VP and Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences – report submitted by Dr. Cooper.               

 

IV.        Reports by Faculty Senate Chair

      Dr. Wiggs announced that the officers met with Dr. Callender on October 18 and discussed several topics. 

      State funding: approximately $68 million Dr. Callender is trying to access through, the money promised by the last legislature to help UTMB recovery from Ike, which is tied up in Austin. 

      FEMA: UTMB has received most of the funding that was requested.  There will be an appeal to FEMA for some of the funding involving the Clinical Services and Energy infrastructure. 

      Capital Campaign: Is going well. Dr. Callender, selected faculty and alumni are visiting various areas around Texas and talking with foundations interested in education.  To date, $240 million of the $450 million has been raised.

UTMB Health Services first quarter report is down $2 million.  This may possibly be due to the budget projections being off.  Dr. Callender will keep us informed of issues surrounding the budget concerns.

      IMH:  A question arose concerning conversations surrounding the future of the Institute for the Medical Humanities; Dr. Callender stated he saw no plans for further reductions and desires to support the IMH in its current configuration.

      Retirement package: Regarding the retirement package offer for eligible tenured faculty.  The School of Medicine chairs expressed concern regarding who would actually be eligible for the package offer.  Concern arose regarding the Clinical faculty versus Research faculty and how was the determination to be made regarding classification of position.  Dr. Callender agreed to re-look at the qualifications within the School of Medicine.  This necessitated the offer to be re-evaluated through legal.  He wants to proceed with a new timeline and wants to be sure all regulations are followed.  The next earliest possible offer may not be until January.  The decision needs to be made by December if it is to occur.

      Construction:  There is a problem with the Clinical Sciences Building.  As you may remember during the excavation part of the original seawall was uncovered, apparently there is an issue with where the foundations for the new building were originally to be laid.  Construction plans may need to be re-visited.

      Dr. Steven Mintz, UT System’s Executive Director, Institute for Transformational Learning, will visit UTMB Friday, November 16th.  Besides UTMB key administrators, he will be meeting with faculty and key staff       persons.  Thanks to everyone who volunteered or suggested others for this visit.

   Faculty Grievance Board for FY13 has been constituted and there is a nice representation of tenured faculty across campus.

   The Council of Deans will review the Academic Positions or Programs policy at their next meeting.

 

   Some topics came up during a brief break; one was regarding the Compensation plan and the Huron consultants.  Dr. Croisant addressed this issue.

 

V.           UTMB Business Operations and Facilities Update – Mr. Mike Shriner, AIA, MBA, Vice President, Business Operations and Facilities

   Mr. Shriner gave a PowerPoint presentation and here are some of the highlights of his presentation: 

         Infrastructure:  Texas Gas Pipeline underway for UTMB to generate their own electricity that during storms could supply UTMB for a period of 3-4 days without outside assistance.

         Oxygen System Upgrades: Primary tank relocating expected to be completed in December.

         1108 Strand building:  IT rerouting expected to be completed in December and demolition expected to start in January and completed by March 2013.

         Energy Conservation:  LED lamps will be installed in 24 hour use areas.

         Clinical Services Wing: Electrical vault is complete new transformers are installed.  Pile installation nearing completion.

         Primary Care Pavilion: The floor wall construction activities are 15% complete.

         Victory Lakes expansion:  Board of Regents final approval scheduled for November 14.

         John Sealy Hospital: Façade replacement design and budget to be presented to the Board of Regents in February 2013.  7B medicine unit expansion complete which provides 16 additional beds.

         Healthcare Facilities:  Concourse temporary partition in place, phase I work has started in the health clinic and John Sealy Hospital.

         Open Gates: Should be operational by this December.

         Ashbel Smith: Exterior and Interior window repair started November 5 and substantial completion should be finished by April 2013.  Level 1 Student space, construction starts in November and operational completion by February 2013.

         1003 Market:  School of Health Professions Classrooms since October 22.

         Moody Medical Library Upgrades: Demolition and abatement completed, renovation in the process; work is done after hours and expected to be complete by May 2013.

         1700 Strand:  Mold and lead abatement underway and FEMA funding at this time is unresolved.

         Research building 6:  Structural biology phase 2 started in October and expected to be complete in March.

         Basic Science Building 054:  Roofing repairs complete, a/c digital controls start in December and the Pharmacology Lab was completed in October.

         Elevators:  95% are up and running. 

Mr. Shriner answered some questions from the Senators.  He also added for anyone to call 24040 if you should have any concerns of any facilities, such as an elevator making grinding noise, etc., this is a 24/7 response line for facilities and they have someone to go and check the area of concern.

                                      

VII.   Reports by the Executive Committee and Committee Chairs

Dr. Wiggs announced that the Regents Outstanding Teaching Award is due January 7th and the email was sent out to all faculty and reminded that some members of the Academy of Master Teachers and the Faculty Quality Committee reviews the applications and make their recommendations.  IHOP and Governance will need to meet and will need to move forward on the Post Tenure Review policy.  Drs. McBride and Ameredes have a draft that they will finalize soon and forward to Dr. Wiggs.  An email will be sent out to the Senators for approval and will need to do so before the next Council of Deans meeting.  This email will contain the old and new policy and the Regents Rule.

Intellectual Property was discussed at length. The UTMB policy matches the Regent’s Rule regarding ownership of intellectual property. Basically, if data was generated on University owned equipment and on University time, it is the property of the university. However there are items that the University does not wish to control. These are listed in the Regent’s Rule.

Dr. Cain mentioned the Faculty Development Program to Dr. Jacobs and he is very interested and he had some questions.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 6:02 pm.