For several years Pelli’s Petronas Towers, a pair of 88-story art deco buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were the world’s tallest buildings. The sky-scraping scalloped columns, conjoined by an aerial bridge, remain an international architectural icon. The Drexel Chapel, which is Pelli’s first-ever church design, is scheduled to be dedicated on Oct. 6 with an invitation-only Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond, followed by a week of Masses, tours and concerts that are open to the public.

Dedication opens Flower Hall for innovative research

By Christina Carr, December 12, 2012 2:00 PM
A new era of scientific discovery is under way at Tulane University thanks to the opening of Donna and Paul Flower Hall for Research and Innovation. A dedication ceremony on December 11, 2012 commemorated the significance of this historic moment in science and engineering education at Tulane.

Located in the center of the uptown campus, Flower Hall provides a contemporary space for studies that bridge academia and industry – work that will spur an increase in research publications, technology licenses, patents and startup businesses, says Nick Altiero, dean of the School of Science and Engineering.

The four-story, 24,000-square-foot building includes a modernized Francis Taylor Laboratory and features that encourage creativity and collaboration.

“One of the main reasons we’ve put so much emphasis on creating an open, innovative environment is our entrepreneurial students and faculty have demanded it,” says Altiero.

With the first and fourth floors of Flower Hall ready for occupancy, the building enters phase two of construction. Ideas on how to best use the second and third floors have been proposed by many leaders, including alumnus Ben Cappiello, a 2010 science and engineering graduate whose startup company, Bioceptive, is based in New Orleans.

In keeping with the spirit of bringing research to the marketplace, Cappiello suggests reserving a portion of the building for students developing patentable projects. An incubator could accelerate the process of discovery.

“If students have a place to validate concepts, a major barrier between an idea and a commercial product is eliminated,” says Cappiello.

Creating a force for the growth of New Orleans was the objective motivating the Flowers’ support for the building, says Paul Flower, a 1975 Tulane engineering alumnus.

“In a way, our gift is self-serving,” says Paul Flower. “We want Tulane and New Orleans to provide more opportunities for our grandchildren and the youth of our city to stay here.”

LSU president discusses system consolidation

By Koran Addo, December 07, 2012
LSU’s proposed top-down reorganization will likely be completed in 18 months, LSU system President and Baton Rouge Chancellor Williams Jenkins said Thursday.

The main gist of the reorganization — consolidating campuses and naming a chief executive officer at the top in a position of oversight — should put LSU on the path to becoming “the omnipotent research university in the Southern region,”

Jenkins said during an evening town hall meeting on the Baton Rouge campus. Jenkins said the main components of the reorganization should be in place within the next six months and should move the university forward academically as well as possibly resulting in several million dollars in cost-savings.

One faculty leader argued that Jenkins and the LSU Board of Supervisors have embraced the idea of consolidation without first working through the details.

Jenkins was holding the fourth of 10 town hall meetings planned across the state to answer questions and quell fears that have arisen since Oct. 26, when the Association of Governing Boards, a consulting group out of Washington, D.C., proposed that LSU ditch its current model of separate and autonomous campuses in favor of a consolidated “flagship system.”

The current LSU system is made up of the main LSU campus in Baton Rouge; the LSU Law Center and LSU Agricultural Center, which sit adjacent to the main campus; LSU Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and Shreveport; 10 public hospitals and more than a dozen clinics across the state; and academic campuses in Alexandria, Eunice and Shreveport.

The different units act, more or less, on their own under the current LSU structure.

The AGB proposal spells out a massive realignment of administrative positions who would all report to a single CEO at the top. The plan has drawn praise from the chancellors of LSU’s agricultural center and Eunice campus. It has drawn criticism from faculty and LSU’s law school chancellor who have expressed concerns about losing autonomy at the campus level.

Jenkins on Thursday stressed that the AGB report is just a framework the LSU board will use to create a newly organized “one LSU.”

Southern University's imperiled architecture school gets a 90-day reprieve

By John Pope, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
The architecture school at Southern University's Baton Rouge campus has been hailed as an important source of minority architects, but it has recently become a target for budget cuts because the number of graduates each year hasn't risen above double digits. Administrators, in a quest to save the program, have been struggling to figure out what to do.

The issue came before the Southern University System Board of Supervisors on Friday at its meeting in New Orleans on the eve of Saturday's annual Bayou Classic football game with Grambling State University.

One solution under consideration is to move the architecture school to Southern University at New Orleans. On Friday, the board postponed a vote to eliminate the program for 90 days so academic officials can determine whether the school's accreditation by the National Architectural Accreditation Board would be transferrable if the school was relocated.

Lonnie Wilkinson, the school's dean, was optimistic. In urging a 90-day reprieve, he said, "I would not stand before this board and ask for this if I didn't think that the possibility of transferring accreditation was real." However, Andrea Rutledge, the accrediting board's executive director, said the school "cannot be moved with accreditation in place."

Wilkinson relayed this information in a letter to Eamon Kelly, the former Tulane University president who is chairman of the SU Board's academic-affairs committee. But, Wilkinson said, "this is an assessment at the level of her office and does not reflect an official opinion from the (accrediting) board." Consequently, he said, the architecture school is going to ask the accrediting board to suspend its rules to let the program - with its accreditation intact - move to SUNO.

Thomas Miller, president of the Faculty Senate at SU in Baton Rouge, said the school is "tremendously important," turning out 91 black architects in the past 10 years, compared with 14 at LSU.

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi State's work to achieve a "greener" campus, as well as efforts of the university's sustainability coordinator, are being recognized by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Jeremiah Dumas recently was named a "Campus Sustainability Pioneer" by TVA and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Students of the MSU sustainable organization submitted Dumas’ nomination for the work he has accomplished on the campus. Dumas, who is an assistant research professor, leads the University’s sustainable initiatives.

OKLAHOMA

Need Volunteer

TENNESSEE

Sean Vasington, svasington@crja.com

Tennessee Tech University brings a whole new level of transparency to the hiring process for a new CIO

The university held live-tweeting 50-minute interviews with three prospective CIO candidates. “We don’t get to do anything in secret,” said Claire Stinson, vice president for business and fiscal affairs at Tennessee Tech. As a public university, Tennessee Tech is subject to the state’s open records and open meeting laws.

Tennessee Tech University offered a live Twitter stream of today’s interview with CIO job applicant Robert Gerhart of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Using Twitter to broadcast interviews is fairly new for the university, she said, but the hiring process for most public universities is transparent. Each state has open meetings and open record laws, also known as sunshine laws, which vary across the country. The laws vary in different places and in some cases are applied slightly differently in public education and government.

Manufacturing challenges education

By James Shea-Bristol, Herald Courier
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Over the last 10 years, states have shifted the cost of higher education from uni-versities to students, East Tennessee State University President Brian Noland said during a manufacturing conference Monday.

At the same time, manufacturing companies are looking for workers with more post-secondary training than in previous generations, officials said. Across the country, three million jobs are not being filled be-cause companies cannot find workers with the right skills.

Educators, politicians and business leaders gathered at Meadowview Conference Center to discuss the problem at a conference sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Corridor, a regional economic development partnership between five southern states.

Noland presented a lot of information on the correlation between education and an individual’s economic advancement.

The unemployment rate in Tennessee for high school graduates is 13.8 percent, but the rate for college-educated individuals is 4.1 percent. Workers with a higher education degree earn substantially more money than those with only a high school diploma.

But Tennessee has done a poor job of educating its population beyond high school. In Tennessee, only 19 out of 100 ninth-graders in the state earn a degree at a four-year institution.

The state ranks 41st in educating its population.

The increased financial burden for students has made access to higher education more difficult. In Ten-nessee, students take out an average of $4,591 in loans a year. The number is $4,465 in Virginia.

Students graduate college with an average of $20,000 in debt. Noland said that money is an investment in students’ futures but also a huge burden.

“We are essentially transferring the support for higher education from the state to the student,” Noland said.

Seven Tennessee Community Colleges Move to the Cloud

Seven of Tennessee's 13 community colleges have moved major systems to the cloud -- and used the state's Office of Information Resources as a centralized cloud hosting provider.

After seeing responses to a request for information from the Office of Information Resources and the company Cedar Crestone, the colleges chose to partner with the state because it was willing to work with the colleges' unique consolidated effort, said Tom Danford, CIO of the Tennessee Board of Regents. But it would work with a forward-thinking commercial provider if the provider was willing to do the same.

Because the state office and community colleges were on the same network, traffic didn't have to go outside state lines, and redundancy was already built in. That was another factor in the decision, said Joe Sargent, executive director of information and educational technologies for Walters State Community College. And working with the state also allowed the colleges to avoid capital outlays of approximately $300,000 each. Those expenditures would have replaced seven-year-old hardware for student, financial and human resource systems.

The partnership benefits the state office as well: It had extra floor space in the data center and needed a way to recoup some of its costs, Sargent said. And it makes the community colleges more efficient.

TEXAS

Carr Hornbuckle, carr@pflugerassociated.com

TWU postpones actions on three construction projects

Citing the need to be fiscally responsible, regents for Texas Woman's University recently postponed action on three building projects. The projects were on the agenda for a vote to solicit proposals for designs and for approving an increase in the student union fee to $149 a semester to help pay for a new student union.

After more consideration, regents may discuss plans to build a new residence hall, two parking garages and a student union, said Chancellor Ann Stuart, who told regents that Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board members had urged colleges to be fiscally prudent in the current budget situation. The coordinating board must approve any new construction and legislators must approve the increase in the union fee before either is formally adopted, Stuart said.

South Texas community colleges win $1.3 million in grants

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recentlly awarded $1.3 million in grants to community colleges in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas to help 800 students train for higher paying jobs in the oil or medical fields. The community colleges to receive the grants include Coastal Bend College, Laredo Community College, Southwest Texas Junior College, Victoria College and Alamo Colleges.

The grants will be available for students seeking training in licensed vocational nursing, welding, commercial truck driving, office technology, medical assisting, maintenance and oil and gas operations, said Raymund Paredes, Commissioner of Higher Education.

The training programs are geared to prepare students for jobs created from the Eagle Ford Shale boom in the region. The training includes the use of the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Program, a national model that teaches skills in a real-world environment using two instructors, one teaching professional who focuses on content and the second instructor teaching basic reading, math, writing and English language skills, Parades said.

Alamo Colleges seeks P3 for administration building construction

Alamo Colleges in San Antonio is looking for a public sector partner to help build a new central administration office that might also serve as a mixed-use facility. And after recently increasing taxes and increasing tuition, board members have made it quite clear that they want no investment on the part of the college other than the land on which it would be built.

In 2008, the district bought a more than 12.6-acre tract of land for $4.13 million. It is on that property that college officials are hoping to attract a developer for a public-private partnership to build a facility to house their 450 district employees in a central location. At a recent board retreat, trustees approved preparation of a minute order to issue a request for qualifications to develop the site. A minute order has to go before the Building, Grounds and Sites Selection Committee on Dec. 4 and the regular board for its approval at its Dec. 18 meeting.

John Strybos, associate vice chancellor for finance operations and construction management, said officials are looking at the possibility of a mixed-use facility that could also perhaps include residential and retail space. He indicated that the property might well include the office building, an entry plaza, green space and walking trails, surface parking, a 1,000-space parking garage and more. Strybos said the facility also might have a UPS Store, a book store, a cafe, a dry cleaner, clothing shops, a beauty salon, additional office space and student or other housing. That, he said, will be up to the developer. The mixed-use part of the partnership could also mean job opportunities for students, said Strybos.

UT officials hoping for partner to develop Pickle Research site

Officials with The University of Texas at Austin have a more than 100-acre site on Braker Lane in Austin, a large portion of which is undeveloped. They are hoping to entice a private sector partner to submit ideas for development of that land.

The land is at the J.J. Pickle Research Center. The university's Real Estate Department has issued a request for qualifications that were due from developers this week. Once those qualifications are received, the university will release a request for proposals, probably in early January 2013.

A study in 2008 showed that the best use of the land would be commercial, retail, multi-family, townhomes and condominiums.

UT System approves $102.4 million administrative building

A more than $100 million new administrative building was approved for The University of Texas System that will consolidate its five-facility complex currently housed in downtown Austin. The $102.4 million project will be a 16-story building and a parking garage for more than 650 vehicles to be built on the site of the existing System buildings on Seventh Street. Plans are for the 285,000-square-foot building to house System offices, meeting space and a dining area. Some 60,000 square feet is expected to be available for lease or further expansion.

UT System officials say consolidating its numerous facilities downtown should result in a $2 million to $5 million savings every year. Maintenance costs for the existing facilities, if they are not replaced, would be between $4 million and $8 million per year. When the new facility is finished, System offices at Ashbel Smith Hall, O. Henry Hall and Claudia Taylor Johnson Hall will be vacated and the facilities leased.

Texas A&M moves forward with plans to upgrade Kyle Field

Texas A&M University System officials recently agreed that all major home games will remain at Kyle Field in College Station while the facility is undergoing a renovation expected to cost more than $600 million. The deadline to submit applications to be selected as the construction manager of the stadium project is Dec. 7.

A&M officials expect to complete each of the three phases during an eight-month window to prevent moving home games to another location such as Houston while rebuilding the football stadium. Plans call for increasing the capacity from the current 82,600 to between 93,000 and 103,000. Chancellor John Sharp has requested Brazos County officials and city officials in Bryan and College Station to contribute almost $40 million to upgrade the stadium. System officials expect to select the winning proposal on Jan. 11, 2013.

The request for proposals for a construction manager is a starting point and plans may change as the process continues, noted Steve Moore, vice chancellor of marketing and communication. The current proposal calls for structural modifications and additions to the west, east and south sides of the stadium with complete demolition of the west stands now used by former students and non-student fans, Moore said. Other plans include demolishing the Read Building and the G. Rollie White Coliseum located east of the stadium and replacing the lower seating bowl on the east side of the stadium. The stadium upgrades are expected to be completed in August 2016.

A&M regents appropriate $5M for Kyle Field redevelopments

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has appropriated $5 million to redevelop iconic Kyle Field in the current fiscal year.

Phase 1 of the upgrade, which includes the demolition of the G. Rollie White Coliseum, the Reed Building and the Netum Steed laboratory, was originally slated to begin in Fiscal Year 2014. Steven B. Moore, vice chancellor of marketing and communications, said the demolition could begin as soon as this fiscal year, however.

Moore said it was not yet clear whether the existing stadium will be renovated or if a new stadium will be built. A&M System Chancellor John Sharp recently met with local leaders to discuss the possibility of a new $450 million, 103,500-capacity stadium, though it remains unclear whether officials are considering the venture.

Alamo Colleges to provide student housing in San Antonio

Officials of Alamo College in San Antonio recently approved a partnership with a developer for a $30 million project to provide housing and commercial space for community college students. College officials also have a goal for the housing project to generate some revenue to replace diminished state funding, said Chancellor Bruce Leslie of Alamo Colleges.

Plans call for the Tobin Lofts at San Antonio College to take up two blocks along North Main Avenue with 225 one-, two-, and four-bedroom units along with 14,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by a cafe. Construction on the project began this week and the first apartments should be available to students in August 2013, Leslie said. The developer estimated the apartments alone would produce about $3.8 million in revenue to the college over a 12-year period.

College officials also are negotiating for another project using a public-private partnership to build a mixed-use administration building at the old site of Playland Park, Leslie said. If these two projects are successful, the chairman of the board said the college district might use similar proposals to develop projects at other Alamo Colleges locations. Almost one-third of the member schools of the American Association of Community Colleges now offer residential options, according to a spokeswoman for the association.

Alamo Colleges nabs $1.15M federal grant for automotive training

The U.S. Department of Labor recently awarded a $1.15 million grant to Alamo Colleges to upgrade automotive manufacturing education programs. The grant from the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training Grant Program will be used to implement a curriculum designed for the study of mechatronics.

The new curriculum is a mix of mechanical, electronic, software and other forms of engineering currently used by technicians who are badly needed to fill jobs in the automobile industry, said Bruce Leslie, chancellor of Alamo Colleges.

Northeast Texas Community College wins $232,532 grant

The Jobs and Education for Texans program in the Texas State Comptroller's Office recently awarded a $232,532 grant to Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC) to help pay for a new mobile laboratory.

The grant will be used to create a Mobile Industrial Technology Lab that will allow NTCC to make training in industrial technology accessible to more students, said Jonathan McCullough, vice president for advancement at NTCC.

The mobile unit will permit the college to take training opportunities into businesses and offer dual credit courses to students who are not able to travel to the Industrial Technology Training Center in Mount Pleasant, McCullough said. The training programs include electrical operations, manufacturing engineering, electrical technology, robotics, video game programming and drafting, he said.

Collin College receives $4.4 million grant for technology training

The National Science Foundation recently awarded $4.4 million to the Convergence Technology Center (CTC) of Collin College to provide workforce training in technology.

Collin County officials joined in partnerships with area businesses in 2004 to create the CTC, which covers end-to-end communication via public and private networks and support of voice, data and video traffic in a secure manager, said Cary Israel, president of Collin College District. Students are able to obtain a bachelor's degree related to convergence technology and certification in other emerging technologies. Students also can be certified in Internet protocol specialization and wireless, satellite and installation processes, Israel said.

Collin College is now considered to be a National Convergence Technology Center rather than a regional center, Israel said. Other institutions in the program are El Centro College, University of North Texas, Florida State College, Fox Valley Technical College in Wisconsin, Lansing Community College in Michigan, Orange Coast College in California and Georgia Southern University.

Angelo State wins $3 million grant for security studies

The U.S. Air Force recently awarded a $3 million grant to Angelo State University to continue and expand the Center for Security Studies (CSS), a joint program for the Air Education and Training Command of the U.S. Air Force.

The center provides men and women in the Air Force with opportunities to earn a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in cultural competence, security studies, border security and intelligence by offering eight degrees in four disciplines. Enrollment in CSS has grown by more than 50 percent since it began in 2009, said Robert Ehlers, PhD, director of CSS.

Texas Tech group wins $1.31 million grant for telehealth center

The Health Resources and Services Administration recently awarded a $1.31 million grant to the Telemedicine Program of the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) to establish the TexLA Telehealth Resource Center.

The telehealth resource center will be the focal point for supporting the effective use of telehealth to deliver health care and education via telecommunications. It will be initially located in the telemedicine office at the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health at TTUHSC, said Debbie Voyles, director of the telemedicine program. The center includes telehealth programs at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division, Voyles said.

The grant will allow the center to use existing staff of a director, technology manager and two clinic coordinators to work with hospitals, clinics and public and private insurance providers to explain the benefits and availability of telemedicine, she said. The center also will be able to market the program in both states and create a Web site to provide resources and Web-based seminars with the grant funding.

UTHSC-San Antonio partnership to create new children's hospital

The University of Texas System Board of Regents has paved the way for a joint venture between The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC-San Antonio) and Vanguard Health Systems to create a new, state-of-the-art children's hospital in San Antonio. Officials at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a top-ranked children's hospital, will join Vanguard in facilitating the hospital's creation.

Interim President of UTHSC-San Antonio Kenneth L. Kalkwarf said the multiple specialists slated to work for the new children's hospital will be able to "deliver the best possible care to children with complex medical cases and enhance the recruitment and retention of the best specialists in the country who want to work at an academic children's hospital with ongoing, groundbreaking research."

After considering three proposals, UT Regents decided Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems would best serve patients and families while advancing UTHSC-San Antonio's teaching and research missions. Regents Chairman Gene Powell said the inclusion of CHOP in the development will help ensure UTHSC-San Antonio moves forward with building a first-tier children's hospital and pediatric care network aimed at revolutionizing "access and quality of care for all children in San Antonio and South Texas" while educating medical and health profession students.

The proposed 250-bed, $350 million facility will be located just minutes away from UTHSC-San Antonio - located in one of San Antonio's fastest-growing areas - offering access and convenience to patients and their families.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi to use temporary buildings for labs

Officials of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently decided to place two modular buildings on campus to serve as research labs until legislators approve funding for a new life sciences building.

The temporary lab space is needed for eight new faculty members who were added to teach life sciences this fall, said Flavius Killebrew, president of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. While classroom space is available, the campus is short on laboratory space, causing life science department officials to create makeshift laboratories out of storage rooms, a machine shop and even the loading dock, he said. University officials were unsuccessful last year in winning funding for a new life sciences building, but plan to try again this session, he added.

Two major construction projects planned for UT-Austin

Two new academic buildings are in the works for The University of Texas at Austin. The UT System regents this week approved plans for a $155 million project for the McCombs School of Business and gave an OK for development of the design for a $310 million engineering education and research center.

The business school project includes an academic building for its graduate school, a parking garage and an expansion of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. The university will pay for the project with $58 million in gifts and $97 million in bonds. The engineering department project includes plans for $105 million through fundraising and the remainder from bond funds and campus reserves.

Midwestern State University approve new process for contracts

Regents at Midwestern State University recently approved changes to clarify the process for approval of contracts. A former chairman of the regents requested a study of the university's contract process. The request came as a result of concerns raised regarding a failure to comply with the Texas Government Code for three years by failing to report any contracts finalized in 2007, 2008 and 2009 that were $14,000 or more.

The new contract process requires a newly created routing sheet to track each contract and clarifies the dollar amount of contracts that require approval by regents or by other university officials. With the exception of bequests, gifts or grants to the university that do not include real property, the new contract policy requires regents to sign contracts valued at $500,000 or more a year.

Under the newly amended contract policy, the president is authorized to sign contracts from $100,000 to $500,000 as well as for contracts for mineral interest in real property valued at less than $100,000 and on contracts and employment notices for the university. The new contract policy also allows the president or a vice president to sign contracts of less than $100,000 per year, contracts involving grant proposals and agreements for non-monetary and clinical affiliations.

El Paso nursing school wins $787K grant to train trauma care nurses

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently awarded The University of Texas-El Paso School of Nursing a $787,202 grant. The funding will be used to create the Emergency and Trauma Care Education Partnership Program at the nursing school to train registered nurses and nurse practitioners in emergency and trauma care, said Elias Provencio-Vasquez, dean of the UTEP school of nursing. UTEP will partner with a health care group in El Paso to train students at Sierra Providence Health Network facilities in the program funded through August 2013.

The grant will pay to train 24 nurse practitioners and to hire pediatric and adult/geriatric acute care nurse practitioner faculty in addition to providing stipends to students to help pay for tuition and books. Once the program is completed, 24 nurses will take the tests to become nationally certified emergency room nurses, Provencio-Vasquez said.

Sharp announces fund to attract faculty, research dollars

"As we continue to be challenged with doing more with less, it is important for us to find ways to attract world-class researchers without overtaxing our already lean budgets," said Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp as he announced creation of the Chancellor's Research Initiative (CRI). The initiative is aimed at providing one-time funds to Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University to recruit and hire top faculty members. The System is looking for candidates who have a proven record of developing and implementing research programs.

Sharp's proposal would provide $33 million for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 and $34 million in 2015. The source of the funds would be the annual Available University Fund (AUF). The System is looking for faculty already accomplished in such initiatives as NSF Engineering Research Centers, NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, foundations that support the liberal arts and other similar initiatives. The A&M System regents approved the $33 million in funding at their meeting Thursday.

"We want to attract exceptional faculty members who will have a transformative impact upon the academic and research missions of Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M," said Sharp. "I envision that these talented candidates will also attract additional research dollars for their work and our universities."

In addition, candidates will be evaluated on their ability to augment federal funding with additional support from commercial and/or non-profit sources; alignment of their area of study with current/future national funding priorities and university strategic thrusts; and a track record of their trainees successfully obtaining federal funding. Sharp said he is hopeful the CRI will not only result in successful recruitment of top researchers, but also bring in funding to support their work.

Texas A&M negotiating for its own law school Sharp announces proposed partnership with Texas Wesleyan University

Just last week, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp announced the privatization of a variety of services at Texas A&M and the TAMU System. He said the expected $260 million in revenue and cost-savings for privatizing services from dining to building maintenance over the next 10 years would "advance our core mission of teaching and research."

Hardly before the ink dried on the contract, Sharp this week announced his plans for the use of some of that new revenue - a law school in North Texas that will bear the A&M moniker. Texas A&M and Texas Wesleyan University have announced a partnership that will create a Texas A&M School of Law. Under the terms of the proposal, which must be approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, TAMU would pay Texas Wesleyan $20 million up front and another $5 million to be paid out over five years.

"In the last week, we have received one of the largest federal grants since NASA was brought to Texas to develop life-saving vaccines and medical therapies, we announced a concession agreement for facilities and food services valued at more than a quarter billion dollars and today we are forging a new partnership to create a long-sought Texas A&M School of Law, which will have a profound impact on the future of Texas," said Sharp in making the announcement Tuesday.

Texas Wesleyan President Frederick G. Slabach said Sharp approached him late last year about a "strategic partnership" and that after discussion, both decided it would be "a mutually beneficial collaboration with limitless possibilities."

Lone Star-Chinese education center partner on 'Texas Center'

Lone Star College System and the Shanghai Oriental Chinese Education Development Center (SOCEDC) have inked a memorandum of understanding that will result in the "Texas Center" on the LSC-University Park campus.

LSC Chancellor Richard Carpenter said there is a growing interest in the American community college system. "China in particular is interested in our ability to train oil and gas technicians, who are badly needed for oilfield operations," said Carpenter. LSC-University Park already has extensive and innovative partnerships that can benefit local and international students. Students can complete a high school diploma through iSchool High or work toward an associate's degree, industry certification and then move on to seek degrees from four-year institutions. All of this can be done at one facility.

The SOCEDC is a nonprofit that promotes Chinese culture and traditions, including through educational opportunities. The Texas Center will feature program content that includes student exchange, ESL and leadership training and workforce development locally and globally. The partnership with Shanghai was designed with a sustainable business model by Michael Mathews, chief strategist for innovation and entrepreneurship at LSC-University Park.

TAMU System gets $285.6M contract for center to combat terrorism

An economic impact of more than $1.3 billion in Texas is expected from the announcement that the Texas A&M University System has been awarded a $285.6 million contract to develop a center whose goal will be to enhance the United States' ability to counter biological and pandemic threats. The Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing will represent one of the largest research grants to come to Texas since NASA, said TAMU System Chancellor John Sharp.

Of the total contract, $176 million will come from the federal government, with the remainder from academic and commercial partners and the state. The facility is expected to be operational by December 2015. Sharp said the center will allow the United States to counter biological and pandemic threats with vaccines manufactured in this country. He said the need for this capability was identified following a comprehensive review of federal public health emergency medical countermeasures called for by President Barack Obama in his 2010 State of the Union address. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a request for proposals on March 30, 2011 and TAMU was among the applicants. The contract was awarded following a year-long competitive nationwide process.

"The Texas A&M System is the prime contractor for a team of world-class academic, commercial and non-profit institutions. This highly integrated R&D team will utilize state-of-the-art processes for development and testing of new vaccines and therapies," said Sharp in a written statement.

Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Brett Giroir noted that securing the project would mean "hundreds of millions of dollars in up front federal investment, and a 25-year potential commitment."The center will be located on a site of nearly 150 acres owned by the city of Bryan. Upwards of 1,000 jobs are expected to be created by the addition of the center.

Texas A&M System votes to privatize various campus services

Banking on an upfront payment of $45 million in concession fees plus a significant investment to upgrade related facilities and infrastructure, the Texas A&M University System and Texas A&M University Thursday voted to privatize a number of campus services. A contract was awarded to Compass Group USA to manage and operate dining services, building maintenance, landscaping services and custodial services on the Brazos County campus.

TAMU System Chancellor John Sharp said that over the next 10 years, the contract will result in $260 million in revenue and cost savings for the System. That includes an estimated $125 million food services revenue and $135 million in revenue and cost savings from facility services. Sharp said the goal was to increase revenue that would allow the System to "recruit, pay and retain faculty and researchers."

"I'm very proud of the way Chancellor Sharp and (A&M) President (R. Bowen) Loftin worked together to identify savings while remaining committed to keeping the employees who provide important services to the university," said Richard Box, chair of the Board of Regents. "We are indeed poised for a bright future."

Compass Group has committed to keeping the current university and System workforce, agreeing to hire all current employees working in the areas to be privatized, matching their salaries and benefits and offering training opportunities. Possible layoffs and cuts in pay and benefits were reasons privatization was opposed by many of the employees.

Sharp called the agreement an "historic accomplishment" - being able to realize financial benefits while keeping current university employees and freeing up revenue to ensure a successful academic endeavor. The agreement is expected to be in place in time for Compass Group to take over these specific areas before the fall semester.

Austin Community College certified for Round Rock campus

The Round Rock campus of Austin Community College recently won silver certification for sustainable design and construction from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation for the Round Rock campus is the first ACC campus built to meet LEED standards since trustees in 2009 agreed to establish a policy of sustainability for new construction and major renovations. The Round Rock Campus opened in 2010.

Among the criteria for the certification is that 43 percent of the campus is open green space, builders used 22 percent recycled materials and 51 percent regional materials for construction and included water-saving irrigation and plumbing in the design. ACC also has received a three-star green building rating from Austin Energy for sustainability for a parking garage serving the Rio Grande campus and an award for adaptive use from the Heritage Society of Austin for its renovation of Building 3000 at the Rio Grande campus.

UTMB, University of Palermo join to create exchange program

Officials of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston and the University of Palermo recently began working on an agreement to allow both universities to offer a Ph.D. prorgram recognized in both the United States and Europe.

Dr. Luca Cicalese, a professor of surgery and director of the Texas Transplant Center, led the UTMB delegation to begin implementing the exchange of students and professors. The exchange program includes students, residents, post-doctoral fellows and faculty in various fields of medicine and surgery with the first phase of the program focusing on biomedical science. The goal is to include medical students later as the program grows, said Cicalese, who will direct the program for UTMB.

TAMU-San Antonio to offer training program for school principals

Officials of Texas A&M University-San Antonio recently signed an agreement with three school districts in San Antonio to create a new School Leadership Consortium, a program that trains educators to serve as principals. The three school districts are Southside Independent School District, East Central ISD and Harlandale ISD.

The consortium is a collaboration of UTSA, the school districts, community colleges and business partners that will work together in the program open to all employees of the three school districts. The consortium is expected to open in fall 2012 and help students complete a master's degree in school administration in two years.

TSTC opens new aerospace center expanding course offerings

With the opening of the new 82,000-square-foot Col. James T. Connally Aerospace Center at Texas State Technical College (TSTC) in Waco and classes having begun there last month, the college is increasing its ability to deliver world-class aviation and aerospace education and training.

The TSTC Waco Airport opened in 1942 as the Waco Army Air Field. The name was changed in 1949 in memory of Connally, a local pilot killed in a B-29 raid over Japan. The state began sharing the facility with the Air Force in 1965 when TSTC was established as the then-Texas State Technical Institute.

Since then, through upgrades and innovation, the facility has been helping provide training to meet the workforce needs of the future.

The airport features a dual runway with a new operational control tower and is the largest airport in the United States that is both owned and operated by a two-year public education institution. It has a full-service flight facility with two parallel runways, a nearly 15-acre ramp and an airport FBO to provide gas. The upgrades and expansion have led to high-tech training for students in FAA-certified aviation programs and aerospace operations such as aviation maintenance, air traffic control, avionics, aircraft dispatch and aircraft pilot training. The newly opened center will address workforce needs of industry partners, including composite materials, air logistics, aircraft interior and aerospace operations. Grant funding for the facility was provided by the Waco-McLennan County Economic Development Corporation, the Texas Department of Transportation, the Bellmead Economic Development Corporation and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

University of Houston, Texas Tech quality for tier one funding

The state auditor recently confirmed that the University of Houston and Texas Tech University have met state criteria for access to the National Research University Fund.

Qualifying for tier-one status in research funding moves the universities closer to the goal of becoming nationally competitive research universities, said Guy Bailey, president of Texas Tech. The estimate value of the research funding that may be awarded to Texas Tech and the University of Houston is about $8 million over the next two years.

The universities are two of the seven institutions legislators originally designated in 2009 to meet the statutory criteria in an attempt to increase research at public universities throughout the state. The criteria included a $400 million endowment fund, awarding at least 200 Ph.D. degrees in a year, high-quality faculty and a commitment to graduate research.

Information above taken from Texas Government Insider, Strategic Partnerships Inc. unless otherwise noted.