By Omar Hernandez
Public Affairs Specialist

(Feb. 15, 2012) -- Gage E. Paine, UTSA vice president for student affairs, will be recognized in March by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) with the Scott Goodnight Award for Outstanding Service as a Dean. This is the second NASPA award Paine will receive, following receipt of NASPA's John Jones Award in 2011 for Outstanding Performance as a Senior Officer.

NASPA gives the award to an institution's lead student affairs officer who has demonstrated sustained professional service in student affairs work and is the organization's top award for outstanding service.

"I am honored to receive this award, which reflects the success of the entire Division of Student Affairs," said Paine. "I'm equally flattered that people from the UTSA community would take time out of their busy schedules to nominate me."

Paine has worked extensively in university student affairs, serving as vice president for student affairs at Trinity University, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of student life at Southern Methodist University, and associate dean of students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Most recently, Paine was part of the Leadership UTSA implementation team, a collaborative partnership between academic and administrative staff to cultivate leadership skills, institutional vision and organizational change among UTSA faculty and staff. She routinely presents workshops at numerous statewide and national conferences on student affairs topics and served as the director of the New Professionals Institute for NASPA, Region III, in 2008 and 2009. Paine also delivers leadership and strategic planning consultations to a variety of academic and nonprofit audiences.

"Dr. Gage Paine is an outstanding professional, strongly rooted in the theory and practice of excellence in student affairs," said UTSA President Ricardo Romo. "She inspires by being both progressive and selflessly giving of her time and energy. Gage is compassionately transforming students, staff, campus and the community as a whole, which makes her the model for outstanding performance as a senior student affairs officer."

The Annual Student Affairs Conference: New Traditions, New Successes will take place March 28 and will be repeated April 17 to provide for coverage. The conference provides an opportunity for all UTSA Student Affairs staff to attend a professional development conference. Session topics are new each year and encompass a wide variety of professional development topics ranging from student development, to leadership skills and much, much more. If you’ve never attended our conference, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0a6ucqzmGg to catch the excitement!

This year, we’re pleased to announce that our keynote speaker is Dr. James Studer (UT System’s retired Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs). Our conference kicks off with a keynote and attendees will have the opportunity to choose sessions that are of most interest to them throughout the day. In addition to the opportunity to network and grow, a silent auction benefiting the Student Affairs Transformation Fund will be held both sessions. Registration will take place via email the last week in February.

For questions, please contact Keri.Shiplet@utsa.edu or Erika.Cox@utsa.edu

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By Jana Schwartz
Program Coordinator, Student Leadership Center

(Feb. 21, 2012) --Students who want to discover and focus on their passion in life and who want to make a difference in the community will want to apply to participate in the LeaderShape Institute. It's not just another retreat or conference -- it's a six-day experience for students no longer satisfied accepting the world as they know it. Through the students desire and passion, the goal is to eliminate the "to-do" list, and create a "to-be" list.

The UTSA Student Leadership Center will select approximately 60 students to participate in the May 20-25 institute. The application deadline is March 29. To apply, visit the LeaderShape website. The center covers all costs for students selected to attend including transportation, lodging, meals and registration.

For the retreat, participants will take a chartered bus to the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in nearby New Braunfels, Texas, where they will focus on leadership and personal development. At the institute, students work through challenges in Family Clusters and together as one community...

For the full article and to download the forms, visit: URL

Over 75 admitted Freshmen from across the state of Texas designated as Top Scholars based on their class ranking and entrance exam scores were able to interact with staff and faculty during a “mix and mingle” reception followed by dinner. During the dinner, students were at tables hosted by deans and/or faculty from their academic interest areas while their parents interacted with staff members from across the university. Dr. Romo welcomed the group, and both Dr. Frederick and Dr. Paine shared insights into the special experiences that UTSA would offer them. The “star” presentation of the evening was by UTSA Honor student Jonathan Peterson-Ruiz.

Tony Daniels, Associate Director of Operations for Campus Recreation lead a delegation of five UTSA students to the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association’s (NIRSA) Emerging Recreational Sports Leaders Conference (ERSLC) from February 9-11, 2012 on the Texas Southern University (TSU) Campus. Mahir Berkhadley and Tanaia Keyes, both graduate students with Rec Sports, lead presentations at the conference.

The Conference Focus: This conference was created to prepare student leaders and young professionals as they take on the task of guiding others to live, work and play in a multicultural society. The ultimate goal of the conference was to develop and encourage conference participants to consider health, wellness and recreation as a career option.

Tony Daniels is recognized as a co-founder of this event from his graduate school days at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has also received the Herman Williams ERSL Founders Award and a NIRSA National Service Award for his continued support of the ERSLC.

UTSA Orientation and Family Programs has launched a new and improved website to better serve new students, family, the UTSA community and beyond!

We would like to invite you to take a moment and VISIT OUR NEW SITE to become familiar with its new features UTSA.edu/Orientation

As always, THANK YOU for your continued support!

OFP would also like to extend a special thanks to University Publications and the Recruitment Information Systems team for all their help.

Go ‘Runners!

The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Admissions Transfer Center hosted its first annual TRansfer Academic Connection (TRAC) event on Saturday, February 4th at the Institute of Texan Cultures. This event was created specifically with the high academic achieving transfer student in mind with a minimum 3.0 gpa. The event had 31 prospective transfer students in attendance along with their guests from the Alamo Colleges, Lonestar College, Howard College, Texas A&M International University and Southwestern University. The event included: an Academic Museum Scavenger Hunt, presentations from the Honors College, Financial Aid, and the University Health Professions Office, in addition to dining with faculty and receiving an award in recognition of their academic excellence. The faculty and staff that joined our prospective high achieving transfer students for lunch were: Professor Jordan Bryant, Dr. Darrell Carpenter, Dr. Aaron Cassill, Dr. Ann Eisenberg, Christopher Goldsberry, Dr. Patricia Jaramillo, Dr. Mary McNaughton-Cassill, Professor Ermine Orta, Dr. Lilliana Saldana, and Angie Zulaica.

Dr. George E. Norton welcomed our prospective students and assisted with giving out their awards, while we had ten G-Force students from the Office of P-20 Initiatives volunteer their time to support the entire venue from beginning to end. These recruitment efforts which provide resources and information about the various opportunities available to the high academic achieving transfer student, could not have been possible without the support and collaboration of our UTSA community. Some of the recurring themes commented on by the prospective students in attendance were: thoroughly enjoying the location of the event & the scavenger hunt at the ITC, meeting and talking to faculty and UTSA students, as well as how informative the presentations were. And to quote one of the participants, “the opportunity was truly priceless-great job!”

Dr. McGeary is a board-certified clinical health psychologist and is currently Assistant Professor and the Clinical Psychology Internship Training Director in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

He is a Principal Investigator for a $1.6 million study testing a cognitive behavioral psycho-therapy for comorbid chronic pain and PTSD among injured service members with the $25 million STRONG STAR Research Consortium investigating treatments for combat related PTSD among military personnel.

Date: Friday, March 2, 2012
Time: 2:00PM – 3:00PM
Place: Ballroom I - UC 1.106

Certificates of Attendance will be provided to those who have the opportunity to receive extra credit by participating in the workshop.
• Help your students learn about PTSD and the culture of Veterans in the classroom
• Students will come to identify the function and characteristics of PTSD
• What health issues affect our student veterans?
• How military culture differs from the mental health culture

If you need an accommodation to fully participate in this program/event, please contact Kim Arrendell in Disability Services at 210.458.2940 or email at kim.arrendell@utsa.edu by Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012.

This workshop is sponsored by UTSA Disability Services.
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Bio

The UTSA Student Volunteer of the Year Award honors an outstanding student for their time, effort and personal commitment to volunteerism and enhancing civic life in their community. Applicants should embody the true spirit and UTSA mission of civic engagement and volunteerism.

The award and a$500 Sandra Cisneros Scholarship will be presented to the winner at the University Life Awards on April 5, 2012*

Apply by March 9th!

All applications must be submitted by 3/9/12 via CollegiateLink: https://utsa.collegiatelink.net/form/start/8068, log in with your abc123 and complete the form. Or visit Collegiate Link (http://www.utsa.edu/sa/so), log in, click “Organizations” tab, search “Volunteer Services”, click Forms option, and apply.

For more information contact: Jennifer Rames at 458-4770 or engaged@utsa.edu; *eligibility requirements on application

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Liberal and Fine Arts Fair (COLFA)
Tuesday, March 27th
9:00AM-12:00PM
UC Ballroom

Educator Career Fair
Thursday, April 5th
8:30AM-11:30AM
Convocation Center

For questions, contact the University Career Center at 210-458-4589.

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By Barbara Reyes
Assistant Director of Health Promotion and Marketing, Student Health Services

(Feb. 15, 2012) -- UTSA Student Health Services has a limited supply of free flu and Tdap vaccine for students. The Tdap vaccine protects against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough and lockjaw. This is a great opportunity for UTSA students to take advantage of the vaccines that can protect them from serious illnesses.

"We are now seeing an increase in positive flu cases in the clinic," said Beth Wichman, M.D., director of UTSA Student Health Services. "This year's flu season is delayed. Typically, the season starts in December or January. Therefore, getting inoculated will reduce the risk of becoming ill with the influenza virus."

For the full article, visit: URL

Jared Jones

To provide another avenue to receive and act on guest feedback, the UC began testing a text-message based customer feedback system on February 1. The service—deployed in all UC restrooms and select meeting rooms—allows UC guests to report satisfaction, problems or concerns from the convenience of any texting-enabled mobile device.

During the two-month trial that ends on March 31, 2012, UC guests can share their bathroom and meeting room feedback via text message:

1. Bathroom Issue Reporting:UC guests can text information about any bathroom-related issue including cleanliness, maintenance problems, or paper supplies. Guests must include the specific bathroom code located on the poster in each bathroom when they text in their feedback
2. Meeting Room Guest Satisfaction: The text response system is also being utilized to gather customer service feedback on the usage of the Bexar, Harris, Magnolia, Mesquite and Pecan rooms. Each room has a poster of instructions and a unique room code. Guests can indicate if they were greeted and rate the cleanliness, set-up and a/v resources in the room.

“We hope this new way of communicating with the UC will be of use to the university community,” said Lowa Mwilambwe, director of the UC. “Every piece of feedback we receive helps us to improve the services we provide.”

Posters with instructions on how to use the text-response system are located in each UC men’s and women’s restroom as well as in the Bexar, Harris, Magnolia, Mesquite and Pecan rooms. The trial of this service ends April 1, 2012. UC staff will then evaluate full implementation of the service.

For the full article, visit: URL