UTSA in the News

“UTSA in the News” is a synopsis of items that have appeared in periodicals mentioning UTSA, its faculty, staff, students and programs.
For more information, call the Office of University Communications
at (210) 458-4550.

August 2001

Greg White and Glenn Watt want to educate a new breed of cyber-sleuths to tackle the growing digital dementia of computer viruses, worms, denial-of-service attacks and Web page defacements. Armed with the latest tips and tricks of computer hacking, they are helping to launch separate university degree programs in computer security. White will be the director of the new Center for Information Assurance and Security at UTSA. The Center operating out of the College of Business, will teach students how to solve security problems and let them research vulnerabilities in Internet-related products within a "hacker lab."
(San Antonio Express-News 8/4/01 1D)

On Sunday, several hundred San Antonians crowded into the dome theater of the Institute of Texan Cultures to observe the dismantling of a sand mandala--an intricate, multi-colored circular design about four feet in diameter--that the Tibetan monks had spent four days constructing. The group of monks from the Atlanta outpost of the Drepung Loseling monastery have been in residency in San Antonio for several weeks as a part of the "Mystical Arts of Tibet" exhibit which runs thru Labor Day. San Antonio was selected as the only city in Texas to host the event.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/21/01 8D)

At UTSA's Downtown Campus, officials are heralding the opening of a four-story academic complex that will add badly needed classrooms, labs, study areas and faculty offices. A new parking garage also will add about 400 spaces for students and faculty. Also new at the Downtown Campus is the university's law institute, a collaborative effort with UT-Austin that established a year-round program to help students get into and graduate from law school.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/19/01 8B)

New leadership, collaborations and programs will be an integral part of the higher education scene in San Antonio when students enter local and area colleges and universities this fall. And in a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the San Antonio health science center will partner with its UT System sister school, the University of Texas at San Antonio, to offer 10 new graduate level programs in the biosciences beginning in the 2002-03 academic year. UTSA itself is a step closer to adding three new doctoral programs, which will give the 32-year-old university seven doctorate degrees--also beginning with the 2002 academic year.
(San Antonio Express-News' Guide to San Antonio & South Texas 8/19/01 Page 40)

A team of UTSA human resource management students recently placed second in the national competition of the Society for Human Resource Management's HR Games. It was the second consecutive year that a UTSA team advanced to the national competition, which is formatted like the television game show "Jeopardy." The questions and answers are similar to those found on the Professional Human Resource certification examination.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/20/01 2D)

Making San Antonio's small businesses grow will be the focus of a new program designed by the University of Texas at San Antonio. The Entrepreneurial Growth Program was announced at a luncheon hosted by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The program is a component of the chamber's 2001 Action Plan for Small Businesses. It involved collaboration with UTSA's Center for Professional Excellence, which developed the entrepreneur program, and the school's Institute for Economic Development, which created a course specifically designed to grow small to mid-sized businesses.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/22/01 3E)

Jim Gallas, a professor at UTSA, came up with the idea for melanin lenses while he was doing doctoral work in the 1980's on the optical properties of the substance. With a colleague from UTSA, he worked for years perfecting the formula for extracting it and mixing it into the plastic used in lens making. There have been several attempts to market the lenses before, but none have taken off until recently. More than 400 Wal-Marts inhouse optical shops sell melanin lenses as rading glasses, citing their ability to absorb the glare created from light reflected off printed pages.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/29/01 1K)

Nearly three months after toxic molds forced the evacuation of hundreds of students from UTSA's only dormitory, university officials opened the doors to Chisholm Hall, just days before the academic year is set to begin. UTSA president Ricardo Romo said the 509-bed residence hall was given a clean bill of health earlier this week after air quality officials inspected the facility following nearly 2 1/2 months of remediation efforts to eradicate the molds.
(San Antonio Express-News 8/29/01 1B)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed into law a bill that will authorize the board of regents for a number of university systems in the Lone Star state to issue a total of roughly $1 billion in revenue bonds for new projects. Nearly $23 million of that figure is earmarked for a new Biotechnology, Sciences & Engineering Building for the University of Texas at San Antonio.
(San Antonio Business Journal 8/30/01)

Comments or questions to Kris Rodriguez (krodriguez@utsa.edu)
Last Updated Sept. 26, 2001