UTSA Update - The University of Texas at San Antonio

UTSA President Ricardo Romo invites the UTSA community and friends to a celebration of the university’s 35th anniversary from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Friday, July 30 at the Main Building on the 1604 Campus. The program, “The UTSA Plan: A Road Map to Excellence,” will include comments by Romo; James Richard Huffines, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents and Tom Frost, San Antonio businessman and chairman of the UTSA Development Board. As part of the event, UTSA will unveil its newest academic facility, the $52 million Main Building. Since its creation in 1969, UTSA has grown from serving a few hundred graduate students to more than 25,000 students pursuing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 35 disciplines.

UTSA, Valero Energy team to educate PREP students

UTSA recently teamed with Valero Energy Corp. to produce programs for the Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP), which primarily targets minority boys and girls in grades 9-11.

Approximately 300 future engineering students received hands-on refining industry experience in an innovative public and private sector initiative.

UTSA Office of Graduate Studies renamed “UTSA Graduate School”

The UT System Board of Regents recently approved a UTSA request to change the name of the Office of Graduate Studies to “Graduate School.” According to Dorothy Flannagan, interim dean of graduate studies, the change received much support from President Ricardo Romo and reflects the university’s goal of expanding graduate education and research. The name change was followed shortly by approval of a new doctoral program in counselor education and supervision to be offered in the College of Education and Human Development. Objectives of the new Graduate School include improving the application process, expanding advising and career services, enhancing recruiting and retention within graduate programs, and improving communication with students.

School of Architecture unveils city project

Students from UTSA and the University of Mexico Architecture Exchange Program recently presented the City of San Antonio’s Neighborhood Action department with five design possibilities for a children’s playground in Arroyo Vista Park, part of a new West Side housing project.

City officials assured the students that one or a combination of designs will be used for the future park.

UTSA selected to study network security

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc. commissioned UTSA’s Department of Information Systems to study how to effectively secure college network systems.

UTSA’s College of Business received $80,000 in hardware from Cisco, a leading manufacturer and marketer of networking equipment and communications products.

The equipment will be used in the college’s infrastructure security computer lab and in the college’s networking lab. Researchers and students will test various equipment and capability combinations to determine which configuration is most secure.

The researchers will examine how to effectively manage the flow of network traffic in a collegiate environment, protect the collegiate environment against denial of service attacks and prevent the collegiate environment from being used to launch denial of service attacks.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison aids UTSA with $1.5 million appropriation for research partnership

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $15 million in defense project funding that includes $1.5 million to establish the Material Science and Engineering Laboratory and Center of Excellence partnership between KellyUSA and UTSA. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a committee member, was instrumental in the project funding.

The collaboration will develop industry standards for maintenance, repair and overhaul of military vehicles and systems with an emphasis on assured safety. The primary focus will be aviation, but highway and rail systems will also be addressed.

Ewing Halsell Foundation funds $1 million Distinguished Chair

A $500,000 gift from the Ewing Halsell Foundation in 1992 to establish the Ewing Halsell Chair in Biology has been important to The University of Texas at San Antonio for many reasons, but perhaps the most significant is that it allowed the university to recruit Joe L. Martinez, Jr. from the University of California at Berkeley to head the life sciences program in the mid 1990s.

Since coming to San Antonio, Martinez has brought great distinction to the university and has helped UTSA to become a leader in neuroscience research and in the development of much-in-demand minority scientists for teaching and research. In part to recognize these many achievements, the foundation in early 2004 contributed an additional $500,000 to elevate the endowed chair to distinguished chair status.

Alumni Gala

Everything in Texas is big, and the 5th Annual UTSA Alumni Gala on Saturday, August 28th at Oak Hills Country Club promises to be the biggest event yet! Alumni and friends will come together to celebrate this year’s theme: UTSA…The Rising Star of Texas, Instilling Pride…Achieving Excellence.

In the spirit of the big State of Texas, guests will enjoy a big evening of camaraderie and celebration as the Alumnus of the Year, Alicia C. Treviño, AIA, and Distinguished Service Award recipient, the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Board, are recognized. A sumptuous seated dinner, live and silent auctions, and music featuring the Rick Cavender Band make for a big time to be had by all.

Make your reservations online at www.utsa.edu/alumni/gala or by calling (210) 458-4133. Individual invitations will be mailed to current members of the UTSA Alumni Association.

ITC hosts “A T. rex Named Sue” exhibit Aug. 15-Nov. 7

The Institute of Texan Cultures presents “A T. rex Named Sue,” an exhibit of the world’s most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex, from Aug. 15 to Nov. 7. The San Antonio visit is the touring exhibit’s only stop in Texas. Created by the Field Museum of Chicago with major support from the McDonald’s Corp., the exhibit features a life-sized cast of a T. rex, bilingual displays and is accompanied by interactive activities including Dinosaurs in Motion, the outdoor Dino-Maze and The Bone Zone, a fossil digging pit. The dinosaur skeletal replica is 42 feet long and 12 feet high at the hips and is named after Sue Hendrickson, the fossil hunter who discovered the 67-million-year-old bones in South Dakota in 1990.

For more information, call 210-458-2330 or visit http://www.texancultures.utsa.edu.

President’s scholarship and awards dinner is Oct. 6

Last year’s UTSA President's Scholarship and Awards Dinner raised $370,000 for the newly established UTSA Excellence Fund. The fund supports undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty development and program enhancement. "We are so grateful to our many friends who made this fund-raiser so successful," said President Ricardo Romo. "As state appropriations for higher education decrease, private philanthropy is even more crucial to UTSA’s goal to become the state’s next premier research university. Such generosity will make a difference in the lives of our students and in the life of this growing university." The next president’s dinner is Oct. 6.

For more information, call 210-458-4129.

UTSA celebrates 35th anniversary and new Main Building July 30