UTSA Update - The University of Texas at San Antonio

A $50,000 scholarship program awarding five UTSA students internships with the Texas House of Representatives as the McClendon Scholars was unveiled Sept. 30 by UTSA President Ricardo Romo and Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon. Each student will earn $2,000 a month January through May and receive up to 12 college credit hours for spending the 2005 legislative session working for elected officials. The new program, a collaborative effort between McClendon and UTSA, will be coordinated by the UTSA Institute for Law and Public Affairs, under the direction of Richard Gambitta, chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography. "The McClendon Scholars program provides the funding that is necessary for so many of our students to elevate the experience to a very meaningful one,” Gambitta said.

UTSA enrollment exceeds 26,000 students

Enrollment at UTSA has reached a record 26,175 students for fall 2004, according to preliminary figures. The number represents a nearly 7 percent increase since fall 2003. This number now places UTSA as the second-largest component in The University of Texas System, where UT Austin is the largest. "UTSA continues to be a university of first choice as it also becomes one of the state's next premier research universities," said President Ricardo Romo. Since he became president in 1999, the university's enrollment has jumped 42 percent. Romo also credits the record enrollment to recruiting efforts beyond Bexar County and to the addition of new master's and doctoral programs. Harris County (Houston) now ranks as the second largest source of students enrolled at UTSA. UTSA celebrated its 35th anniversary in July and launched an ambitious plan to become one of the nation's top 100 research universities within 10 years while continuing to remain accessible to the South Texas population it serves. The university has plans for $750 million in additional construction over the next six years and the hiring of nearly 75 faculty members each year through 2012.

UTSA President's Scholarship and Awards Dinner raises $1.4 million

UTSA’s 2004 President's Scholarship and Awards Dinner Oct. 6 celebrated two heroes of the university and raised a record $1.4 million for UTSA scholarships and other academic programs. The dinner, attended by 800 guests, recognized Dolph Briscoe, 41st governor of Texas, for his leadership and commitment to UTSA and USAA and The USAA Foundation, A Charitable Trust for extraordinary partnerships with UTSA over the past 35 years. Briscoe, who served as governor from 1973 to 1979, received the 2004 Tom C. Frost Award, a recognition given to a citizen who has provided exceptional leadership to important business and community endeavors. USAA and the USAA Foundation, A Charitable Trust received the inaugural UTSA Gold Star Award, recognizing the organization’s extraordinary partnerships with and support for UTSA. In addition to the Briscoe gift of $500,000 (see "Giving to UTSA"), a $200,000 anonymous gift to support the Peter T. Flawn Presidential Honors Endowed Scholarship and $100,000 gifts from the SBC Foundation, the V.H. McNutt Memorial Foundation Inc., The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation and from UTSA alumnus Ernest Bromley and his wife, Aimee Bromley, were included in the funds raised.

UTSA partners with SAISD and HUD to launch early childhood education project

The San Antonio ISD-UTSA Early Childhood Development Center designed to showcase the latest and best practices in early childhood education will open its doors next fall on the grounds of Navarro Academy, 623 S. Pecos St. Officials from UTSA, San Antonio Independent School District and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) broke ground Sept. 24 on the project that will serve San Antonio's West Side community. "We're excited to begin this new endeavor with UTSA," said Ruben Olivarez, SAISD superintendent. Harriett Romo, UTSA associate professor of sociology and project principal investigator, obtained a $584,972 grant from HUD to develop the project. SAISD will fund the project at $1 million from the 2001 Bond Program for design and construction and will retain ownership of the building.

UTSA Physics research team receives U.S. patent

UTSA physics professor Dhiraj Sardar and former undergraduate students Anthony Sayka, Fred Barrera and Ray Yow are the inventive minds behind “Apparatus and Method for Cleaning a Wafer,” a patented invention that could save millions of dollars annually for the semi-conductor industry. “We were especially pleased to support this patent application,” UTSA Provost Guy Bailey said. “The effort behind it represents some of the best work that has taken place at UTSA, and it is a model of what good scientific research can do both for our students and for our economy and society. This kind of collaborative research among faculty, students and our outside partners is an essential part of a first-rate education, and we strongly encourage it at UTSA. The success of the project is an excellent reflection both of the type of students and also of the type of faculty we are getting now at UTSA."

Two universities to team up for water issues in Honduras

UTSA officials and the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) recently signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in water resource research and jointly address the problems of water supply in rural areas of Honduras. UTSA President Ricardo Romo and UNAH Rector Guillermo Perez-Cadalso Arias agreed to develop collaborative research projects and plan joint courses, conferences, seminars, symposiums and lectures while exchanging research, students, teaching personnel, publications and other materials of common interest. “This agreement follows UTSA's vision to become a premier research university over the next decade by expanding our collaborations with other institutions of higher education,” said Romo. “I am proud of the initiative of our outstanding faculty to expand their research into areas related to critical health and social issues.”

Estate planning information available

Do you have questions about estate planning? Planned giving? Your will? Each month, the UTSA Development Office offers on its Web site new articles and interactive features that provide the latest information on such topics. For example, “Giving at Year-End” shows donors how they can limit the amount they will owe in federal income tax next April 15. Also, free brochures are available on a variety of estate planning topics. Visit the Planned Giving Web site: http://www.utsa.edu/development.

Janey Briscoe remembered with endowed chair

A $500,000 gift from former Texas governor Dolph Briscoe and his family will create the Janey S. Briscoe Endowed Chair in Business in the UTSA College of Business. The generous contribution, announced at the 2004 President’s Scholarship and Awards Dinner on October 6, was given in memory of Governor Briscoe’s wife, a former member of the UT System Board of Regents who passed away in October 2000. “We are honored to be the beneficiary of such a generous gift given in memory of such a wonderful friend to UTSA,” said College of Business Interim Dean Lynda de la Vina. “The Janey S. Briscoe Chair is pivotal to our continued quest for programmatic excellence, intellectual depth and national recognition and accolades.”

ITC hosts “A T. rex Named Sue” exhibit through 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, through Nov. 7. As of Oct. 24, 52,227 visitors had come to the exhibit, which is a nearly 75 percent increase over the exhibit goal of 30,000 visitors. 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.

458-ARTS line highlights UTSA arts and
humanities events

UTSA has created 458-ARTS, a hotline for arts, entertainment and humanities events featuring UTSA students, faculty, staff and alumni. The recorded message, which is changed each Wednesday, is accessed at 210-458-ARTS (2787). “The 458-ARTS line was established to keep the UTSA and San Antonio communities informed of the many creative endeavors of the UTSA community,” said President Ricardo Romo. “With more than 3,000 students now living on campus, we wanted to promote all of the great activities we have during evening and weekend hours, as part of our Campus Life Initiative.”

UTSA, Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon unveil legislative intern program