Friday, December 8, 2023

University provides March updates on strategic initiatives

University provides March updates on strategic initiatives

(March 20, 2019) -- In an email sent today to UTSA faculty and staff, President Taylor Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic, tactical and academic initiatives underway to support the university’s strategic vision. 

Campus Master Plan

The Campus Master Plan task force and Page consultants will hold a series of meetings in late April and early May to share the initial draft of the master plan. There will be two campus forums—one for Main Campus and one for Downtown Campus—on Thursday, April 24. Times and locations for the two campus forums, as well as community forums, will be announced via this newsletter and UTSA Today. All students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend the campus forums. Additionally, members of the campus and local communities can share input at any time by emailing masterplan@utsa.edu or texting 830-339-2252.

Classroom to Career

The Classroom to Career Task Force has completed Phase I and released its report. Faculty and staff are encouraged to continue submitting information on existing experiential learning opportunities at UTSA by emailing c2c@utsa.edu. Planning for Phase II—the implementation phase—is currently underway. Activities will include continued data collection on existing experiential learning opportunities and potential new ones, hiring for key leadership positions, forming a workgroup to develop a matrix of experiential learning criteria and categories and planning student focus groups for the fall semester.

Research Excellence

To further UTSA’s National Research University Fund (NRUF) and Carnegie R1 Classification eligibility goals, work continues to build and support programs and services to increase the number of scholarly awards. Proposal development services are in place for National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship applications and the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development program (NSF CAREER). These efforts are starting to show results, with UTSA securing three NSF CAREER and two Fulbright Core U.S. Scholar awards in 2018. Each awardee will receive a $5,000 award under the Targeted Scholarly Awards Program. To increase collaborations with top scholars in key areas of research, UTSA has announced additional Academy Fellows Series speakers for the months of March, April and May.

Downtown Campus

UTSA today announced a new partnership with VIA Metropolitan Transit that provides the entire university community with free bus passes to transport them between campuses and throughout San Antonio. Improvements to portions of Frio Street alongside the Downtown Campus are near completion and include expanded sidewalks for accessibility, landscaping, improved lighting and bus stop structures, and a pedestrian-activated crosswalk. These enhancements are part of San Antonio’s multi-year street improvement project in the Zona Cultural district and similar work along Buena Vista Street will commence soon. Earlier this month, students, faculty and staff made meaningful connections with the community surrounding the Downtown Campus by volunteering with the City of San Antonio District 5 staff during UTSA’s Day of Service at Plaza Guadalupe, with City of San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Erik Walsh, District 5 City Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales and UTSA President Taylor Eighmy participating.

Inclusive Excellence

The Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board chairs have been meeting to discuss and develop operations and a strategy to market and populate the board, as well as to develop agendas for initial committee activities. This initiative has three committees charged with advancing specific aspects of inclusive excellence at UTSA. The Cultural Intelligence Committee is collaborating with university units and EVERFI to design online professional development trainings with a targeted implementation date of October 2019. The Campus Climate Committee is in the preliminary stages of reviewing survey instruments and developing processes to execute a campus climate survey in the fall of 2019. The Inclusive Recruitment Committee is beginning its work to identify resources and develop strategies to increase the diversity of UTSA’s faculty and staff.

Preventing Sexual Assault and Misconduct

Task force members completed the first portion of the Culture of Respect campus self-assessment and will finalize early next month. The assessment will inform concrete action steps for each task force. The Programming and Outreach task force is hosting a Bringing in the Bystander facilitator training on March 26 and 27, which is open to all students, faculty and staff. They are also coordinating a series of events scheduled for Sexual Assault Prevention month in April. Additionally, today UTSA Athletics is holding a Set the Expectation Day where student athletes will sign the pledge mentioned in Brenda Tracy's presentation earlier this month.

SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation

Exactly one year from now, UTSA will host peer reviewers from similar institutions outside of Texas for an on-site reaffirmation of accreditation visit. The dates for the review are March 16-19, 2020. Based on the feedback of an off-site committee regarding UTSA’s written materials, the on-site reviewers will meet with specific departments, university leadership, students, faculty and the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) planning team to ask questions and seek any needed clarifications.

National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science

Executive search firm Higher Talent Inc. was selected to coordinate a national search for the Executive Director of the National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC). Top talent from around the country has expressed interest in this position and the first round of interviews is scheduled for the third week of March. The NSCC to date has secured 16 federal partners and 17 private sector/non-profit partners, all presenting opportunities for collaborations in research and workforce development. An open house for existing and potential new partners will take place in late March, highlighting the NSCC’s temporary facility in the NPB as well as the center’s research capabilities. Plans are also underway to recruit a director for the School of Data Science.  

Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence

Schematic designs for the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence, as well as the new Park West Team Building, are now complete. Meetings have taken place with various user groups to review and offer feedback to the designs, and final costs for the facilities will be determined later this month.

Honors Residential College

Honors College Dean Sean Kelly, Associate Dean Jill Fleuriet and Assistant Vice President for Facilities Planning and Development Ben Perry traveled over Spring Break to visit several residential honors colleges at peer and aspirant institutions. A request for qualifications has been issued to competitively select a professional design firm for the building and a project manager has been selected.

Human Health

Last month, the Human Health Planning Advisory Task Force released a report containing data gathered during Phase I. The task force has now entered Phase II of its process to begin translating its findings into multiple notional options for a new health college. The campus community and external stakeholders will have an opportunity to review and discuss the proposed options through a series of forums to begin in April.

Urban Education Institute

The UEI has developed a seed-funding program to support applied, transdisciplinary research teams focused on education issues relevant to San Antonio’s education stakeholders, including educators, students and policymakers. The institute is currently leading six research studies and is actively presenting to community partners and stakeholders. UEI has received $1.2 million in funding thus far and continues to seek additional grants for future research.

Strategic Faculty Hiring

Forums for this initiative were held in February and focused on the launch of the new Clustered and Connected Hiring Program, the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerating Faculty Diversity Hiring Program (FDP), the Dual Career Academic Partners Hiring Program, and the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerated Hiring of Nationally Recognized Faculty Program (NRP). Deadlines have now passed for applications to the Clustered and Connected Hiring Program. Twelve faculty-initiated proposals were submitted. The Transdisciplinary Research Council will prioritize proposals in April and forward their recommendations to university leadership. To date, UTSA successfully hired one faculty each under the FDP and NRP programs. Eligibility criteria has been expanded for the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program and the deadline for participation has been extended to April 10, 2019.


Learn more about the UTSA Strategic Vision.

Celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary and share social media posts about the 50th using the hashtag #UTSA50.

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UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.


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UTSA’s Mission

The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.

UTSA’s Vision

To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

UTSA’s Core Values

We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.

UTSA’S Destinations

UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .

Our Commitment to Inclusivity

The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.