(April 16, 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 task force and Page consultants will hold two campus forums to share an initial draft of the master plan on Wednesday, April 24. The Main Campus forum will be 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. in the Student Union Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02), and the Downtown Campus forum will be 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. in the Buena Vista Street Building Aula Canaria (BVB 1.328). Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend. Alternately, UTSA community members can share their input by emailing masterplan@utsa.edu or texting 830-339-2252.
A workgroup has formed and will begin meeting over the summer to develop a matrix of experiential learning criteria and categories, ultimately enabling credit and non-credit options for students completing these experiences. Summer work will also include efforts to identify external partnership opportunities in the community.
UTSA is proud to announce that four faculty members received 2018 NSF CAREER awards, totaling approximately $2M in support. This is the greatest number of NSF CAREER awards received by UTSA in any single year and is a significant step forward in the university’s pursuit of NRUF designation and Carnegie R1 classification. A record number of faculty submitted NEH Fellowships applications this month, and proposal development services are underway for more than 20 NSF CAREER applicants in the 2019 cycle. Finally, a new faculty cluster hiring effort aimed to expand UTSA’s capacity in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in progress.
Strategic Communications
Building on the brand workshop and brainstorming session that took place at a Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meeting in December, Dougherty Insightings, a Dallas-based brand consulting firm, returned to campus last month to present three concepts for a redefined brand platform to several campus leaders. This month Doughterty meets with SLT and deans to further discuss the brand promise, to provide insight into possible taglines and to gain additional feedback.
Preventing Sexual Assault and Misconduct
The Programming and Outreach Task Force has put together a full slate of activities to recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Advocate Brenda Tracy is building on her visit to campus last month by partnering with Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) to create a #SetTheExpectation pledge for fraternities, sororities and student organizations.
SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation
In anticipation of submitting UTSA’s Compliance Certification Report in September, all narratives and documentation must be finalized and any revisions completed by June 1. In order to meet this deadline, three external reviewers are currently providing feedback on the draft report. The reviewers have considerable experience with SACSCOC guidelines and are providing helpful direction to the Racing to Reaccreditation Team.
Data Governance
The Data Governance College Leads team had its first meeting and reviewed institutional dashboards, graduate student status (progress and degree completion), and research dashboards based on college-level performance indicators and targets. Through these monthly meetings, the College Data Leads are assisting deans in strategic and operational areas by providing them with actionable information and trends for data-informed decisions.
National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science
High-ranking leadership representing the Air Force, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Secret Service joined with over 200 guests at the NSCC open house on March 28. Attendees enjoyed tours, technology demonstrations and the debut of the Technology Demonstration Laboratory, made possible by a generous gift from Dell Technologies. The three top candidates for the NSCC Executive Director position will participate in on-campus interviews this month. Looking to the future School of Data Science/NSCC facility in downtown San Antonio, a delegation from UTSA will be conducting peer institution site visits to view building design concepts in late May.
Guadalupe Hall
The Guadalupe Hall business plan for design development has been submitted to UT System for approval at the May Board of Regents' meeting. This approval is a critical milestone to keep the project on schedule for completion in summer 2021.
The architecture firm Gensler has been hired to do facility programming for the new Honors Residential College. The firm is meeting with the faculty and staff on the project’s Programming and Steering Committee to begin conversations around room types, dining facilities, outdoor activity space and innovative classrooms. Upcoming programming meetings will center on gathering input from the Honors Dean’s Student Advisory Council as well as other UTSA stakeholders.
The Human Health task force has completed its work and released its report which includes five notional organizational models for a new health college. On Wednesday, April 17, the task force will hold two open forums for the campus community to provide input: a Main Campus forum from 9 - 10 a.m. in the Main Building Regents’ Room (MB 3.106), and a Downtown Campus forum from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in the Buena Vista Street Building Theater (BVB 1.326). UTSA faculty, staff and students are invited to review the models in advance and attend a forum to share their thoughts.
The strong campus-wide response to programs within this initiative—including the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerating Faculty Diversity Hiring Program, the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerated Hiring of Nationally Recognized Faculty Program, and the Dual Career Academic Excellence through Accelerating Faculty Diversity Hiring Program—have resulted in seven new faculty set to join UTSA next fall. Twelve new Clustered and Connected Hiring Program proposals have undergone review by the Transdisciplinary Research Council (TRC), and their recommendations will be forwarded to Provost Espy and President Eighmy for final decisions. Hires selected as a part of this process will be included in annual position requests.
Expanding Business Education & Career Engagement
Pending UTSA’s Tuition Revenue Bond request for a new downtown state-of-the-art interdisciplinary building, work is progressing to gather qualitative and quantitative data from internal and external communities on programs, initiatives and services that could maximize value at both campus locations for prospective students, businesses and the broader community. Input from faculty representatives, surveys of prospective students and upcoming CEO roundtables are key components of this data-gathering phase.
Learn more about the UTSA strategic vision.
Celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary and share social media posts about the 50th using the hashtag #UTSA50.
Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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.
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.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.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
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.
