JANUARY 29, 2020 — In a message sent to faculty and staff today President Taylor Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic, tactical and academic initiatives underway to support the university’s strategic vision.
UTSA’s Knowledge Enterprise closed out a successful year in 2019, with research expenditures reaching an all-time high. Efforts to increase NRUF-recognized faculty awards in 2019 were effective with five UTSA faculty researchers receiving the NSF CAREER Award for a collective award of over $2.5 million. Rena Bizios, Lutcher Brown Chair and professor of biomedical engineering, was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Bizios joins four other UTSA researchers inducted into the NAI: Taylor Eighmy, president; Mauli Agrawal, former interim provost and vice president for academic affairs; David Akopian, electrical and computer engineering professor; and Bernard Arulanandam, vice president for research, economic development and knowledge enterprise.
SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation
Based on preliminary findings from UTSA’s Compliance Certification Report, the university was required to provide additional information for six standards in a Focused Report. This report has been completed and is being submitted along with UTSA’s next Quality Enhancement Plan, titled “Career FUEL: Find Understanding through Experiential Learning.” This plan builds on the institution’s Classroom to Career initiative, which focuses on promoting career-engaged learning, expanding experiential learning on campus and creating career-ready graduates. UTSA’s on-site SACSCOC review will be March 16-19.
National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science
UTSA will host candidates for on-campus interviews in February for the inaugural School of Data Science Academic Director and Chief Data Strategist positions. Candidate lecture schedules will be posted on the SDS executive search website. The SDS and Extended Education, in partnership with Trilogy Education Services, launched the second cohort of the Coding Boot Camp on Jan. 13. Further advancing UTSA’s partnership with Mitre Corporation, the SDS will offer a Gen AI workshop for UTSA faculty on Feb. 14 to introduce the Gen AI program, provide examples of Gen AI lessons and answer any questions about preparing Gen AI content for courses across all disciplines.
Forty-six modular units arrived on the Main Campus during the winter break, and all phases of construction remain on target for the new Student Success Center advising complex. External contractors will be on site January through March completing the remaining phases of construction and design. The project will be completed in March, and Student Success units will begin moving into the new complex starting April 1.
As of Jan. 1, the university reacquired downtown parking lots D4 and D5 from the Texas Department of Transportation. These parking lots provide additional commuter parking options to accommodate anticipated growth of the Downtown Campus community. For more information on parking options at the Main, Downtown and Hemisfair campuses, view Campus Services parking maps.
The new College for Health, Community and Policy has officially launched in preparation to enroll its first students this fall. Interim Dean Lloyd Potter announced interim leadership appointments last week. Logistics planning is ongoing, including laying the groundwork to migrate HCaP students, faculty and staff within UTSA’s various databases and systems prior to the start of fall classes.
A new academic leadership position, associate vice provost for faculty diversity and inclusion, has been created to help shape and guide the university’s continuing efforts to enhance faculty diversity to better reflect the students UTSA serves. The AVP will focus on implementing national best practices at UTSA in standards, approaches, practices and processes related to the recruitment, appointment, development and recognition of diverse faculty to advance institutional goals. This position will be filled at first on an interim basis. Campus interviews continue for positions associated with the Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative for 2020 in areas of augmented/virtual reality, human performance, social and environmental challenges in Latin America and quantum computation/quantum information.
San Antonio Workforce Initiative
The task force continues to build implementation goals for the initiative with final plans expected by February. The results of roundtable discussions held in May 2019 were finalized in a report and distributed to community participants. The report identifies future trends and demands in the workforce, new programs to support economic success, gaps and future opportunities for partnerships across the San Antonio community.
The Graduate Student Success for Faculty Excellence task force has met three times since the initiative launched in November 2019. Due to high interest from the UTSA community in this initiative and its charge to advance graduate education and improve the graduate student experience, the task force is developing a survey and scheduling town hall meetings to gather input from students as well as faculty and staff.
