TowerTalk

I’m happy to announce that Ward Farnsworth will be the new dean of the UT Law School starting June 1. He comes to us from Boston University School of Law where he was associate dean for academic affairs.

Dean Farnsworth earned a bachelor’s from Wesleyan University in 1989 and a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1994. He has clerked for Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. In 1996 he served as a legal adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Ward is the author of The Legal Analyst (2007) and Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric (2010). He also is co-author of Torts: Cases and Questions with Mark Grady (2004).

UT Law now has more than 1,200 students and approximately 23,500 living alumni with careers in law, government, public-service, and business throughout the world. We have 24 members of the American Law Institute currently on our faculty.

As a past dean of the UT Law School I know the challenges and rewards of this position, and I’m confident Ward is just whom the school needs at this point in its history. I also want to give my deepest thanks to Dr. Stefanie Lindquist for her able leadership of the school in the interim.

As you may have now heard, today the UT Board of Regents took actions that will have profound effects on our university.

The Board voted to allocate $25 million recurring, with an additional $5 million for eight years, to fund a medical school in Austin. This allocation — along with a pending $250 million commitment from the Seton Healthcare Family for a new teaching hospital — moves us closer than ever to bringing a medical school to UT Austin. The founding of a medical school at UT would be an enormous event in the life of the University, would offer dramatic new opportunities for our students and our faculty, and would advance health care in Central Texas.

Nevertheless, I’m disappointed to report that the Board declined to adopt our tuition recommendation. Instead it voted to freeze undergraduate tuition at its current level for Texas residents at UT Austin for the next two years. It did allocate $6.6 million of non-recurring money from the Available University Fund (the endowment from the West Texas oil lands) for those same two years. It adopted our request for a 3.6 percent increase for graduate students but declined to adopt it for the second year. Tuition for out-of-state undergraduates will increase by 2.1 percent for two years rather than 3.6 percent as we requested. The tuition freeze was not applied to any other UT System school.

While many students naturally will welcome the news of a tuition freeze, we should understand the serious consequences for UT Austin and for the ability of Texans to benefit from strong public universities.

Our university is supported financially by four pillars: state funding, tuition, research grants, and philanthropy. State support in constant dollars per UT student has fallen for more than a quarter century. With a multi-year tuition freeze, the second pillar of our funding structure effectively will be cut each year by the rate of inflation. While we appreciate the AUF allocation, it will provide less than half of the increase we had planned for. Moreover, a one-time allocation, however much it might mitigate short-term problems, cannot substitute for stable, recurring, sustainable funding needed to support long-term efforts aimed at student success.

This action inevitably will affect our ability to teach our students and make new discoveries. Our tuition proposal, which was unanimously recommended by the students on UT’s Tuition Policy Advisory Committee, was dedicated to fund initiatives to enhance student success, improve four-year graduation rates, and increase scholarships.

As we prepare for next year’s budget, I will work with faculty, students, staff, and our administrative leadership to address how we use our resources to protect the quality of education here at UT.

The University of Texas has pursued excellence and has steadily grown stronger for 129 years. I am committed to protecting the quality of a UT education for Texans, for our children, and for our grandchildren.

From left, Sacha Kopp, David Laude, Michael Downer, me, and Richard Hazeltine

Tuesday, I had the pleasure of presenting the Piper Award to Michael Downer. Each year, the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation selects 10 professors in Texas to receive $5,000 rewarding excellence in teaching. Professor Downer is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in our Department of Physics and a recent recipient of a Regents Outstanding Teaching Award.

Among his innovations in classroom teaching, Michael introduced “Concept Quizzes,” an interactive teaching method that encourages dialogue between lecturers and students and among students themselves in large lower-division classes. This innovation went on to be adopted by other faculty members, was computerized as part of the Painter Hall lecture room remodeling, and has become the department’s standard procedure for large introductory courses. Michael also introduced “Cir-Kits,” take-home electrical circuit kits with accompanying homework exercises for students in introductory electricity and magnetism courses.

In addition to his classroom teaching, Professor Downer has supervised and financially supported the work of over a dozen undergraduates and several dozen graduate students in his research labs, where his students investigate femtosecond laser science. Most of these students have become scientific leaders in their own right in universities, national laboratories and industries around the globe. Recently, Michael and his wife established the Jane and Michael Downer Presidential Fellowship in Laser Science in memory of one of Michael’s first students, Glenn Bryant Focht, who succumbed to cancer several years ago. This fund is now beginning to support the education of new students in laser science.

Professors like Michael Downer exemplify what a research university is all about.

Hook ’em Horns,

With Senator Kirk Watson (left) and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell (right)

Many of you know that we are steadily building a coalition to support a medical school at UT Austin, and we have had several major developments lately.

Last weekend, the Seton Healthcare Family, the largest health care provider in Austin, committed $250 million to build a teaching hospital that would be a key component of a UT Austin medical school education. This commitment is subject to a couple of board votes by Seton and the national nonprofit health care system to which it belongs, but no problems getting final approval are expected at this time.

On Monday, I joined Senator Kirk Watson, who is leading the effort to bring a medical school to Austin with a 10-point plan, and other community leaders at the Lance Armstrong Foundation headquarters in Austin to help launch a new educational initiative — Healthy ATX.

Healthy ATX is an online forum for dialogue about advances in health care and medical education in Austin, and Central Texans are being asked to share their own health care stories on the site to increase awareness about the need to expand health care excellence and education Austin.

A world-class medical school in Austin would benefit our university and the community, and with these important commitments we are one step closer to realizing a momentous development in the University’s history.

What starts here changes the world.

On Friday, the University lost an inspirational pillar of support for scholarship.

The patriarch and long-time benefactor of the Terry Foundation, Howard Terry, passed away at age 95. A man of generosity, care, and humility, Mr. Terry was a 1938 UT graduate, captain of the football team, and lifelong Longhorn. Over the past quarter century, the Terry Foundation became the largest private scholarship provider at UT Austin, having awarded more than $46 million to more than 1,100 students here since 1986.

This year, the Terry Foundation supports 212 Longhorn students with full-ride scholarships valued at more than $3.35 million. The foundation also supports scholarship recipients at seven other Texas universities, with some 660 students statewide receiving full-ride scholarships. More than 2,400 Terry Scholars have benefited from the Terrys’ generosity since the foundation’s inception.

Howard will be sorely missed, but his far-sighted legacy will live on for decades to come.

Last Friday, it was my pleasure to help dedicate the Margaret C. Berry Atrium at the Student Activity Center on campus. Many of you know Dr. Berry personally through her work as UT’s dean of women, her sponsorship of many student organizations, and the popular histories she has written of our university.

The depth of feeling for Dr. Berry, now 96, was evident everywhere, from the three busloads of her fellow residents at Westminster Manor in attendance to Texas Exes of practically every vintage who returned to campus to honor her. The Longhorn Band and cheerleaders set the perfect stage for Dr. Berry, who has dedicated her life to so many student organizations that just reading a list of them took some two minutes.

We were honored to have Congressman Lloyd Doggett and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, both UT alumni, on hand to honor Dr. Berry, along with Debra Law McKeown, Steve Poizner, Rick Potter, Cyndi Powell, and many others who led the alumni and student initiatives to honor Dr. Berry.

Her record of service to UT students has few equals. Congratulations, Margaret!

Hook ’em Horns!

The Dell Social Innovation Challenge brings the spirit of entrepreneurship and competition to some of the world’s most pressing needs. I’m proud that UT’s LBJ School of Public Affairs is the host of this contest, now in its sixth year. I’m grateful for Dell’s support of it, and I’m excited that our Longhorn students again have taken up the challenge.

This year, more than 25 UT students have been chosen as Semi-Finalists. Their projects range from the Texas 4000 ride for cancer to an initiative to coordinate clean water efforts in Haiti. I encourage you to register and then review our students’ proposals and vote for their projects at:

http://www.dellchallenge.org/universities/university-texas-austin

You may vote for more than one.

The Finalists and People’s Choice Awards winners will be announced May 14. The Grand Prize Awards winners will be revealed at the Student Social Innovation Awards June 12 at ACL Live at The Moody Theater here in Austin. More than $150,000 in funding will be awarded to 25 student teams with innovative solutions to social and environmental issues. For updates on the challenge, see Facebook.com/DellSocialInnovation.

What starts here changes the world.

Eric Guajardo and Jessica Reyna with support staff from their high schools

High school today is very different and in ways more challenging than it was when many of us were there. Now imagine trying to get through modern high school when your family moves twice a year and you’re expected to work. Such is the life of a migrant student.

For the past 25 years, UT Austin has administered the Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program to help migrant students graduate, and today I had the honor of being with 40 of these students who make us especially proud at a recognition ceremony.

Since the program began in 1987, we have worked with 26,000 students, providing opportunities to earn credit anytime and anywhere. We now offer 55 distance-learning courses and prepare students for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

With funding from the Texas Education Agency, the program helps these students stay on track for on-time graduation. Many of them will become the first high school graduates in their families and will go on to college.

I’d like to congratulate the 2012 Exemplary Migrant Students of the Year — Eric Guajardo of Alamo and Jessica Reyna of La Joya.

What starts here changes the world.

I want to share a new video with you about the Powers Fellows. As some of you may already know, the Powers Graduate Fellowship Program was created in 2009 from a generous donation through the Foundation for Global Sports Development via Dr. Steven Ungerleider. These fellowships are among the most prestigious awarded by the Graduate School, providing a financial package of $36,000 over 12 months. Powers Fellows, currently numbering 23, are among the academic elite on our campus.

I’m honored to be associated with this effort, and I think you’ll find this video inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbabDbj0kNg&feature=player_embedded

Hook ’em Horns,

At the 2012 University of Texas Awards Dinner

On Wednesday night I had the honor of recognizing 13 members of the UT family with prestigious awards on behalf of the University. The Tower glowed orange in their honor as well. The recipients were …

Presidential Citation
To recognize the extraordinary contributions of individuals who personify the University’s commitment to transforming lives

• Jay Boisseau, the highly successful director of UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center
• John Massey, a business executive whose generosity has made an impact in our schools of law, business, and education
• Charles Tate, an investment banker whose many areas of service to the University include the Commission of 125 and the board of UTIMCO
• Barbara White, who stepped down as dean of the UT School of Social Work last summer after 18 years of leadership

Civitatis Award
To recognize outstanding faculty citizenship

• Martha Hilley, a tremendous teacher of piano pedagogy and active member of the UT community who next year will take her second turn as chair of the Faculty Council

Arno Nowotny Medal
For contributions to student life

• Jeanne Carpenter, the recently retired director of University Health Services and associate vice president for student affairs
• Shirley Bird Perry, a senior vice president, vice chancellor of the UT System, and director of the Texas Union, who passed away in 2011

President’s Associates Teaching Excellence
For outstanding teachers in the colleges of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences

• Caryn Carlson, Psychology
• Alan Friedman, English
• Theresa Jones, Psychology
• Naomi Lindstrom, Spanish and Portuguese
• Elizabeth Stepp, Mathematics
• Hannah Wojciehowski, English

These are the kind of people who make The University of Texas the special place it is day in and day out. My profound thanks and congratulations to them all.

Hook ’em Horns,