TowerTalk

The Longhorn Network will launch on August 26. You may have seen ads for the network narrated by UT alumnus and actor Matthew McConaughey during the NBA finals. Several programs have already been announced, with details about much more programming still to come.

While athletics will be its mainstay, I’m also excited that the Longhorn Network will feature non-sports programming. This will include University news on “Longhorn Extra” and daily short features on research, alumni, faculty, and students. We’ll also be broadcasting films and documentaries by students, faculty, and alumni. Other programming will include live music performances on the campus, top faculty members speaking on provocative topics, and major events such as commencement and my annual State of the University Address.

The Longhorn Network provides financial support for important academic initiatives. I have committed funding from the first year’s network royalties to endow new faculty chairs in Art and Art History, Communication, Philosophy, and Physics. All in all, the Longhorn Network will provide about $5 million per year in support of academics.

For more information about where and how to get the Longhorn Network in time for its August 26 launch visit GetLonghornNetwork.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing network coverage of our faculty, students, alumni, campus events, and all Longhorn team sports.

Hook ’em!

On Wednesday night I hosted a small staff dinner at my home. This is the second staff dinner I’ve held,  and oddly enough, a couple of people mentioned they received the invitation to dinner and thought it was a hoax! It wasn’t, and I was pleased to have the chance to get acquainted with staff who work  in academic departments across the 40 Acres.

From left: Bill Powers, Tamela Walker, Amelia Rey-Shannon, Carol Carreon, Michelle George, John Fleming, Hortensia Peoples, and Jennifer Luna-Iduante. (Not pictured: David Steadman and Mickey Gonzales)

During dinner, we usually go around the table and I ask each person to tell me a little about their work. Joining me were staff from Liberal Arts, the iSchool, the McCombs School, the Cockrell School, Social Work, Architecture, Natural Sciences,  Undergraduate Studies, and Nursing.  We had a lively conversation.

The University is blessed to have such accomplished and dedicated staff members.

I want to thank the nearly 200,000 alumni, friends, parents, and organizations who have contributed to The Campaign for Texas.  We have just passed the midway point of the capital campaign, with $1.55 billion in gifts and pledges.

Your continued support will help us advance our academic initiatives and achieve our goal of becoming the best public university in the nation. Your gifts support students, faculty, and programs in ways that would not otherwise be possible.

Even as we celebrate this milestone, we recognize that much work remains. If you haven’t contributed, join the team and be a part of our victory during the second half. Every gift matters.

Hook ’em Horns!

The Austin-American Statesman and The Dallas Morning News have recently published my op-ed on UT’s productivity:

With more than 52,000 students and many nationally ranked academic programs, The University of Texas at Austin is one of the most productive universities in the United States. But you wouldn’t know it by reading the Center for College Affordability and Productivity’s (CCAP) recently published report, which suggests that if the 80 percent of our faculty that have the lowest teaching load taught half as much as the top 20 percent, tuition could be reduced by half.

The most obvious flaw in this analysis is that the measure of faculty productivity is limited solely to semester credit hours. There is no attempt to measure the quality, and therefore the true productivity, of the learning experience.

At UT, we could easily increase the appearance of efficiency by doing all our teaching in classes of 300 students. According to the CCAP metric, our university would then be far more productive. But what is the goal of a university? At UT, our goal is to provide the most effective learning experience for our undergraduates and graduate students. In addition, we expect our faculty to conduct research to expand knowledge and benefit society.

Let me give one example. As a part of our curriculum reform at UT, we now require all freshmen to complete what we call a First-Year Signature Course. In these courses, taught by senior faculty, students concentrate on writing and speaking, critical thinking, and research. These courses are often taught in small seminars, such as the one that I teach. The CCAP analysis would penalize a faculty member for teaching any small class. Yet exposing our freshmen to a rich learning experience with our best faculty is central to our mission and increases our overall educational productivity.

By the CCAP’s measure a faculty member teaching a class of 300 is 16 times more “productive” than one teaching an 18-student seminar. Our small freshman seminars are labor intensive, but we value the student-faculty interaction, and students tell us they value it, too. The same point could be made regarding upper-division and graduate seminars, which are small and relatively expensive. But we believe that providing high-quality graduate education is important for training the next generation of researchers, scholars, and leaders.

At UT we offer a few classes that are large, some with more than 500 students. But we offer many more small classes: 34 percent have fewer than 20 students, and another 41 percent have between 20 and 49 students. Universities need a healthy balance of class sizes to be efficient while maintaining the quality of our teaching. Therefore it comes as no surprise that a minority of UT instructors teaches a majority of semester credit hours, and there is nothing problematic about this.

Furthermore, our faculty devote large amounts of time to student advising, research, scholarly publications, administrative responsibilities, participation and leadership in national and international organizations, and public service. None of this is measured in the CCAP analysis. Overall productivity is important; the mix of individual contributions to productivity is a tactic to achieve it.

At UT, we are very serious about increasing productivity in teaching, research, business operations, and commercialization of intellectual property. Indeed, among the nation’s 120 leading research universities, we are the 10th most efficient when measuring the amount of tuition and state money we spend to achieve our six-year graduation rate. And we spend less state money and tuition per faculty member than all but one other research university in America.

We welcome all productivity analysis that measures quality—because outstanding teaching and research are our goals. With our state’s largest enrollment, highest ranked programs, and highest four-year graduation rate, we are very productive. And we do this with tuition of less than $10,000 per year while receiving only 14 percent of our budget from state appropriations. However, we’re still not satisfied, and we are implementing multiple initiatives to further improve our efficiency.

For the citizens of Texas, we are a very good investment. Last year, our faculty attracted $648 million in research grants, more than double our current state appropriation of $318 million. When combined with other revenue from tuition, philanthropy, and auxiliary enterprises, taxpayers received the benefit of $5.8 billion in economic activity. All of this comes at an annual cost of about $13 per Texas resident.

It’s curious that advocates for productivity should take aim at one of the most productive universities in the nation. In any event, at The University of Texas at Austin, we welcome productivity analysis that includes measures of academic quality, and we will continue to strive for even greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Last week UT celebrated the completion of Austin’s largest solar energy installation in one location at our Pickle Research Campus. The solar panels cover roughly 1.75 acres as well as a carport roof. The two solar arrays will generate more than 400,000 kilowatt hours of energy annually. The system will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 263 tons per year.

Last year, UT received $1.6 million in grants from the State Energy Conservation Office, which funded about 80 percent of the cost of the project.

This facility is a great example of UT’s commitment to sustainability and to achieving greater operational efficiency in all areas. In fact, the project will also serve as a laboratory for students, faculty, and the community.

What starts here changes the world.

I wanted to share this message, which I sent to our faculty and staff today:

Dear Colleagues,

The regular session of the Legislature ended on Monday, and I want to give you an update.  In the current budget, which must be completed during the special session, the 2012-2013 budget for UT Austin will be down by 16.5% from the original 2010-2011 budget.

This represents a $92.1 million decrease in funding for the 2012-2013 biennium compared to 2010-2011. The impact of this is complex and could change as a result of action taken in the special session. But if these changes stand, the budget reductions will be close to the cuts that the units were anticipating. Budget reductions of this scale will be painful, but careful planning by the University Budget Council, the deans, department chairs, and vice presidents will make them manageable.

The cost of group insurance may increase, and there may be revisions to annual deductible amounts and copayments. The employer contribution to retirement plans could also be affected.

Finally, there is the question of how this budget will affect salaries for faculty and staff.  That decision has yet to be made. The University Budget Council will review the situation and reach a decision by the end of June. And of course, I will keep you informed.

I know there has been a great deal of uncertainty about our budget, and I want you to know that we are doing our best to minimize the negative impact of these cuts on our people and programs.

I appreciate everything you do for UT.