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Dear Friend,
Strong and Getting Stronger
Last week, I spoke at the 48th Chancellor’s Council Annual Meeting and Symposium (CCAM) in Austin. For those of you who don’t know, the Chancellor’s Council is made up of some of the most loyal and generous friends of The University of Texas System. Once a year we bring as many of them as we can together so we can thank them and showcase some of the amazing work being done at UT System institutions – work their support helps make possible.
My role in the program – themed “The Universe of Texas. It Matters Here. It Matters Everywhere.” – was pretty modest. Like the thousand or so Council members who descended on Austin from around the state, the nation and indeed the world, I mostly watched in awe as one incredibly impressive speaker after another described the things they were working on – little things like curing cancer, fighting cyberterrorists and stopping outbreaks of infectious diseases.
My contribution to the proceedings was a speech on the State of the System, and since I know that’s a topic that interests you, I thought I’d include it (slightly abbreviated and scrubbed) in this month’s message.
I’ve been Chancellor now for four months, and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. But even in a whirlwind I’ve had time to reflect now and then – and I must say, coming back home to Austin, and joining this incredible System has been one of the best decisions of my life.
To know that the work we are doing together is making the great state of Texas a smarter, healthier, stronger place – I just couldn’t ask for anything more, and I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of the opportunity the Board of Regents has given me.
My task today is to talk about the State of the System, so let me just start with the headline – the state of the system is strong and getting stronger.
What does that mean in practical terms? First of all, in terms of human capital, we have some of the greatest minds in the world, and those minds are being put to incredible use. We also have a competitive advantage that no other state in the country has. We have the Permanent University Fund, oil and gas revenue derived from the 2.1 million acres of West Texas land that we own.
This funding stream – although restricted to capital needs – is unlike any other in American higher education, and it gives us the wherewithal to be bold, innovative and creative in an era where other universities and systems are not able to make advancements.
In my first four months on the job, I’ve visited all but a couple of our 15 campuses, and these visits have revealed to me strength after strength after strength. Every door I look behind, including every lab, classroom or hospital room, is a jaw-dropping experience.
Right here at UT Austin we have the Plan II Honors Program, which delivers the best liberal arts education you can imagine. There is the Clements Center for History, Strategy and Statecraft, where the next generation of national security leaders is being trained. From business, to engineering, to the arts, to our graduate programs – it’s clear to me that our flagship university is as strong as ever.
Just down I-35, UT San Antonio’s student body and stature are both growing incredibly fast. Among other things, UTSA is recognized as a national leader in the emerging field of cybersecurity research and training.
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, of course, is one of the top cancer centers in the world. It conducts more cancer clinical trials than any institution in the world, receives the most National Cancer Institute funding, and is responsible for more than one-third of all the new FDA-approved cancer drugs.
At UT Medical Branch, our Galveston National Laboratory is the only operational BioSafety Level 4 National lab on a university campus in the United States. And our scientists there are playing a leading role in researching and developing treatments and vaccines for global infectious diseases, including Ebola.
At UT Southwestern medical school, six members of our faculty are Nobel Laureates — a distinction no other medical school in America can claim. And the recent opening of the Clements Hospital means that UT is redefining the patient experience and offering medical education that will put all of our health care graduates at the forefront of clinical care.
From El Paso to Tyler to Brownsville and everywhere in between, great things are taking place at all of our campuses. But the UT System isn’t just a collection of 15 fine individual institutions – we are more than the sum of our parts. So let me tell you a little bit about the strength of the system as a whole, and what we’re doing to make it even stronger.
UT System institutions confer more than one-third of Texas’s undergraduate degrees and educate two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals each year.
The caliber of our scientific research in every imaginable area has ranked us third in the nation and first in Texas in federal research spending.
The UT System family includes three of the nation’s 68 National Cancer Institute cancer centers – UT MD Anderson, UT Southwestern and UT Health Science Center-San Antonio.
We are the only university system in the U.S. to have received four Clinical and Translational Science Awards from the National Institutes of Health for our proven success in quickly bringing the drugs and therapies we discover to patients.
Recognizing that the UT System has multiple institutions conducting clinical trials, last year the Board of Regents approved and funded The University of Texas Clinical Trial Network. This first-of-its-kind effort will bring the great minds of our system together in collaboration. We will leverage the collective power of a larger and more diverse pool of patients to produce better science – and ultimately, better health – for our state and indeed the world.
We are investing unprecedented resources into building a healthier Texas. We recently created the Institute for Health Transformation, which will use technology-based solutions to expand access to quality health care and tackle the health problems like obesity and diabetes, tobacco use and poor nutrition that plague much of our state.
We have established the UT System Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Institute. This institute will help UT neuroscientists have a competitive edge when vying for new federal dollars set aside to dramatically advance the research of the human brain.
As you probably know, we are the only university system in the country currently building two new medical schools – the Dell Medical School here in Austin, and the medical school at the new UT Rio Grande Valley.
UT RGV will open in a few short months, making us the only university system in America to open a new university with a medical school in the 21st century. It will likely be the second largest Hispanic-serving institution in the country the moment it opens its doors – and more importantly, I believe it will have a transformative effect on the health, economy and overall well-being of South Texas.
As we help transform the Rio Grande Valley, we are working on multiple fronts to solve a broader looming statewide crisis – a shortage of engineers and computer scientists. We’ve launched a system-wide initiative to dramatically increase the number of degrees our universities grant in these critical fields. We’re investing in faculty and facilities — partnering with private industry and others to create the larger pool of engineers and computer scientists our state will need in the decades to come.
We are focused on creating pathways that will lead all our students – who, along with their families are investing in a UT System education – to rewarding careers. In 2011, the UT System created the Institute for Transformational Learning. This Institute will leverage new technologies and approaches to establish our institutions as world leaders in educational innovation. We are well on our way to establishing the nation’s largest and most comprehensive competency-based learning initiative. This program will build the essential skill sets required to achieve great competencies, especially in areas of high employer demand.
I could stand here today and offer hundreds of additional examples, but rather than just tell you about our strength, I’m going to let some of our faculty show you.
I want to thank you again for being with us today and for supporting not only the UT System but the institutions that comprise it. You are the foundation of everything we do.
I’m going to be presenting my vision for the UT System to the Board of Regents this fall. In the meantime, I would love to stay connected to you through my monthly communication.
I also have a weekly blog that you can read on the UT System website – plus I’m on Twitter, much to the trepidation of some staff who prefer that I be scripted, even if my tweet is ten words or less!
We are honored by your support. We know you have big hopes and aspirations for us, and our goal is nothing short of greatness. I love this idea of “The Universe of Texas. It matters here. It matters everywhere.” Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, a little bold – but I’m okay with it.
You can’t get to greatness by being timid. I’m looking for the day when everyone in the Nation is asking what Texas thinks about higher education, research and clinical care.
That day is coming, so saddle up, because we are going far.
Thank you for reading and, as always, for your continued support,
Bill McRaven
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