Shared Services

From Tuesday's Eagle

The university-wide plans had called for the elimination of 93 faculty and 117 staff positions -- along with 100 vacant faculty and 175 vacant staff positions -- to help meet a "worst-case" state reduction of $39 million and an internal $21 million reallocation plan to bolster a centrally administered pool to fund strategic priorities.

Across the university, non-tenured faculty have been given notices.

On Monday afternoon, all nine lecturers and senior lecturers in the biology department were set to receive notices of non-renewal.

Vision 1920 is thinking Chancellor McKinney and System VP Giroir, who both have MDs, could pick up a couple of sections of Intro Biology. If their student evaluations are good enough, they could even get some teaching awards.

Shared services

Over the break, Chancellor McKinney announced the results of the shared services analysis. The TAMU community heard about this via email. For the rest of you, here's the Eagle

Though more than $16 million in savings were identified, no savings have yet been implemented. And Wednesday's announcement provided administrative reshuffling, but still no savings, aside from two positions being cut from the A&M System. It was unclear late Wednesday what those positions were.

The "savings" consist mostly of moving administrators from the University to the System. Vision 1920 is sure that the resultant changes in the power of the System are just a coincidence.

Oh, and we'll save more money by hiring a consulting firm to redo what the internal committees have been doing for the past six months.

The green-eyed monster

A notable comment from the Inside Higher Ed article

McKinney chalks up criticism [of the NCTM] to jealousy, adding “why anybody, anybody with pure motives, would be opposed to NCTM I have no idea.”

Chancellor McKinney did not add that he also has no idea why anyone with pure motives would criticize the late Anna Nicole Smith's marriage to billionaire J Howard Marshall.

Murano's performance evaluation explained

More brilliant PR from the Chancellor, as he gives an interview explaining events from last Spring:

Early in her presidency, McKinney says, Murano made a controversial promise, agreeing to hire the Board of Regents’ favored candidate to head research operations on the campus. Such a promise would fly in the face of well-established norms in higher education – where hires of this nature are typically subject to national searches and faculty input – but McKinney openly admits that he and the regents expected Murano to deliver on “her word.”

The Changing Face of Texas - update

Today's Eagle covers the "Changing Face of Texas" Summit on Friday. One of the speakers, Bill Flores '76, past chair of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students noted our recent turmoil:

Bill Flores, a major financial contributor to Texas A&M who spoke about the responsibilities of former students, said that Murano, who resigned in June, was treated in a "disrespectful" and "unprofessional" manner.

The 1976 Aggie graduate told the crowd that former students have responsibilities, including maintaining the reputation of the school, mentoring younger Aggies and holding the university's governing authority accountable for its actions.

Chancellor McKinney's reaction was not reported.

Bluff or ABET

KBTX notes that the Qatar campus just received accreditation from ABET... but Murano claimed this as an accomplishment in February:

Engineering programs at Texas A&M's campus in the Middle East have earned a high honor, but it's one the former university president seems to have claimed had already happened.

A&M announced Tuesday that the four programs based in Qatar have been accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, or ABET.

“We are pleased that Texas A&M’s Qatar campus has been accredited by ABET, which validates something that we have known for a long time — our Qatar engineering graduates are of the highest caliber and will be a part of the next generation of Aggie leaders,” said A&M Interim President Bowen Loftin in a press release Tuesday.

But the accreditation that came Tuesday was something former Texas A&M president Elsa Murano claimed had happened under her watch.

In the now-infamous self-evaluation which led to low marks from A&M System Chancellor Mike McKinney, Murano wrote as a major accomplishment that she "successfully obtained accreditation for our four engineering programs at our campus in Qatar from ABET. This opens the door for the establishment of a full-fledged graduate program and adds great credibility and prestige to our Qatar campus and its graduates."

Chancellor McKinney noted, among other things, that Murano had poor honesty and integrity, and sources with knowledge of the Murano evaluation tell News 3 her statement on ABET accreditation was a factor in the divide that eventually led to Murano resigning the presidency.

Vision 1920 understands how the Chancellor would find this troublesome. How could Ex-President Murano predict the ABET accreditation that would not happen for another 6 months. Just because the ABET site visit was completed (pdf) by November 2008:

Dr. Bennett added that the ABET accreditation process was just completed at the Texas A&M University in Qatar; the University
just graduated their first engineering class last year.

and TAMU would have already received the evaluation committees report and had a chance to respond to any concerns. In her February 24 report to the Chancellor, Murano had no business relying on these things, or the news release from the engineering program referred to here:

CORRECTION: March 24, 2009

The original story (February 13, 2009) did not accurately reflect the current status of the ABET accreditation process at Texas A&M University at Qatar. The original headline, “Texas A&M at Qatar celebrates ABET accreditation,” should have read, “Texas A&M thanks faculty for helping prepare Qatar program for accreditation process.” Changes to the text for clarity have been made; the complete corrected text is below. Texas A&M Engineering Communications sincerely regrets any ambiguities or inaccuracies reflected in the original story.

This mendacious behavior explains the "QATAR" in the Chancellor's handwritten notes (pdf). It couldn't have had anything to do with other rumors that have been flying.

No doubt

Although the news from the Board today focused on the naming of the search committee, Chairman Foster also addressed (pdf) Shared Governance:

I would now like to shift gears and talk briefly about shared governance. Over the past several weeks, members of this Board have been actively meeting with key stakeholder groups on and off campus. At some point several weeks back, the concept of shared governance was thrust into the spotlight. At no time have we, the Board, ever cast doubt on the importance of shared governance at Texas A&M or any of our other universities. I can also assure you that our Chancellor fully appreciates and supports shared governance, and has practiced it. He would not have my support, or that of the Board, if we were convinced that he did not believe in shared governance.

Indeed

"There's nine people who can tell me what to do," McKinney said, referring to the regents. "I'll make my arguments to them. They argue, they listen and then they make a decision and I carry it out. You want shared governance? That's shared governance."

Disposable income

The Chancellor's extended notes (pdf) suggest that ex-President Murano was not on board with the plans the NCTM. An example of her "Active opposition to System" includes:

Pankratz (or CFO) - [Eco info on Xoma - W???? Paper]
- * Real numbers on NCTM, [Elsa ??ed for CEO meeting & really no explanation or understanding & NO Request for info PRIOR ("I gotcha...

There is also another reference to the 3rd "W????" Paper over bullets for Xoma and GLP/GMP.

As explained in our Vice Chancellor for eHarmony's presentation to BioHouston, the NCTM will be an academically-owned, privately-operated GMP manufacturing facility for biological therapeutics. It will be the international leader and regulatory benchmark for flexible, disposable manufacturing technologies.

Vision 1920 does not understand why Murano was standing in the way of TAMUS becoming an international leader. Perhaps she was concerned about initial costs

The decision to be GMP compliant can add considerable expense to a project and should be carefully considered. Process engineering is one aspect that frequently has unexpected higher costs, especially in an institutional setting. Increased requirements for specialized consulting, validation, detailed documentation, and process engineering can increase capital expenses as much as 25 to 30 percent.

Maybe she was worried about operating costs

Once the facility is built, the hard part begins. In addition to maintaining the ongoing validation of all processes, the facility must maintain a full-time quality control and quality assurance staff to support that operation. There will also be a heightened need to market the facility and maximize its use in order to recover the significant added costs.

GMP facilities generally have operating budgets on the order of just a couple million per year. Maybe she was worried about whether income would offset the costs:

“I can’t stress enough the importance of getting out there and promoting these facilities because they don’t run on their own. It’s great to have one or two researchers with projects going but you have to find a lot more support within your university and healthcare network to feed this type of lab,” says Orton.

But that's not a problem, since, as Dr. Giroir points out, the NCTM can

Service new start biotechs particularly those spawned by ETF and CPRIT.

All we have to do is have the State make sure ETF money only goes to companies that promise to use TAMUS facilities. No problem!

Remember Jones Stadium

The Tceh paper has a laugh at our expense

...the vote against McKinney is the latest drama out of the university that seems to be struggling to find leadership.

But Texas Tech fans should be no strangers to McKinney. It was just eight years ago that Tech beat A&M in football and Tech fans casually threw a torn down goalpost into the stands. Rick Perry's then-chief of staff, McKinney, whose son Seth McKinney was an Aggie center, stormed into the A&M locker room with a bloody face yelling "Welcome to Tech," apparently hit during a post-game melee between students.

However, an investigation into the incident revealed McKinney was actually pushing an A&M student into the metal guardrails surrounding the field when the student hit him in an attempt to escape McKinney's swinging binoculars. Despite the investigation, McKinney called out the Tech administration, claiming the report was a "cover up" and that "the administration had failed."

It seems ironic that today we can discus McKinney's description of administrative failure, for it is he who sits in the administrative seat, without any apparent support from his own staff. While McKinney has shown an amazing ability to start feuds with his fellow Aggies, he doesn't seem to be doing himself any favors.

"Casually threw"? Here's what happened

The fans then carried the goal posts to the north end zone, toward section 15, where McKinney and other A&M fans were sitting. The Tech fans shoved the goal posts into the stands. McKinney, who was against the wall closest to the field, attempted to keep the fans from coming up into the stands.

"I was trying to keep them from coming up in the stands," McKinney said. "I pushed two of them down, and grabbed my binoculars and said, `The next one that comes up gets it.' Then, somebody who was already in the stands, I guess, came up and knocked the fool out of me. I saw him hit me -- a kid in a red shirt.

"It was like the Alamo," McKinney said. "They were coming up over the wall."

OK, so the student he fought with was an Aggie.

The report, which Sowder provided Wednesday, states that Wallace saw A&M and Tech fans fighting and attempted to stop the fights.

"He was trying to help people back into the stands when [McKinney] shoved him. [Wallace] stated that he tried to explain to [McKinney] that he was an A&M student, but [McKinney] struck him with a pair of binoculars. [Wallace] got angry and punched [McKinney] in the eye," the report stated.

There were casualties from friendly fire at the Alamo too. OK, that was mostly among the Mexicans, but it happened. Like the man says in The man who shot Liberty Valance

This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend

We don't govern based on polls

Earlier this summer, the Council of Principal Investigators voted no confidence in the Chancellor. These faculty are so messed up, the CPI then polled their membership after going on record. 87% of the CPI voted no confidence, but the results of their own poll came out different.

484/523 (91.5%) of the PIs voted no confidence.

McKinney's notes

When the Chancellor schooled the faculty senate two weeks ago, he said

I do face-to-face verbal evaluations annually. I make notes before the face-to-face meeting so I remember to mention some positive things and some things requiring attention. What has been termed in the media as an “unprofessional evaluation” was simply my notes.

Vision 1920 assumed he was referring to this (pdf). But there was also this (pdf) more extended set of notes from later in February.

2/18 Even Ed Price said "President's office has warned everyone not to let the system commit University resources"

The Chancellor outranks the President, so those all resources are his resources. Except when the BoR wants them.

2/17 WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING Elsa unleashed on Guy & Brett with 40 pages of something "[?]. Berated them in front of "her team" - over COI concerning GMP & GLP facilities in a single organization. - she complained about not being involved - this was a meeting we called to explain [before I [unreadable]]

How dare she come to a meeting more prepared than expected? She should have warned them that she already knew about the stuff they were going to spring on her at the meeting.

55-9

No confidence in McKinney passes

Bury the past

Meanwhile, the Chancellor shows the plan for Vision 2020

Blast off!

The Eagle reports on the faculty senate poll:

"My thinking and the thinking of most of the faculty is we're very concerned about the reputation of the university," said Larry J. Reynolds, an American Literature professor who voted to support both resolutions. "Both the decision to hire Dr. Murano and the decision to [remove] her were unprofessional."

Rod Davis, a spokesman for McKinney, declined to comment.

The Faculty Senate will meet in about an hour (3:15 PM CDT) to vote on the resolutions; the poll was advisory. Regent Jim Wilson is expected to speak. Vision 1920 will report on what happens.

Faculty Senate survey

Resolution 1-1,332 responses
Agree 92.5%
Disagree 3.6%
No opinion 3.9%

Resolution 2-1337 responses
Agree 83.5%
Disagree 7.9%
No opinion 8.7%

1337!

Brush up your Shakespeare

Letter in today's Eagle

McKinney should think on Shakespeare quote

Near the end of his address to the Faculty Senate on Monday, A&M Chancellor Mike McKinney quoted from Act 2, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's The Tempest ("what's past is prologue").

He seems, however, unaware of the context in which this phrase is used by the unscrupulous Antonio in his successful attempt to convince Sebastian to replicate Antonio's usurpation of Prospero's dukedom ("what's past") by attempting to murder Gonzalo (the "act" that is the "prologue") in order to seize control of Naples from his niece Claribel.

JAMES L. HARNER, editor

World Shakespeare Bibliography

College Station

Where have we seen this before?

Collaborative research

The potbangers act as if the focus on commercializing research is new. Item 6 of the CPI complaint is:

Chancellor McKinney has focused the System on commercialization of the research enterprise. The System level Office of Technology Commercialization has negotiated agreements with University faculty and companies without including the University, yet it remains the University’s responsibility for certifying compliance and managing conflicts of interest related to these agreements.

But long before Mike McKinney was Chancellor, the Regents were talking about opportunities for A&M and biotechnology. From the BoR minutes from May, 2001, we have a presentation on the Texas Life Sciences Collaborative:

Dr. Wendler said that the Texas Life Sciences Collaborative is seen as a partnership between higher education, the business community and state government to focus research and commercialization of life sciences in the areas of health, agriculture and the environment.

Walter Wendler was Dean of Architecture, and was leaving Texas to become Chancellor at SIUC. He describes how Texas has unique advantages for growth in biotech. Alas,

during the legislative session, in principle, everybody was very agreeable, but when it got down to some of the details, discussions got testy.

Not to be deterred (Aggies never quit!), the governor got together a panel to figure out what to do. Wendler continues his report to the BoR:

Dr. Wendler said the hope was to get some planning funding so that through the intersession for the next two years, it would be possible to configure the public-private venture for Texas that would be unique and exploit the very special opportunities that exist in this state for biotechnology. Dr. Wendler said that was not achieved because of the state’s budget. However, he thought the Governor had given the signal. Dr. Wendler said Ms. Armstrong has been working with Mr. David Nance, President and CEO of Introgen Therapeutics, Inc., a recently gone public biotech enterprise. Dr. Wendler stated that Mr. Nance is a very knowledgeable person in the area of biotechnology and agrees that Texas is perfectly poised right now. He said some research and commercialization help is needed.

Help was on the way for Nance and Introgen, but it would be too little, too late. More on this later.

Dr. Wendler said the Governor’s office has suggested that there would be funds available to support a significant statewide assessment study. Dr. Wendler said a lot of work as been done already, but it needs to be tried at the crucible of kind of a national view of biotechnology. He said if that can be accomplished, and the support is organized over the next two years, then in the next session, he thought Governor Perry eventually would agree to the need to invest about a billion dollars over ten years. The challenge, Dr. Wendler said, is finding funds.

Funds have been found in the Emerging Technology Fund and the Enterprise Fund. But not enough.

CPI votes no confidence

Communique from the CPI

To all Principal Investigators,

Based on concerns from the PI community that actions on the part of Chancellor Michael McKinney have seriously undermined the research enterprise at Texas A&M University and have drastically hurt our national and international reputation, the CPI Executive Committee drafted a Resolution of No Confidence in the Chancellor. The full text of the Resolution can be found on the CPI website:

http://cpi.tamu.edu/voting/2009/PIres/

The CPI members have passed the resolution with a vote of 27 Yes, 2 No, and 2 Abstain.

At this time, we are conducting a poll of all PIs to determine their support of this Resolution.

We note that this effort coordinated by the CPI is complementary to and supportive of any similar efforts that may be undertaken by the Faculty Senate. Moreover, since the CPI and the Faculty Senate constituencies are not identical (CPI represents people that are not represented by the senate, e.g., non-tenured research faculty, and vice versa), both efforts are needed to allow all researchers and faculty members to express their views.

The deadline for PIs to cast their votes is 12 noon on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. We have set this deadline so that results will be available before the special faculty senate meeting that will be held later that day.

2%ers

Despite hearing from both Chancellor McKinney and President Loftin, the faculty don't seem to be calming down.

Citing concerns about shared governance, improper influence and "irresponsible behavior," a pair of Texas A&M University groups have drafted resolutions of "no confidence" in A&M System Chancellor Mike McKinney.

Members of the Council of Principal Investigators can vote on the resolution online until 4 p.m. Friday. The group of about 40 people represents about 2,500 members of the Texas A&M research community.

The Texas A&M University Faculty Senate is scheduled to vote on its no-confidence resolution at a special meeting Tuesday in Room 601 of Rudder Tower.
...
The CPI resolution lists eight concerns about McKinney

If they were real Ags, they would have come up with 12 concerns.

Now is the winter of our discontent

...made glorius summer by this son of Centerville.

Part of what made Chancellor McKinney's address to the faculty so memorable was how it was so eloquent and literate. He laced it with signs of his classical education. He gave a lesson from the Bible:

Scripture says in Matthew 18:15 if you have a problem with a brother or sister you must go to them and attempt to fix it, just the two of you.

Here's the King James version

15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And he quoted the immortal Bard:

Shakespeare said, “The past is prologue.” I believe the past can be the past if we agree to work together for the sake of the future.

The passage is a paraphrase of Antonio's speech from Act 2, Scene 1 of the Tempest:

...We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again
(And by that destiny) to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge.

He spoke the speech trippingly, on the tongue. Vision 1920 had to look up what this poetic language is about, though. Fortunately we found an explanation online:

"What's past is prologue," then, translates roughly as "What's already happened merely sets the scene for the really important stuff, which is the stuff our greatness will be made on."

The "act" Antonio proposes is that Sebastian murder his sleeping father, Alonso, King of Naples, and grab the crown. All of them are now "cast" on what they believe is a desert island, so Antonio presumes the crime could easily be covered up.

Later, Ariel saves the King:

While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
If of life you keep a care,
Shake off slumber, and beware:
Awake, awake!