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.

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!

Murano's accusations are patently false

More from the Chancellor's extended notes (pdf)

Last time committee on IP met - she pulled out papers on XOMA & berated Guy for making deal w/co. hurting the "A&M Brand" that she was dedicated to protecting - She misread info - & did not really know how to read the data - I don't know who gave her the info [concern is valid but approach & behavior totally inappropriate]

What deal? This one from Sept. 2008:

“We are very pleased to be working with XOMA, a biotechnology company with more than 25 years of experience as a successful innovator in antibody development and manufacturing,” said Brett Giroir, M.D., vice chancellor for research for the Texas A&M System. “We expect that the project will generate new opportunities for rapid translation of biomedical discoveries into life-saving products. The collaboration also holds the promise to develop manufacturing technologies that position the state of Texas as the partner of choice for biotechnology companies in the future.”

Dr. Brett P. "eHarmony" Giroir, in case you didn't know, is the System's Vice Chancellor for Research, and a leading biodefense researcher (Try a PubMed search on 'giroir bp AND biodefense'). Dr. Giroir knows Xoma well - they hold the rights on five of his patents.

Xoma was the subject of a 2007 profile in the New York Times:

Xoma, which Dr. Scannon started in 1981, has never earned an operating profit or marketed a drug of its own. And in the quarter-century since its birth, Xoma has managed to burn through more than $700 million raised from investors and other pharmaceutical companies.
...
XOMA, which went public 20 years ago, is a case study of unfulfilled promise in the biotech business. It may also be a story that ends happily, if very belatedly, with success. The company’s management and some investors, including OrbiMed, say they are convinced that what they describe as Xoma’s dogged determination is finally making headway, or at least that its stock has room to grow.

The company’s stock has nearly doubled over the last year, hitting a 52-week high on Friday of $3.30, before closing at $3.04. Still, that is well below the stock’s record high of $32 a share, reached in both 1987 and 1991.

There's even more room to grow now; Xoma closed at $0.78/share today (down from $2.27 on the day the deal was announced).

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.

Opportunity at TAMU

The Houston Chronicle:

The university’s research program was one of those areas. It is a huge pot of money — $604 million in sponsored research for fiscal year 2008 at the flagship campus and its affiliated state agencies.

At stake, in the mind of many faculty researchers, was the question of whether the university or the system would control the money. Now, the grants are administered by the university or one of several related agencies.

Located in College Station, the system office oversees all 11 schools in the A&M system, along with the agencies and a health science center. But McKinney ratcheted up fears that his office would interfere with university business last month, when he suggested combining his job with Murano’s — in effect, giving the chancellor control of the university.

Monday, Foster said he didn’t support combining the jobs, but that did little to quell the concern.

“He who controls the money controls a lot of things, so I think they (McKinney and the regents) wanted to have more control over research,” said Bill Flores, president and CEO of Phoenix Exploration and a 1976 graduate of A&M.
Research spawns not only money for administrative costs, but also the potential for lucrative commercialization deals, Flores said. “There’s just a lot of opportunity to put money in the system.”

All that indirect cost money isn't being used efficiently now. Just think of the things we could do for the System. Vision 1920 wonders if we really have to let the PIs control how the direct costs are spent...

o rly?

Houston Chron

SAN ANTONIO — Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he was not surprised by the sudden resignation of Texas A&M president Elsa Murano.

This just in: Brutus not surprised by the sudden demise of Julius Caesar.