Welcome students!

Vision 1920 celebrates the first day of class for the Fall Semester of academic year 2009-2010. We welcome the Fish to Aggieland and are glad to see our returning students back in College Station.

You may notice that over the summer there have been a few changes at TAMU. Some of your professors may seem unhappy with recent events, but here at Vision 1920 we hope that you'll just think of it as part of your "other education".

President Loftin corrects the record

President Loftin looks back on the summer in an interview with the Batt, and uses the opportunity to set the record straight:

Contrary to statements by local media, Provost Jeff Vitter was not asked to resign, Loftin said.

"He came to the conclusion that because of the leadership change that happened here it was really appropriate for him to go back to the faculty again," he said. "We met several times my first week here, for lengthy periods, to work on issues and ultimately he made the decision not to continue as provost."

Vision 1920 never really believed he was asked.

A voice from the past BoR

On Sunday, the Dallas Morning News had a letter from former Regent Douglas DeCluitt

The recent turmoil within the Texas A&M University community springs from a basically unstable organizational structure. It has been unstable from its beginning, but has managed to be somewhat effective because, in the earlier days at least, the chancellor was an academic who was careful to not encroach upon the turf of the president of Texas A&M. The president ran the university.

It is Texas A&M University that has the potential to become a Top 10 public university, not the Texas A&M system.

It makes no sense to have such a large and dominant part of the system report to a supervisor. The president of TAMU should report directly to the board of regents rather than through the filter of a chancellor.

The chancellor could also report to the regents and supervise the other institutions of the system, or the chancellor could report to the president of TAMU and supervise the other institutions of the system.

This is an ideal time to make this organizational change. The new organization would demonstrate the institution's desire for strong and meaningful leadership, thereby enhancing the possibility of attracting outstanding candidates for president.

Vision 1920 fears that Mr DeCluitt is out of touch with the priorities of his successors on the BoR. They've already demonstrated our plans with respect to strong and meaningful leadership from the President, Provost, and chair of the CPI.

Something for the shared services panels to consider

KBTX:

Despite their landlocked location, students at Texas A&M University can attend courses while they lie on a virtual beach at the university’s new “Second Life” campus. The university has opened dedicated learning spaces in the three-dimensional world for instructor and student use in time for the fall semester, which starts Monday (Aug. 31).

Vision 1920 sees tremendous budget savings potential here.

Reinforcements

Texas A&M clearly didn't have enough direct connections to Gov. Perry, with only Chancellor McKinney (former chief of staff), Regent Jones (former General Council for the Governor) etc. Today we learn

Gov. Rick Perry's former chief of staff began serving this month as a special adviser to the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents -- a new position -- at a $260,000 annual salary.

Jay Kimbrough, who finished as the governor's chief of staff in July, has bounced between the governor's office and the A&M System, giving critics of the Aggie governor's influence at his alma mater more ammunition.

Some are upset that a new position was created for Mr. Kimbrough at a time when budget cuts are being demanded at Texas A&M. But Kimbrough used to make $300,000/year with the System, so we're saving $40K/year.

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.

The cost of Higher Ed.

Chairman Foster back in June:

As the new chairman of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, I am determined to trim costs in order to keep our flagship university affordable. Since 2000, tuition and fees at Texas A&M have risen from a little more than $1,500 per semester for 15 hours to more than $3,900 for the same course load. Even if you factor in inflation, the cost has more than doubled for our families.

At the Carpe Diem blog, Prof Mark Perry of the Univ. of Michigan has some graphs about the drivers of costs at US universities.




Vision 1920 wonders what the data looks like for A&M and for the TAMU System.