Volume 67, No. 22
WWW.PANAMERICANONLINE.COM
March 24, 2011
Nelsen: Moving to a leaner university UTPA’s future could include workforce layoffs, but zero salary cuts.
By Kristen Cabrera The Pan American
Tuesday, President Robert Nelsen announced via email memo the possibility of layoffs in the University’s future, and the establishment of a hiring freeze. “We will probably see layoffs in the future,” said Nelsen, the future meaning next year. Currently the administration is going through budget presentations from the colleges and nothing is defined yet. Nelsen pressed that administration still needs to look at the big picture before
making any moves. Once the budget meetings are finished and the Presidential Cabinet has discussed and determined the future of the university, they will hold town hall meetings to inform the UTPA community of their resolution. But the fact is, no new position lines will be opened, and most existing ones are now frozen. “We are moving to a leaner University,” the president said. “I think that this [hiring freeze] will help put us in a better situation for next year so we don’t have to make major cuts” The hiring halt comes with some
exceptions though, and Havidán Rodríguez, provost and vice president for academic affairs, must approve all offers. Such exceptions are when considering staff positions already in the ‘finalist’ phase, faculty searches currently in progress, and staff positions related to the safety of UTPA. Also with a possibility of survival includes positions that are separately funded through specific grants and/or contracts, and essential staff positions that are justified and recommended by a divisional VP and approved by the president.
Despite the probability of layoffs, the cabinet has decided not to implement salary and furlough cuts like the ones proposed by the Texas House of Representatives. “We’ve had no discussions whatsoever involving salary cuts,” Nelsen wrote. “No one has proposed salary cuts at all… we have not had those discussions here on this campus.” The reorganization taking place the University - such as the move of Athletics to the Division of the President, and away from the Division of Student Affairs, or the name change
of the latter from The Division of Enrollment and Student Services - is another aspect Nelsen wants to focus on to lessen the cut-back-blow. He said in the memo that administration is currently planning with the Human Resources department on how to transition some of the University workforce into “critical positions within a division if the need arises.” “We’ll move personnel around as we reorganize the university,” Nelsen said. “Really, it’s a reorganization as we look at where the university is and where we need personnel most importantly.”
SPRAY to glide into SPI Coastal Lab
By Pamela Morales The Pan American
Alma E. Hernandez/THE PAN AMERICAN
SEEN AND CAPTURED - Joseph Pepper, guitarist of the band Cartel, performs March 16 at Never Say Never. Cartel was one of 62 bands who performed at the two-day festival.
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Feast your eyes on these || See more photos of the Never Say Never Festival on our website.
On April 4, Scripps Institution of Oceanography based at the University of California-San Diego will use a glider, SPRAY, that will cover between 380 and 430 miles of water and travel half a mile per day in the Gulf of Mexico; its task is to retrieve various measurements such as the water temperature, pressure and chlorophyll. UTPA’s Coastal Lab Studies at South Padre Island will allow a team of two researchers to use its facilities to deploy SPRAY and further the expedition. The involvement with the expedition is slight but important, says Donald Hockaday, researcher and educator coordinator of the Coastal Lab Studies. Equipment from the CSL will also be used. “We’re hosting the lab for them,” said Hockaday, who’s been at the CSL since 1980. “We’re making sure all the arrangements run smoothly. They called us asking if they could come down and use our facilities. I said it was fine. We’d accept their package and give them the space they needed.” One of the two members of
the expedition is Daniel Rudnick, an oceanography professor at Scripps Institution. Rudnick said they chose UTPA to assist because of its close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico since part of the expedition is to retrieve data from Mexican waters. “It’s the closest we could get and still launch from the United States,” Rudnick explained. “We are going to try to map out basic temperatures, characteristics and currents in this part of the world. This project originally started out as a response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.” Rudnick’s partner, Jose Ochoa, is another principal investigator in the research expedition. He is a professor in the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California, or Center of Scientific Investigation and Superior Education in Ensenada, Baja California. CICESE and Scripps share a relationship in oceanography interests and this expedition is another one of their collaborations. Ochoa received a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1983. “He contacted me back in July of last year when the oil spill was happening and it has taken a while for
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