Minutes of Dean's Advisory Board Meetings > Advisory Board Members
Minutes of 1st Inaugural Dean’s Advisory Board Meeting
Date: March 26, 2009
Time: 8:30 am
1. Dean’s Advisory Board Members:
Present:
| 1. Dr. T. H abtemariam, Dean |
13. Dr. Jerome B. Williams |
| 2. Dr. W.C. Bowie (Co-Chairman) |
14. Dr.Adam E. McKee |
| 3. Dr. H. Davis (Co-Chairman) |
15. Dr. Ruby Perry |
| 4. Dr. Leonard Billups |
16. Dr. Bonnie Barclay |
| 5. Dr. Pamelar Hale |
17. Dr. Phillip Nelson |
| 6. Dr. Edward Braye |
18. Dr. Richard T. Savino |
| 7. Dr. Saul T. Wilson |
19. Dr. John L. Williams |
| 8. Dr. Ellis M. Hall |
|
| 9. Dr. James Heintz |
|
| 10. Dr. Charles Lowrie |
|
| 11. Dr. Irving McConnell |
|
| 12. Dr. William O. Jones |
|
2. Dean’s Advisory Board Executive Committee Members:
1. Dr. Harold Davis
2. Dr. W. C. Bowie
3. Dr. Charles Lowrie
4. Dr. Adam E. McKee
5. Dr. Ruby Perry
6. Dr. T. Habtemariam
3. Dean’s Faculty/Staff Personnel:
1. Dr. Cheryl Davis (Assoc. Dean for Administration/Res. Development
2. Dr. James Webster (Assoc. Dean for Student Affairs/Facilities Mgt.
3. Dr. Cesar Fermin (Assoc. Dean for Research/Advanced Studies
4. Dr. Ruby Perry (Assoc. Dean for Academic Affairs)
5. Mrs. Annisa Riley (Asst. Dir. External Affairs)
6. Mrs. Elizabeth Offem (Special Asst. to Dean)
7. Mrs. Tammie Hughley (Mgr./Coord.ADRAS)
8. Mrs. Rose Datiri (Business Info. Analyst)
4. Invited Tuskegee University Administrators:
1. Dr. L.Williams (Provost)
2. Mr. Gretchel Caldwell (TU VP for Advancement)
The meeting began by the Dean thanking everyone for coming and he then introduced his associate deans: Drs. Cheryl Davis, Associate Dean for Administration and Resource Development, Dr. Ruby Perry, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Dr. James Webster, Associate Dean for Students Affairs and Facilities Management; and Dr. Cesar Fermin, Associate Dean for Research and Advanced Studies. Dr. Doris Holeman, Associate Dean/Director of Nursing (excused absence).
Dean Habtemariam outlined three important priority areas of the school’s strategic challenges, they include:
* Based on accreditation requirements – fund raising for renovation of the small animal clinic or a new state - of - the - art One Health complex building is high priority. Dr. H. Davis – asked how much we are looking at in terms of cost for remodeling the building. Dean Habtemariam responded that the cost would be about $7m. The Dean said it would be good for the school if we can think big and able to raise funds for a new VetMed building because this will enable us to expand and admit more students as other schools. He told the members that the school had increased its admission to 70 students, which is really pushing it especially since the school is not realizing the benefits of the tuition increase.
* Scholarship support for our students is also another high priority. We are losing high quality students especially black males to other schools because of our inability to fully support their tuition. The dean told the members that the initial intention for raising tuition in the college was to use some of the funds to support scholarship for our students but that the central administration did not approve of that idea. The idea of tuition increase was also to enable the school to increase the number of students admitted to 90 but since the school is not getting any of the tuition money, it is impossible to do so without serious fund raising to support the students.
* The last priority was to find ways to preserve and restore our historic landmarks that were either being demolished or deteriorating. The dean stressed the importance of fundraising since it tied to the top three priorities above.
For communication and informational purposes, the dean went over the college’s newly improved One Medicine website which now includes among other additions our veterinary teaching hospital as a marketing tool. He requested that members take time out to browse through the website often to get the latest information about the college. Dr. H. Davis thanked the school for the improved webpage and acknowledged websites as being one of the powerful tools used by schools in this competitive market to sell their services.
Dr. C. Fermin - Associate Dean for Research & Advanced Studies gave a demonstration and benefits of one of the college’s communication system known as RTI, which works as follows: RT1 is a collaborative video conferencing utility that allows users to create, annotate or edit files simultaneously, all in real time, from anywhere in the world with a high-speed Internet connection, enabling users real-time multipoint video/audio streaming at 640x480 resolution and 30 fps. Resolution up to 1024x768 (XGA) can be achieved at higher connection speeds and in Local Area Network (LAN) environments. Up to twenty live video streams can be shown in a single RT1ô session, and there is no limit to the number of participants in a session. This system will be looked upon as an important resource development tool.
Dr. C. Davis - Associate Dean for Administration and Resource Development summarized the college’s campaign prospectus (Internal document not yet ready to be distributed). The document shows among other things the school’s top infrastructure /scholarships priorities which amount to about $10,672,000 in expenditures and yearly revenue of $15,354,348. The document also shows the school’s campaign goals contributions broken down in percentages by alumni; corporate; individual and government all by 20%. The document also has suggested campaign strategies including wall of honor ($250/brick); name on a room ($5000-$10,000); name on a building ($1,000,000) and equipment purchase (Price of equipment can vary). The document then asks of the advisory board if they are comfortable with numbers, if not, what needs to be increased or changed? She told the members that whatever is decided, she is available to work with anyone on any ideas that will help with the goals of the school.
Dean Habtemariam noted that this document is very preliminary and has not yet been shared and approved by the university administration.
Dr. H. Davis - mentioned that in the last meeting, it was noted that there was not enough information getting to the alumni, he urged the group to make use of the new and improved website.
In response to the Dr. C. Davis, he is encouraged that a resource developer is now in place to handle some of the issues that were raised in the last two meetings but could not be addressed because a resource person was not available. In the interest of time, introduction of the members was skipped but introduced Provost Williams to the group and then asked for questions or comments on the proceedings so far.
Dr. McConnell commented that consideration should be given to looking to the Federal Government agencies like the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security for funding since these departments have shortage on trained bomb and guard dogs. Facilities can be built at Tuskegee to breed these types of dogs and then sold back to the government. Moneys can also be solicited to build research facilities to study emerging diseases. He stressed the need for contacts. He told the new resource developer that he would be willing to work with her in this area.
Dr. H. Davis - asked the Dean how much the increase in tuition generated at which the dean responded that about 2million would have been generated by next semester and that the use of it is determined by the President of the university. Dr. Davis noted that the accreditation of any college is a university issue not a purview of the college itself it is a university issue as well so also is the building infrastructure. While we have been fortunate to be accredited (which we deserve to be), we are still under the gun to get those accreditation requirements addressed before the next site visit and he hopes that these issues are addressed before then.
Dr. Nelson - acknowledged that while $2million resulting from tuition increases is a lot of money, he is bothered by the fact that we are looking at renovation; expansion of students etc. he is concerned that quality may be lost in the process. He noted that the national surge by other veterinary colleges to increase class size might not necessarily be TUSVM responsibility. With only 28 schools of veterinary medicine in the country, every school is a national resource and this fact can be used as an argument for serious funds and not limit us to just renovation of buildings.
Dr. H. Davis - noted that there are two reasons why schools seek expansion because of the need for veterinarians and the other is to obtain more resources (the more students you have the more tuition you get if the tuition comes back to the school). We need to continue to find ways to raise funds.
Dr. B. Barclay - wanted to know how much is spent annually (campaign prospectus only shows $10.6m of top priority needs and $15.3m in revenue). The dean responded that the $15.3 million is the total annual budget for the college. The dean again requested personal engagement of each member in helping with fund raising.
Dr. Bowie - requested that alums especially the ones in top positions should give us contact and some sense of direction on how to identify funds that we have not identified in terms of soliciting from private and public agencies.
Dr. Jerome Williams - sees the current operating budget of the veterinary teaching hospital at about what a single well-organized private practitioner would have to operate with. He also noted that with the expertise and specialties the college has if this money were to be in the level it ought to be, it should make the TUSVM teaching hospital self-supporting.
Dean - Faculty in the clinics feel over stretched and in addition, facilities are not quite up to par in some cases, which have led to some frustrations on the clinicians. However in the last year and a half we have increased accessions by about 60%. The college realizes that there’s still a lot to be done. He noted that accreditation team recommended the VTH become a business center and operate as a self-sufficient hospital. The President said he would go along with it as long as we operate with own insurance, overhead etc. separate from the rest of the university. This will be nearly impossible to do the dean noted it will be detrimental to us at this time if we did that.
Dr. John Williams - Suggested we not put all our eggs in one basket but adopt a broader approach with the involvement of the President that seriously include the federal government by coming up with a strong portfolio that demonstrates what Tuskegee University as a whole has provided to this country and how TU is now at a point where it needs the help of the federal government to maintain this national treasure (Tuskegee University).
Dr. McKee - On going to the right place to ask for money, he suggests a partnership with key personnel in the industries with alumni as a project officer to coordinate this effort. As someone who is part of the government, he suggested such a person be Dr. John Williams because sometimes timeliness is very essential.
Mr. G. Caldwell - Noted that even though there is TU alumnus in top positions in the government of private agencies, they might not be in a position to give help as we might expect. In response to Tuskegee University’s relationship with the Federal Government, Mr. Caldwell informed the group that: TU has a federal agent office in Washington DC that can be used to support some of the ideas put forth by members of the Dean’s Advisory Board; there has already been some particular earmarks coming from the Federal agent’s office that TU is looking into; the provost’s office is the voice for all academic units on issues affecting each area; lastly the capital campaign which is in its planning stages is looking at priority areas of which the veterinary school is one of the priority areas. On behalf of the members, Dr. H. Davis expressed gratitude that the veterinary school was one of the priorities of the capital campaign.
Dr. L. Williams (Provost) - On behalf of the university, he thanked the members for the services they have provided to veterinary medicine. He noted that national and international drivers drive the challenges faced by universities and so the challenge is how to make positive gains in the future. He noted that a combination of things like comprehensive fiscal infrastructure; the human resource (qualified faculty) base factor; a broad base quality of program which will include not just the college but also the university at large. These things have to occur as a whole in terms of repackaging in order to have a better chance to compete for the monies and services out there.
Dr. McConnell - In response to the provost, he proposed Tuskegee University teaming with small businesses in writing proposals for different projects as a way of raising monies from federal government agencies.
Dr. Saul Wilson - Is concerned about the gradual shifting from the original purpose for which the university was formed as far as emphasis on agriculture. He suggested a strategic plan that will focus on reclaiming our birthright in terms of all the monies that come into the university under the land grant system and because it comes in under a different name, the school of veterinary medicine is completely left out.
Dr. H. Davis - Noted the inability to tie the college of veterinary medicine to biology and chemistry. Vet Med is not doing a good job of recruiting from other sciences and that will be a better fit if that is done. He thanked the provost for his illuminating and clarifying speech and Mr. Caldwell for taking time out to join the members. He indicated that even though time had run out of the agenda items, he asked the industry group to present a brief report of their group.
Report of the Industry group by Dr. Bonnie Barclay: - Because of the economic downturn, the initial intention of reaching out to major companies for funds could not be done. The industry group identified a team that has a leadership development program that they are willing to implement at Tuskegee not just for students and faculty. The team will come in to meet with the dean this fall of 2009. The purpose of this program is networking in veterinary carrier opportunities, give seminars etc. Dr. H. Davis noted that Purdue University has a similar program. He hopes that TUSVM leadership can capitalize on this program for providing seminars on leadership.
Dr. W.C. Bowie- Asked TU VP for Advancement (in light of the fact that the Dean’s Advisory Board Members serves as the arm of the Tuskegee University) about the Committee members receiving more information from the university in terms of the issues that veterinary schools might crave for in reading the roles the VP spoke about. He noted that such information (as an example) Information about the TU Economic Stimulus group that was put together; will be very helpful if a report or results of such group is made available to help learn what is going on in the university.
Because of lack of time Dr. H. Davis noted that other subcommittees that would like to share their reports, they should send it via email to Dr. H. Davis.
The Dean thanked everyone for coming and hoped that everything raised in the meeting will be taken to heart. The meeting was adjourned at about 10:50 a.m.
