Tag Archives: Texas Tech University

business news, local news, medical news

AEDC comes up with lucrative offer for Tech

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Amarillo voters approved an economic development corporation in 1989 for one purpose: to invest sales tax revenue in job-creation opportunities.

There have been a few misfires over the years. There also have been some spectacular successes. I hold up the Bell/Textron aircraft assembly operation as an example of success.

The AEDC has ponied up $15 million for Texas Tech University to build and operate a school of veterinary medicine in Amarillo.

Yes, this is a wise investment of sales tax revenue.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/20/amarillo-chips-15-million-texas-techs-vet-school-p/

As the Texas Tribune reports: “Not only is this a wonderful opportunity for students seeking careers in veterinary medicine, particularly in a region known as the livestock capital of the United States, it’s an investment in our community and economy,” said Mayor Paul Harpole.

Is this a done deal? No. Texas A&M University, which has the state’s only veterinary medicine school, has objected. For the life of me, I don’t understand the objection. The A&M System is going to lobby the Higher Education Coordinating Board to deny Tech’s request for a new school in Amarillo.

The Tribune also reports: “Texas has a severe shortage of rural veterinarians who are crucial to the foundations of our economy, the vibrancy of our communities and the safety of our food supply,” said Tech System Chancellor Robert Duncan. “There is no better place to transform the future of veterinary education and answer this call than in Amarillo.”

AEDC spends money it collects in its half-cent sales revenue stream. It’s a wise use of sales tax. Tech officials estimate the vet school would create about 100 well-paying jobs. It’s a bit difficult to calculate the return on investment that those jobs would bring.

The return could be huge.

The coordinating board reportedly has expressed some concern about whether another vet school for Texas is even necessary.

My question is this: When did increasing educational opportunities for students interested in pursuing a valuable profession become a bad thing?

business news, local news, State news

Texas Tech announces vet school plan for Amarillo

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When he was chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, Kent Hance ventured to Amarillo and made a fascinating pronouncement.

Amarillo, he said, is ready to support a full-fledged medical school campus, rather than a campus for upperclassmen and women — as it does now.

It would require community support to make it happen, Hance said. He went back to Texas Tech’s “mother ship campus” in Lubbock and the subject has been pretty much dormant ever since.

Then this happened today: The current chancellor, Bob Duncan, ventured north to Amarillo and announced concrete plans to develop a college of veterinary medicine right here.

OK, so Texas Tech isn’t yet announcing a plan for an expanded health sciences operation here, but the veterinary school announcement is pretty darn big.

Reports have been circulating for the past few days. Texas Tech is aiming to serve a significant audience by bringing such an academic institution to Amarillo. The city sits in the heart of some of the richest agricultural land in the nation. Rural residents own lots of animals — large and small — that need medical attention.

The veterinary school would be poised to train “animal doctors” to care for these patients.

Chancellor Duncan has made a significant pledge to the Amarillo region with today’s announcement and has pledged to deepen Texas Tech University’s footprint in the Panhandle, which by itself is going to bring a major economic development boost to the region.

 

local news, medical news

Higher ed turf fight in the offing … perhaps

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Texas Tech University has announced it is considering the development of a school of veterinary medicine.

No plans have been set. It’s just talk at the moment. The word came from Tech Chancellor Bob Duncan that the university system is scouting around for a proper location while deciding if it actually wants to go ahead with development of the program.

Amarillo is considered one of the potential favorites for the new veterinary medicine campus.

The Texas Tribune that Tech has cited increasing student interest in the veterinary medicine campus and noted that Amarillo — with its huge agricultural base nearby — might be a good fit for such a campus.

OK, but it gets even more interesting.

Texas A&M University — which already has one of the premier veterinary medicine programs in the country, if not the world — is considering expanding that part of its curriculum to other regions of the state. You have just one guess on where the A&M System might locate that new veterinary medicine campus.

If you said West Texas A&M University, you’d win an undetermined prize.

The Tribune reported: “After Tech’s announcement, A&M System Chancellor John Sharp seemed to hint in a statement that A&M was considering expanding its school to other areas in the state.  ‘As a courtesy, last weekend I informed Chancellor Robert Duncan that the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine would soon announce a presence in several Texas A&M System schools,’ Sharp said. ‘In response, Mr. Duncan comes up with this long-rejected claim we should fund a vet school at Texas Tech. The Coordinating Board has specifically rejected the notion. The Legislature has rejected this for 40 years. We will proceed with our announcement as planned.’”

Here’s the full Texas Tribune story.

So, is there a bit of jockeying taking place here? Would the Texas Panhandle be in the running for both university systems’ desire for veterinary schools? I doubt strongly we’d get both of them.

Whatever happens, we’ll just have to stay tuned to see how this plays out.

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Lubbock: We're No. 1

Surveys such as those that rank cities’ boredom quotient need to be taken with a grain of salt or, perhaps, a pile of manure.

A website called Movato Blog has rated Lubbock the most boring city in America.

http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/most-boring-cities-in-america/

OK, that snickering and chuckling you might be hearing is coming from Amarillo residents who might tell you they’ve known all along that Lubbock is as boring as the drive between the two cities.

I would caution my fellow Amarillo residents to resist poking too much fun at our southerly neighbors. It might be that the Movato Blog “researchers” never had heard of Amarillo — which might tell us all something about where we rank on people’s attention meter.

My sense is to stick up just a bit for Lubbock. I have some good friends who live there. I do not want to denigrate their city any more than I would them to do the same for mine.

As one good friend said in response to a column by my pal Chip Chandler’s recent piece in the Amarillo Globe-News, in which he called Lubbock the “seventh circle of hell”: “Lubbock gets first-rate concerts, while Amarillo gets first-rate tractor pulls.”

Ouch!

Lubbock did lure a pretty fair musician to play there in a few days. Perhaps you’ve heard of Sir Paul McCartney, who’s opening the U.S. leg of his world tour in Buddy Holly’s birthplace; Sir Paul wants to pay tribute to someone who had such a huge influence on his own pretty fair music career.

But I digress.

Movato said Lubbock’s dining stinks. Its nightlife is just OK. Entertainment venues are lousy.

I would encourage you to scroll through the Top 10 Boring Cities list for yourself. Determine whether you agree with Lubbock’s characterization as a boring place.

Me? I like the city. What’s more, during college football season, you can feast on excellent barbecue outside of Texas Tech’s stadium on game day. Ask any West Texan you know: That ain’t boring.

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Texas Senate to lose a giant

Texas Tech University’s huge gain is the Texas Senate’s equally huge loss.

Republican Bob Duncan is leaving the Senate soon to become chancellor of the Tech System. He won’t disappear from the State Capitol, as my pal Enrique Rangel writes for the Amarillo Globe-News. He’ll be visiting the Capitol looking for funds to keep the myriad academic programs and extracurricular activities going at Texas Tech, which is what a university system chancellor is supposed to do.

But a legislative body that benefited greatly from Duncan’s expertise and decided lack of showmanship will be a lesser place once he takes up his new job in Lubbock.

Erica Greider, writing for Texas Monthly, took note of Duncan’s reputation recently. Here’s what she wrote:

Duncan has been a genuinely superlative senator. When we were working on last year’s Best List, we crunched the numbers, and found that he was the most honored legislator in the history of the project—it was his fifth time being named a “Best Legislator,” and he also had an honorable mention and a rookie of the year notice. Beyond that, Duncan is the kind of legislator who illustrates the reason that we spend so much time researching the Best List. He’s not particularly high profile, and he’s not at all a showman. If you had watched every minute of proceedings on the Senate floor last year, you probably wouldn’t even have noticed him. And yet if you started talking to legislators, staffers, lobbyists, and advocates, you would hear Duncan cited consistently, warmly, and across party lines as one of the most thoughtful, trustworthy, and effective people in the building. As a senator, he’s tackled serious but unglamorous issues, such as the solvency of state pension funds; he’s also provided critical, behind-the-scenes assists to colleagues of both parties. An example would be last year’s equal pay bill. His departure from the Senate will be a loss for that chamber, because he’s been a real credit to it — because of the laws he helped pass, and because of the example he set.

What’s next for Senate District 28? Voters will take part in a special election that Gov. Rick Perry will call. They’ll elect a Republican from the district, which is a given in one of the most GOP-centric Senate districts in Texas.

With Duncan’s departure, though, the Senate is losing one more voice of reason. I have no clue who’ll take his place. Rangel has suggested that state Rep. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, is a likely candidate to succeed Duncan. I don’t know much about Perry, other than he appears to be among the cadre of conservatives who seem intent on getting things done their way … or else.

I just hope the Texas Senate doesn’t gain a show horse who’s replacing a serious work horse.

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Duncan to lead Tech … who knew?

This might be the least-surprising story to come out of West Texas since, oh, the revelation that the cotton can get mighty tall at times.

State Sen. Bob Duncan is the sole finalist to become Texas Tech University’s next chancellor.

Who’da thunk it?

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/19/robert-duncan-be-next-texas-tech-chancellor/

Duncan is going to replace Kent Hance as head of the Tech university system. He’ll have to wait 21 days before Texas Tech’s regents can make the formal announcement. Then Gov. Rick Perry will call for a special election to select someone who’ll replace one of the Legislature’s shining lights.

This is an excellent development for the Texas Tech University System.

The chancellor’s main job is to raise money for the university. Duncan’s standing in the Texas Senate — where he routinely is named among the best legislators in the state, according to Texas Monthly. He has an

Duncan is an outstanding choice. He is a Tech alumnus, earning his bachelor’s and law degrees from the Lubbock school. He built a successful law practice on the South Plain and has taken time off from that practice since the mid-1990s to legislate every other year from the Legislature.

Sen. Duncan will do very well to meet his new challenge.

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Sequestration bad for education

Texas’ congressional delegation has been scolded by a gang of top-level Texas higher education officials — representing private and public schools across the state.

Our congressmen and women need to get their knuckles rapped.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/03/texas-higher-ed-leaders-share-sequestration-concer/

Sequestration has educators concerned. They fear the mandatory budget cuts enacted by Congress and signed by President Obama will bring potentially irreparable damage to the state’s higher education network.

“Further reductions to the budgets of research agencies and other federal programs threaten critical national investments that grow our state’s economy, support Texas students, and spur the innovation and discovery required to meet future scientific, medical and economic needs,” the group wrote.

The full roster of signatures, by the way, does not include Texas Tech University Chancellor Kent Hance — a former member of Congress. The list, though, does include Texas Tech President Duane Nellis, who presumably had Hance’s blessing before putting his name on the letter.

I hope the letter and the concerns it expresses about higher education and research doesn’t fall on deaf ears in Washington. Listen up, Rep. Mac Thornberry; they’re talking to you, too.

However, as is too often the case, lawmakers from both parties listen a bit too intently to the fringe base elements within their party and fail to heed warnings from the unwashed masses out here in the heartland.

Sequestration, let’s remember, involve the mandatory budget cuts that kicked in at the beginning of the year. They were supposed to be last-resort measure that was enacted because lawmakers and the president didn’t believe Congress would allow the sequestration to occur. Silly them. They did allow it.

According to the Texas Tribune, “the group warned that sequestration cuts will stifle innovation, resulting in a reduction in gross domestic product, and that students — more than 850,000 are enrolled at Texas universities — will also suffer.”

Our elected leaders keep talking about ensuring a brighter future for their states and the nation. Is this the way to do it, by cutting the guts out of higher education? I think not.

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Hance leaving Tech chancellor’s office

Kent Hance’s announced retirement shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

The former Texas state senator, congressman, railroad commissioner and now university administrator has been in the public eye since The Flood, or so it seems. He’s outgoing, gregarious, funny as the dickens, homespun yet sophisticated and he carries himself with a West Texas aplomb that is impossible to duplicate.

Texas Tech University’s chancellor is retiring next year and will assume the role as “chancellor emeritus,” whatever that means.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/11/kent-hance-to-step-down-as-texas-tech-chancellor/

A university chancellor’s main role is to raise money. Hance surely could do that.

The native of Dimmitt has a unique place in Texas political history: He is the only politician ever to defeat George W. Bush for elective office, doing so in 1978 when both men were running for the West Texas congressional seat being vacated by the legendary U.S. Rep. George Mahon. Hance was a Democrat back then, but he would switch to the Republican Party years later.

My association with Hance goes back to my first year in Texas. In 1984, I arrived at my post in Beaumont to work on the editorial page of the Beaumont Enterprise. Hance was running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the late Sen. John Tower.

In that year’s Democratic primary for the Senate seat, Hance finished second in a three-way near dead heat with state Sen. Lloyd Doggett and former U.S. Rep. Bob Krueger. Doggett would beat Hance in a runoff a few weeks later. Hance came to Beaumont to try to persuade the newspaper to endorse his candidacy and I was blown away by the man’s wit and charm.

I had heard the stories about his campaign in 1978 when he put on his good ol’ boy charm to beat Bush for the West Texas seat in Congress. He brought it with him to Beaumont in 1984 as well. Indeed, he has kept it all through his public life.

His time at Tech’s helm was marked with plenty of success. The school is setting student enrollment records seemingly every year. He came to Amarillo a couple of years ago to declare that, in his view, Texas Tech ought to consider expanding its medical center complex in Amarillo to a full four-year medical school.

An expansion, he said, would require Amarillo to demonstrate it can support such a move.

I don’t yet know where that will go. My hope is that as chancellor emeritus, Hance will be able to keep that flame burning.

Thank you for your service, Kent.

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Carthel vs. McBroom, etc.

The earth is still rumbling under the feet of the West Texas A&M University football program, which saw its head coach, Don Carthel, fired over an apparent ethical lapse.

In his statement to the public, Carthel spoke of his “unhealthy” relationship with WT Athletic Director Michael McBroom, for whom Carthel worked and who did the firing this past week. Carthel was fired for violating a rule governing the conduct of players. Carthel took two of his players to a big league baseball game this summer in Arlington, got them to reimburse him for their game tickets and then fibbed about when he got the players’ payment; he then asked the players back up his story.

Bad call, coach.

It has since occurred to me that friction between a highly successful coach and his or her boss — namely the university athletic director — isn’t all that uncommon.

Let me make clear that I am not privy to the details of the two men’s professional relationship. I cannot vouch for how they feel about each other as men. I don’t know either of them, although I’ve shaken Carthel’s hand and spoken with him a time or two on occasion.

Almost by definition, a successful athletic coach must possess a large ego, not unlike a politician who seeks a high office. The late Sen. George McGovern, who ran for president, once said a big ego was the No. 1 requirement of a successful politician. So it should be with a successful coach.

It might be, then, that Carthel’s own ego got in the way of his relationship with McBroom.

Other coaches have run afoul of their bosses. Look what’s happened down the road a bit, at Texas Tech University. Head football coach Mike Leach was fired over an allegation that he mistreated one of his players, but the trouble had been brewing almost from the day Leach got there. He’s a bit of an oddball and his style didn’t always seem like a good fit with the hidebound types who call the shots at Tech.

Then, of course, former head men’s basketball coach Bob Knight got into that infamous salad bar argument with Tech Chancellor David Smith.

I’m not suggesting that Don Carthel is in Leach’s league, let alone in the same league with the fiery Knight.

Successful coaches don’t come along very often. Universities usually pay them lots of money to win football games, which means more fans come to the games, which means more cash for the school, which means better recruitment opportunities to lure blue-chip athletes to keep the winning program going.

Get it?

It might be that McBroom was looking for a way to get rid of Carthel — who then did his boss a favor by handing him the opportunity.