From the Desk of the Provost

While the rest of San Antonio was kicking off Fiesta last weekend, some of the brightest student computer programmers from around the country came to San Antonio for a very different reason: to compete in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

The three-day event, organized by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security, features teams from 10 universities, all winners of their regional competitions. Their objective is to protect their network systems from simulated cyber attacks and maintain the operational needs of their fictitious businesses.

So on Saturday morning — perhaps while you were at Fiesta de los Reyes or the Fiesta Arts Fair — I headed downtown to the St. Anthony Hotel to watch the students in action.

First, I have to say I was struck by the juxtaposition of this stately, hundred-year-old hotel and the cutting-edge technology happening inside. The event organizers take great pains to simulate real-world environments and scenarios, and I was really impressed with what I saw.

The competition has also grown into fertile recruiting ground. I spotted an NSA recruiting table at the hotel and learned that past competitors collectively have received hundreds of job offers; once a competition sponsor hired an entire team of student competitors.

The University of Washington took home the top honors for the second year in a row, so congratulations to them, and also to southwest regional winner Texas A&M for placing third.

Lastly, hats off to Greg White and his team at CIAS for building this competition over the past seven years into one of the nation’s premier training exercises for our future cyber defenders and something UTSA can be very proud of.

And it wasn’t ALL cyber security for me on Saturday. I did make it to the Fiesta Arts Fair later that day, and I’ll have more Fiesta fun at NIOSA this week!

It often seems like our faculty in the STEM fields are the ones grabbing headlines, so I especially enjoy seeing much-deserved recognition for our outstanding faculty in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Nowhere was that more evident than in City Council Chambers on Tuesday evening, when UTSA senior lecturer and writer-in-residence Carmen Tafolla was formally introduced as San Antonio’s inaugural poet laureate. Carmen, a gifted writer and devoted educator, has delighted readers across the world with her words — in Spanish and English — and we are fortunate to have her on faculty in the College of Education and Human Development.

The value that faculty like Carmen bring to campus and into the classroom may be less quantifiable that faculty who bring in large research grants and contracts, but it’s absolutely no less important. In Carmen’s case, her work enriches not just our students and the people of San Antonio, but anyone around the world who reads her words. Congratulations, Carmen!

And more recognition for our social sciences and liberal arts faculty is on the way: I think the official list of winners still is under wraps, but I will divulge that the College of Liberal and Fine Arts is set to clean up at next week’s University Excellence Awards, with seven COLFA faculty receiving awards. Nice job!

At the poet laureate ceremony with Carmen Tafolla and Bicultural-Bilingual Studies department chair Robert Milk

When we announced the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program last fall, there were more than a few people on the list of 120 or so eligible faculty that I knew I would be truly sorry to see leave.

Indeed, the list of 24 faculty who accepted the VSIP offer includes folks who have been instrumental in UTSA’s development. Collectively, they have more than 650 years of service to the university. I have a sense of both sadness and appreciation as I consider their many contributions over the years and, most importantly, the significant difference they have made in the lives or our students.

You can read about two of them on UTSA Today.

Because their decision take part in this program was a personal one, we are not publishing a full list of their names. David Johnson and Norma Cantú did agree to share their stories with the university community now, and later this year we will acknowledge all of our retiring faculty.

The VSIP was designed as a faculty renewal program. As these faculty step down from their tenured positions, it frees up resources to bring new tenure-track faculty into our ranks.

And they, in turn, will leave their own indelible mark on the university.

Every person who crosses the stage has a story to tell of how they got there. Inevitably, some stories bubble up to the surface and attract a little extra attention.

This weekend, as UTSA graduated more than 3,000 students, I was delighted to read this San Antonio Express-New article about College of Business graduate Mario Telles. Mario, 34, is one of our nontraditional students. In his case, he decided to pursue higher education after being laid off from a comfortable job. In my mind, that alone makes his story one worth sharing.

But Mario further distinguished himself by being one of only 12 graduating seniors in the U.S. to be offered a job with the FDIC. What an achievement!

However, it’s worth noting Mario is typical of UTSA graduates in one significant aspect: he was a transfer student. We know that more than half (51 percent in 2010-2011) of UTSA’s graduates began their higher education at another institution; in Mario’s case, he began his college career at SAC.

Although the university plays an important role in the success of these students, they do not contribute to our four- and six-year graduation rates, which only track students who start at UTSA as freshmen. As a consequence, most of the successful student outcomes produced at UTSA are not captured by this metric.

The week prior to this month’s commencement exercises, we put the finishing touches on the university’s Graduation Rate Improvement Plan (yes, we call it the GRIP), which details a multi-pronged approach aimed at improving UTSA’s four-year graduation rate, currently at 9.6 percent. The drafting of the plan has been two months in the works, and when we come back from the holiday break in January the GRIP team will begin assessing how to implement the plan. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, there are 3,000 success stories to be celebrated.