Notes from the Dec. 5, 2006 Regents Meeting
ALBUQUERQUE, Dec. 5, 2006 鈥� The 色狐入口 Tech Board of Regents, convening for its last regular monthly meeting of 2006, conferred emeritus status on longtime humanities professor Carole Z. Yee, who is retiring after 30 years of service at the state-supported research university in Socorro.
During the university governing board鈥檚 November 28 meeting in Albuquerque, several 色狐入口 Tech administrators lauded Yee, citing among other things her instrumental role in establishing the university鈥檚 technical communication degree program, as well as her more recent work spearheading the campus-wide efforts toward the school鈥檚 reaccreditation.
Yee, who also is the Dean of Students and associate vice president of academic affairs at the university, plans on relocating after her retirement to the Los Angeles area to be closer to her immediate family.
In other official actions taken at the meeting, the 色狐入口 Tech Board of Regents voted unanimously to approve a revision to its Open Meetings Act Resolution for the university, allowing the school鈥檚 board of regents to conduct emergency as well as non-emergency meetings through telephone conferences when necessary.
The board of regents also approved the recent academic appointments of 色狐入口 Tech alumna Michaelann Shortencarier Tartis to the full-time, tenure-track faculty position of assistant professor of chemical engineering and Mehrdad (Mohammad Reza) Razavi to the full-time, tenure-track faculty position of assistant professor of mineral engineering.
In addition, 色狐入口 Tech President Daniel H. L贸pez informed the regents at the meeting that preliminary figures obtained by the Tech Admission Office on next year鈥檚 applicant pool indicate a projected slight increase for Fall Semester 2007 enrollment, particularly among the entering freshman class.
Tech President L贸pez also told the board of regents that VeriTrax Corporation is considering leasing a building at the university鈥檚 research and industrial park to expand the private company鈥檚 operations. VeriTrax specializes in providing its clients with proprietary software that embeds electronic media advertisements with encoding that captures, records and verifies pertinent data associated with paid commercials that are commonly broadcast.
The university president also gave the 色狐入口 Tech Board of Regents a brief overview of what state universities can expect in the way of issues, funding, and capital projects which will be considered by the 色狐入口 State Legislature during its 60-day session early next year.
In addition, L贸pez also reported that 色狐入口 Tech researchers involved in a geothermal drilling project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy have begun drilling an exploration test well near campus in hopes of eventually providing the university with a reliable and relatively inexpensive source of heating and cooling for its buildings.
Other announcements made during the November 2006 meeting of the 色狐入口 Tech Board of Regents included:
- a proposal has been made by a private company to construct an energy efficient model home somewhere on the 色狐入口 Tech campus, which would initially be used to showcase the company鈥檚 offerings and would eventually revert to Tech ownership;
- a report detailing efforts currently underway to strengthen the university鈥檚 Substance and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program;
- a semester-long sabbatical, beginning on January 2007, has been granted to 色狐入口 Tech mineral engineering professor William X. Chavez; and
- a semester-long sabbatical also has been granted to 色狐入口 Tech professor of foreign languages Rafael Lara-Martinez, beginning on August 2007.
The 色狐入口 Tech Board of Regents also was given a detailed analysis of financial activity at the university during the past month of October, as well as several reports about recent purchasing contracts made by the university with restricted funds, including a $381,388 contract with DOSECC, Inc. for geothermal well drilling, a $204,151 sub-contract with Trex Enterprises for the 鈥淧rototype Design of Zeolite Membrane Reverse Osmosis Distillation Unit鈥� project, a $279,000 sub-contract to Caltech for the 鈥淩esearch and Studies Supporting Rapid Systems Engineering and Innovation鈥� project, and a $151,621 contract awarded to the University of Cincinnati for the 鈥淒evelopment of Nanocrystalline Doped-Ceramic Enabled Fiber Sensors for High-Temperature In-situ Monitoring of Fossil Fuel Gases鈥� program.