I noted last month that the University of Texas-San Antonio and the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio were discussing the possibility of a merger as a way for UTSA to become a Tier 1 university. That idea has picked up some steam.
A group of experts dubbed “academic rock stars” by one observer will study the pros and cons of merging the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio with UTSA.
The move, announced Monday to the UT System Board of Regents, comes after lawmakers this year approved a bill that gives a path to elite status — and the potential for millions in funding — for emerging research institutions, including UTSA.
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The advisory group is headed by Peter Flawn, former president of UT Austin and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Its members include prominent academic and health institution experts, one of whom has experience with two California universities’ decision to form a partnership, then separate.
“I’m very excited that it’s something that’s going to be taken very seriously,” said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio. “These people are like academic rock stars.”
Van de Putte spurred a merger study years ago in which a consultant recommended against such an action. But this panel takes the matter to a new level, she said.
Regents Chairman James Huffines, announcing the creation of the group Monday, said it “very well may be the most prestigious advisory panel that has ever served” the UT System.
He wants it to report to the regents by June 1, 2010, months before the 2011 regular legislative session convenes.
UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa said the subject deserves study because of community and state leaders’ interest.
Seems to me that when an advisory panel like this gets put together, you can pretty much tell what they’re eventually going to say. Which makes me that much more interested in the details of the original study, and the reasons why that consultant advised against a merger. Have conditions actually changed, or is this more about politics and opportunity? As I said before, this move makes intuitive sense to me, at least as far as the Tier 1 goal goes. But I claim no expertise in the matter, and Kent’s comment on that earlier post about this meaning another layer of bureaucracy for UT-HSC while likely not having any effect on the lives of UTSA’s students makes sense to me as well. We’ll see what they have to say.