Comments to the Board of Regents
17 May, 2000
Touchdown Terrace
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field
A. Joseph Layon, MD
Chair, University of Florida Faculty Senate

Members of the BOR, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, friends, as the first elected Chair of the University of Florida's Faculty, representing the faculty of the flagship campus of our SUS, I thank you for the opportunity to update you on the state of our faculty and campus. My comments will be brief.

The faculty of the University of Florida has been rejuvenated with changes in our Constitution and By-Laws that allow for election of Senate leadership rather than its appointment. We are re-energized and will work with our administration, staff, students, and alumni to make our University of Florida one of the premier institutions in the United States.

What are the exciting things happening on the Campus ?

1. Undergraduate Level:

• The UF Scholars Program offers 175 stipends of $ 3,000 to our undergraduate students to work 1-on-1 with a faculty member in an area of research. All but $ 500 of this goes directly to the student.
• The Minority Mentor Program assigns faculty on a one-on-one basis with incoming minority students. This is one of our mechanisms to ensure that diversity on the campus of the University of Florida is both encouraged and supported.

2. Graduate Level:

• Our Graduate Student population continues to increase in both quality and numbers. These are individuals, at least 30% of whom stay in our State after graduation, who add serious firepower to the economy and to academics.

3. College of Medicine:

• Our University of Florida Brain Institute carries out world class research and is able to translate that investigative work into clinical results. We have performed spinal cord stem cell transplantation to help repair and restore injured tissue.
• We are working on the cutting edge of genetic research. The efforts of College of Medicine Dean Ken Berns to create the funding for a Genetics Institute merits attention.
• At the Medical Center, our Department of Anesthesiology is working collaboratively with colleagues from the College of Engineering and the UF Brain Center to make our program in Human Patient Simulation and Error Prevention the best in the country. We have research and development projects in progress that will astound you. We are using the simulation program to train medical students, nurses, physician assistants, paramedics, EMTs, and physicians. We are co-operating with the Alachua County School District to create a program that teaches middle school and high school kids physics, physiology, and mathematics. We use the physiology component to show them the results of drug use.

These are but three of the many areas that we could talk about. The academic life at UF vibrant.

What is the UF Senate involved with?

1. First of all we view the further orderly development of our University of Florida as a task that is mandated to the pentad- faculty, staff, administration, students, and alumni- that makes up the university community. Additionally, the County of Alachua and the City of Gainesville must be intimately involved as we further develop. As such, we are in the process of creating a "strategic plan" with the goal being to state explicitly where we would like our University to be in 5 to 10 years.
2. The faculty has made its voice clearly heard on the issues of the search for our new President. We wish to have direct input in the selection of candidates, their interviews, and in shaping the list of finalists that will be sent to the Chancellor for selection. This will require action by the BOR. I must point out, however, that the faculty is extremely pleased and proud of our Interim President, Charles Young. There are not enough laudatory adjectives in the dictionary to describe this individual. We support and wish him to stay with us for as long as he is able.
3. The Faculty, cognizant that in our United States somewhere between 35 and 43 million of our citizens [13% to 16% of our population] do not have access to health care, wish to ensure that this is not the case on our campus. We initiated a subcommittee approximately 6 months ago to look at the health coverage of undergraduate and graduate students. We also reviewed the policies of our peer institutions. We methodically piecing together a proposal that will suggest a means to provide an acceptable health care coverage plan for all of our students.
4. Finally, we are very interested observers- and we will be participants- in the debate between the Florida Legislature and the BOR as to the governance of our SUS. We have reviewed the history of the BOC/BOR. Indeed, you may wish to read the commencement speech given by Senator Bob Graham at FSU recently. In this, he discussed quite clearly why the BOR is so important, and what it might mean if the Board is eliminated. We are most concerned that the elimination of the BOR would lead to the deterioration, the "mediocritization", of our SUS. While we have not, and will not, always agree with our colleagues on the BOR, while we will argue with you and you with us, we view these disagreements as "family issues". One may disagree with family without disowning them; they remain family. Using this metaphor as a descriptor of the relationship between the BOR and the Universities of the SUS, I can state that the Faculty will work with the BOR to ensure that the governance of our State University System is strengthened.

Friends and colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to briefly talk with you about these issues. There are many more we could discuss at greater length, but I believe I have consumed my time. I am pleased to answer any queries you may have.

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