President's Inbox
Each month I'll answer questions submitted by ULM faculty and staff. The questions and answers will be archived from this page.
If you have a question, suggestion, comment or idea that you'd like to share with me, just complete the President's Inbox Submission Form.
2008 Questions . . .
Q. I noted that the spring 2009 Faculty Development Week is scheduled to begin Jan 5. If I am not mistaken this is one week earlier than in the past. Is this the result of a quirk in the calendar or is this to be the new norm?
A. The calendar for the entire academic year is a bit complicated, and I think the Calendar Committee did a great job of working around all of the complications this year.
For example, because of the timing of Thanksgiving and Christmas, final exams for our students are scheduled to start the Monday after we return from Thanksgiving. This causes Fall Commencement to fall on December 13, 2008.
The University will remain open after graduation, with the Christmas Break scheduled to start on December 22 and run through January 2. Classes will begin for the Spring Semester on January 12, 2009.
This schedule forces the Professional Development week to start on January 5. This date is somewhere between 3 and 7 days early than in the past. However, the number of days between Commencement and the start of spring classes is virtually unchanged.
Whether or not this is the norm going forward will depend on the deliberations of the Calendar Committee.
Q. Eventually Coenen Hall will be vacated by Delta Community College. Any plans for how that facility will be used?
A. The State of Louisiana just last week finalized the purchase of the land for the new Delta Community College buildings.
I expect that Delta will be with us for at least two more years. We have not finalized any plans for Coenen at this time, but I will appoint a planning group to consider the options for the building as soon as we have a more definitive timeline from Delta.
Q. I have only been employed with ULM for one year and would like to know if there are smoking regulations on campus and are they enforced? I do not have anything against anyone who smokes. However, I notice that people are smoking right outside of my office window and this is could be a potential health hazard for myself and other non-smokers who work within close proximity of the smoke.
A. Yes, there are regulations governing smoking on the ULM campus. These policies are based on state statutes. The short version is that there is no smoking allowed in any public building and within 25 feet of the building. The real problem however is enforcement. Unless each and every one of us on campus remind smokers that are close to the building that they must move 25 feet away the policy will be ineffective.
Currently, there is a committee of faculty, staff, and students considering the policy and its implementation. We will report on their decision in the very near future.
Q. Now that the Pharmacy School has possession of the Bienville Drive facility, are there still plans in the works to renovate Sugar Hall? Also, after renovation, for what will the building be used?
A. First it is important to realize that the College of Pharmacy is not completely out of Sugar Hall. Currently the Bienville Building is undergoing the second phase of its renovation that will include laboratory space. This renovation should be completed this summer and some, but not all, of the pharmacy labs and researchers will move to the Bienville property at that time.
The Vivarium is currently in design stage and will not be finished until next summer at the earliest. When that facility is finished we expect to see the remainder of the College of Pharmacy move to the Bienville site.
However, to directly address your question, we are currently planning on moving the Communicative Disorders Department and the Speech Pathology Clinic into Sugar Hall. It is anticipated that the Clinic will constitute the largest of the internal renovations in Sugar. In addition, the current plans call for Kinesiology to move their First Aid Class to Sugar 100 to allow us to accommodate the large demand for this class. Finally, the Toxicology Department will remain in Sugar Hall because of their undergraduate program.
Q. Can you tell us more about the $80 million the state legislature allocated to Louisiana's universities?
A. At the beginning of the recently ended Special Legislative Session, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed allocating $80M of the $1.1 billion surplus from FY 2006/07 to the Board of Regents to address a backlog of deferred maintenance projects on Louisiana’s public postsecondary education facilities. The Legislature reduced the amount to $75M during the session.
The University of Louisiana System anticipates receiving $30M for its eight institutions. ULM anticipates an allocation of $3.3M from this appropriation. That allocation is based on a Board of Regents Deferred Maintenance Distribution formula that considers several factors, including:
• Building Types & Room Usage (Classrooms, Labs, Faculty Offices, Library, etc)
• Current age, composition (brick, wood, metal, asphalt, concrete, gravel, etc), and condition of the various buildings and infrastructures
• Life expectancies of these buildings and infrastructures
• Replacement costs for the various types of buildings and infrastructure (roads and streets, lighting, storm sewer, chillers, cooling towers, electrical distribution, parking lots, etc.)
Q. What impact will any dollars allocated to ULM have??
A. A recent examination of the University’s facilities by an independent firm commissioned by the Board of Regents indicated that the University has a backlog of approximately $3.3M in “currently critical” deferred maintenance needs, and $6.6M in “potentially critical” needs. ULM’s anticipated $3.3M allocation will allow the administration to address most of these critical items.
Q. How will the University use this money?
A. The Legislature and the Board of Regents have wisely given each university the flexibility to identify and prioritize the various improvements to be made on each campus. Currently, ULM anticipates using its allocation for the following:
• $1.2M to replace the cooling tower, chiller, and chilled water pump at the Fant-Ewing Coliseum. This equipment is over 25 years old, and in poor condition
• $650,000 for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) repairs and a new digitally controlled building automation system for the Chemistry and Natural Sciences Building
• $400,000 to replace the chiller plant and cooling tower in Strauss Hall. This equipment is in poor condition and over 30 years old
• $350,000 for repairs and upgrades to existing HVAC controls, and installation of new automated controls in major academic buildings. This will result in major reductions in energy costs
• $250,000 to grade, drain, pave, and light on of our busiest commuter student parking lots at 3800 Northeast Drive
• $200,000 to replace the 30 year old elevator in Strauss Hall
• $200,000 to replace the existing metal roofs of the Physical Plant and Maintenance Buildings
Q. Are there any future plans for creating more walkways or the creation of running and jogging paths?
A. Utilizing our sidewalks, ULM's Kinesiology department mapped out several walking paths during their "Your Health Matters" initiative. For more information, check out: www.ulm.edu/yourhealthmatters
Archived Questions . . .