VPBA Newsletter July 2006

Business Horizons


A monthly publication of Business Affairs

The University of
Texas at
San Antonio

July 2006

In All We Do,
We Do With

EXCELLENCE

Every Person,
Every Day,
Every Job

Business Affairs - Your partner for successful solutions

Kerry's Korner......

I recently had the pleasure to speak to the Facilities personnel at their annual BBQ.  It was a great event and a super opportunity to get everyone together to break bread and to publicly recognize staff who exhibited excellence in their work.  In speaking about our Business Affairs brand, I told them I needed each of them, and all Business Affairs staff, to do three things.

      1.   To be passionate about continuous improvement - in their own professional
      development and in identifying opportunities to improve the way we do business – 
      policies, procedures, methodologies, and the like;
2.   To be passionate about partnering with their colleagues and customers throughout
      campus; and finally
3.   To be known for their high ethical standards and the fair treatment of all employees.

If we are going to live and practice our brand, “Business Affairs....Your partner for successful solutions,” and if we’re going to be successful in carrying out our mission and vision, we are all going to have to be passionate about improving, partnering and practicing high ethical standards.

I expect all staff meetings to have some time dedicated to discussing our brand and what it means to be passionate in delivering on the three items noted above.

Remember: It takes every person, every day, every job! 

Stay tuned for more on our Business Affairs SHARED VALUES initiative – a steering committee
will soon be appointed.

Thanks for all that you do to move us toward excellence!  Kerry

Open Enrollment
July 1- 31, 2006

New Employee Welcome Program
July 25, 2006

Business Affairs
Staff Council Meeting
July 27, 2006

Worth Remembering..."Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."
John Wooden

How are You Partnering? 

Beginning with the August edition of Business Horizons, we would like to share your experiences and successes in living out the Business Affairs brand, “Your Partner for Successful Solutions.”  Send us a brief explanation of how you or your staff have partnered with colleagues and others around the campus to assist them in achieving their goals.  We will print those experiences for all to see and as an encouragement to others to begin seeing our brand as the foundation of Business Affairs’ commitment to excellence in customer service.  Please send your brief statements of partnering to Jennifer Snellgrove at Jennifer.Snellgrove@UTSA.edu.

Brand Promise...
We are committed to helping you achieve your goals, through excellence in service –
every person, every day, every job.

Reminder: Annual Enrollment runs through midnight July 31st.  All HMO Blue participants have been defaulted into UT Select PPO. If you would like to continue with HMO Blue, you must make this election using the UT Touch system (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/nlogon/sgwww/UTTOUCH/). For additional information, please visit the annual enrollment website:  http://www.utsa.edu/hr/benefits/2006AnnualEnrollment/annualenrollment2006.cfm or contact us at benefits@utsa.edu or
458-4257.

Pat Harborth has worked at UTSA since May 1990. She started her job in Key Control at the

Thank you, Pat, for your dedication and support of the UTSA and Business Affairs goals.

Business Affairs is printing these business size cards with our new brand on the front and our vision on the back. They are available in both English and Spanish, and will be distributed to all offices during the next several weeks through your AVP or Director offices.

The Business Affairs Staff Relations Council was formed to open communications and discuss and recommend functional improvements throughout the business affairs organization. The current Council has met for the past two years and worked diligently to carry out their responsibilities.

Our thanks go to the following Council members for their diligent service: Jackson Christofoletti, Celso Santiago, Carlita Contreras, Michael Luna, Corinne Sabo, Rebecca Galvan, Denise Moore, Minnie Martinez, Geoffrey Merritt, Juan Macias, and alternates: Rosa Mendez, James Jinks, Josie Dickerson, Robert Hudson.

Elections for the new Council will be held in August through the AVP or Director areas (see below) with elected members serving two-year terms beginning this September. The council membership is comprised of seven classified, non-supervisory representatives with one representative and one alternate from each of the following areas:

• AVP Administration – all reporting units

• Facilities – Administration, Business Operations, DTC Facilities, Planning and Development

• Facilities – Operations and Maintenance

• Facilities – Housekeeping and Event Services

• Financial – all reporting units, plus Budget and Management Reporting & Analyses

• Human Resources

• University Police

Look for more information in the near future regarding nominations and voting.

Ever wonder how those pesky ants managed to find that one bread crumb that fell from your 4^th of July hotdog? The answer involves molecules that create odors.  And now thanks to the work of Dr. Robert Renthal in the Department of Biology, scientists may soon be able to figure out how to prevent ants and other unwanted insects from crashing your picnic, as well as how to control insect damage to agricultural crops and to block disease transmission by insect vectors.

Through the course of his work on insect odor detection, Dr. Renthal discovered a new way of purifying pheromones, the
molecules that insects use to communicate with each other. Pheromones are a major information channel for insects. Ants, for instance, use pheromones to identify the colony, signal alarms, assist in mating, and mark trails to food. The pheromones pass this information by binding to receptors in the antennae of insects. Because pheromones are sometimes present in such small quantities in nature, they are difficult to isolate using conventional techniques.

Using Dr. Renthal’s technique, scientists will be able to isolate and identify various insect pheromones, and thus be able to uncover new information about this communication system. This increased knowledge will have direct applications in the management and control of various insects including termites, fire ants, thrips, aphids, and even bed bugs.

UTSA filed a patent application on Dr. Renthal’s method in April 2003. The patent office reviewed the application in July 2005, and recently issued a “notice of allowance,” or approval of the application. “It is not unusual for a patent application to take two to three years to issue due to the large number of applications that the patent office must review,” says Ruben Lopez, Manager of Business and Technology Development, whose office under the AVP for Administration assists faculty with inventions and patent applications.  The patent issued as U.S. Patent # 7,074,572 on July 11, 2006.  For more information on patents, or to search for this patent on the Web go to www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.

University Police Re-Organization

Since Chief Hernandez' arrival, he has taken the time to familiarize himself with the operations of the police department and assess its effectiveness.  The overall function of the police department is very good; however, Chief Dave believes we can be more efficient and in the long run more effective with a few organizational changes.  The following changes have been made to the Police Department’s organizational structure:

• The Administrative Division, currently commanded by Captain Sonego, was renamed the Investigations Division and will focus its efforts on criminal and internal investigations.  The Emergency Management Office will fall under this division and the investigative team will double as emergency command post personnel during a critical incident.  Emergency communications is also critical to any critical incident and will also report to the administrative division.
• Access Control responsibilities will now fall under the oversight of Assistant Chief Dan Pena.
• An Administrative Support Section has been created and will be led by Sergeant Padula.  All budget, training, evidence storage, and fleet responsibilities will be handled out of this section.  Additionally, all crime prevention services will now be assigned to this section.  Ms. Bertha Brady, Administrative Service Officer I, has been reassigned from the Chief’s Office to the Administrative Support Section and will provide administrative support to Sgt. Padula and her staff.
• Mr. Richard Barber will be promoted to Administrative Associate II and will be the primary administrative person for the Chief’s office.

These changes will help our Police utilize its staff and function in a much more efficient manner. President Romo recently stated that we have the best Police Department in the state! We are proud of their professional and dedicated service to all the students, faculty and staff at UTSA!

PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUESTS

All requests to view or copy UTSA documents must be processed through the Vice President for Business Affairs Office. For more information, click: http://www.utsa.edu/bussvc/OpenRecords.htm.

REMINDER.....Please email us the new employees in your department, so we can add them to the
newsletter mailing.