CAMPUS

BUZZ

Buzz Cuts

Summary of noteworthy campus happenings

Environmentally friendly. Mavericks Go Green, a Web site devoted to UT Arlington’s sustainability efforts, launched in February. It’s a one-stop shop for the latest information on sustainability projects and environmental events on campus and elsewhere and includes a resource listing. An initiative of the President’s Sustainability Committee, the site features academic and research efforts and is a vehicle for facilitating collaboration within and outside the University.

Walk this way. Yates Street will soon become a pedestrian mall. The 0.11-mile road, which runs north and south next to Nedderman Hall, will get a $7.5 million facelift beginning this summer. The project, approved by the UT System Board of Regents in February, will further push vehicular traffic to the campus’ edge and add green space. Both are components of the updated Master Plan. Phase one is expected to last a year. Phase two will be done in conjunction with construction of the Engineering Research Building (see story: 'Q&A: Bill Carroll').

Where buffalo roam? Prairie dogs and bison may thrive in a Fort Worth prairie ecosystem if award-winning plans by a multidisciplinary team of graduate students become reality. Students in the School of Urban and Public Affairs’ environmental planning course in fall 2007 won the Student Project Award from the Midwest Section of the Texas chapter of the American Planning Association. The project focuses on the proposed Fort Worth Prairie Park, a 1,983-acre section of prairie in southwest Tarrant County. The acreage includes some of the last remaining original Fort Worth prairie ecosystem. The students’ report identifies elements of conservation design and conservation biology that would be most important in the park anchoring a network of reserves and ecological corridors leading to the Western Cross Timbers.

Play it safe. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has selected UT Arlington to serve as an OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Center. This addition to the University’s Division for Enterprise Development will serve safety and health instructional needs throughout Region VI, which includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The OTI Education Center will offer OSHA training courses to help ensure employers a healthy work environment and enable employees to recognize and prevent unsafe work practices. 

Learn and live. The School of Nursing has received more than $1 million to help meet the demand for nurses by providing a hospital-based, accelerated bachelor of science in nursing program. An in-kind donation of $664,848 from Texas Health Resources will be coupled with a three-year, $556,291 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The project, LEARN (Leveraging Existing Academic Resources in Nursing), aims to increase enrollment, maximize graduation rates and improve readiness to practice. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a need for more than one million new and replacement registered nurses by 2012. Estimates indicate that Texas nursing schools should increase the number of initial registered nurse licensure graduates by 50 percent by 2010 to meet population demands in 2020.