Tower Talk

President Bill Powers on the Life of The University of Texas

LIVESTRONG Foundation puts UT Austin over the $3 billion goal line

By

Livestrong Press Conference 2014_3770

From left: Dean Clay Johnston of the Dell Medical School, LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman, President Bill Powers, Sen. Kirk Watson, and LIVESTRONG Chairman Jeff Garvey

Today, I’m thrilled to announce two historic milestones in the life of The University of Texas at Austin. The LIVESTRONG Foundation has pledged $50 million to create the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes at UT Austin’s Dell Medical School. With this gift, LIVESTRONG has taken UT Austin’s total giving during the Campaign for Texas over our goal of $3 billion with just over one week left in our eight-year campaign.

The LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes will bring to the Dell Medical School the cause of patient-centered care that has been at the heart of the foundation’s work since its beginning 17 years ago. I am so thankful to LIVESTRONG and excited about the groundwork this lays within the Dell Medical School. Revolutionary advances will flow from this partnership. Lives will be saved, and lives will be made far better because of the LIVESTRONG Foundation’s generosity and strategic vision.

As for the Campaign for Texas, I will have much more to say about it when the final numbers are tallied. However, we can now reveal that more than 139,000 alumni and some 120,000 additional friends made gifts during the campaign. More than 12,000 other donors, including foundations, associations, and corporations, have given as well during the course of this, the largest capital campaign in the history of Texas higher education.

You did it. I thank you. Longhorns around the world thank you. And most importantly, future generations of Longhorns will thank you in the decades to come. If you haven’t given yet, you have through August 31 to be a part of this historic campaign.

What starts here changes the world.

Bill Powers signature

UT launches construction of Dell Medical School

By

Dell Medical School groundbreaking 2014

With Bill Powers from left are Sen. Kirk Watson, Jesus Garza of Seton Healthcare Family; Brenda Coleman-Beattie of Central Health, and Dean Clay Johnston

Yesterday, campus and community leaders gathered at the corner of 15th and Red River Streets to celebrate the next phase in the creation of UT Austin’s Dell Medical School, starting construction on three buildings that will form the heart of the school: an academic building, a research building, a medical office building. These will be joined by a teaching hospital to be built by Seton Healthcare Family in the fall.

Leaders who spoke at the event included Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, who has been instrumental in moving the school forward; Brenda Coleman-Beattie, chair of Central Health, the health care district for Travis County; Jesus Garza, the CEO of the Seton Healthcare Family; and Clay Johnston, the founding dean of the Dell Medical School.

It was an exciting day made even better by the presence of high school students and undergraduates studying premed subjects, medical residents, local doctors, and representatives from throughout the community.

Dell Medical School groundbreaking 20142002

Community members write their hopes for the Dell Medical School on signing boards at the groundbreaking

In the coming months, we’ll see these buildings begin to take shape. It will be a thrilling reminder of what is now on the horizon for UT Austin. Before we know it, we’ll be cutting a ribbon.

What starts here changes the world.
Bill's Signature

UT Austin medical school on the way

By

UT Medical School Proposition 1 press conference 2012

With deans and Provost Steve Leslie at a press conference this morning to answer questions about UT's future medical school

November 6, 2012, will be remembered as a momentous day in the history of The University of Texas. It was the day that a UT Austin medical school became a reality.

Yesterday, the voters of Travis County agreed, through passage of Proposition 1, to add the final crucial piece of the funding puzzle to this complex project. It would not have happened without the energy and leadership of Sen. Kirk Watson, and I want to thank him again for sharing our passion for this issue and leading the charge so ably. Additionally, I would like to thank our Board of Regents and the Seton Healthcare Family for supplying the school’s other major building blocks. Healthy ATX and its members as well as UT students themselves were crucial to the initiative’s success. I am sure that numerous other partners will join the project in time.

A medical school will forever change the scale and scope of UT Austin education and research, and it will bring much needed specialties and community health care to Central Texas. In the coming months, we will form a steering committee of academic and medical leaders, begin the search for the school’s inaugural dean, finalize the financial strategy, and move swiftly ahead on numerous logistical fronts such as where to construct the school’s teaching hospital and academic buildings. Our goal is to open the school to its first 50 students in the fall of 2015.

I’m grateful to the citizens of Travis County for their vote of confidence in UT Austin’s ability to leverage our state’s flagship university for the betterment of the whole community. I’m equally excited about what this will mean for our faculty and students in the years and decades ahead.

What starts here changes the world.

Momentum building for UT Austin medical school

By

WatsonPowersLeffingwell

With Senator Kirk Watson (left) and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell (right)

Many of you know that we are steadily building a coalition to support a medical school at UT Austin, and we have had several major developments lately.

Last weekend, the Seton Healthcare Family, the largest health care provider in Austin, committed $250 million to build a teaching hospital that would be a key component of a UT Austin medical school education. This commitment is subject to a couple of board votes by Seton and the national nonprofit health care system to which it belongs, but no problems getting final approval are expected at this time.

On Monday, I joined Senator Kirk Watson, who is leading the effort to bring a medical school to Austin with a 10-point plan, and other community leaders at the Lance Armstrong Foundation headquarters in Austin to help launch a new educational initiative — Healthy ATX.

Healthy ATX is an online forum for dialogue about advances in health care and medical education in Austin, and Central Texans are being asked to share their own health care stories on the site to increase awareness about the need to expand health care excellence and education Austin.

A world-class medical school in Austin would benefit our university and the community, and with these important commitments we are one step closer to realizing a momentous development in the University’s history.

What starts here changes the world.

Facebook

Recent Posts