Breaking Ground on a New Building
also see: UT news, Daily Texan
At right: MSI Director Lee Fuiman and onlookers congratulate
those who made the new building possible.
Footprint for the Future
Groundbreaking Addressby Lee A. Fuiman, Director of the Marine Science Institute
The faculty and senior staff completed a thorough strategic planning exercise in August 2003 under the leadership of Director Wayne Gardner. That document has been a compass that Wayne and I have used to guide our efforts to improve the Institute. Our goal, as stated in that plan, is to:
“Develop into a superb world class marine science center and fulfill continuing needs of Texas by providing leadership in marine education, research, and outreach, and drawing national and international respect for high quality research and education programs.”
In order to achieve this, we recognized many ways in which we needed to augment the Institute.Since that time, we have accomplished much. We made the Mission-Aransas Reserve a reality and it is has added a new dimension of service for South Texas coastal communities to the Marine Science Institute’s portfolio. Through the Reserve, we have boosted our national reputation for high quality research and education programs. The Reserve made it possible for our dream of a new library and additional space to expand faculty and graduate students to begin to take shape.
Those dreams are almost reality. We will have a new, larger Resource Center to house our library. We will have space for the Reserve’s operations. We will have space to accommodate a faculty of more than 20. And, we have operating funds to hire those new creative minds who, in turn, will recruit excellent graduate students, perhaps reaching our goal of 50.
Friends, we have come a long way in a relatively short time. From a pipe dream in our strategic plan, to near certain reality. This building is MSI’s footprint for the future.
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Groundbreaking participants (left to right): Eddie Fisher (Texas General Land Office), Rene Capistran (Spaw Glass), Mary Ann Rankin (UT), David Richter and Elizabeth Chu Richter (Richter Architects), Jim Shackelford and Bill Simpson (UT System), Steve Lanoux (MSI), Oscar Robinson (MSI Advisory Council), Georgia Neblett and Sally Morehead (MSI and Mission-Aransas NERR), and Lee Fuiman (MSI).
Acknowledgements
We have had the unflagging support of The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas System, and The UT Board of Regents. Our Marine Science Advisory Council has been behind us, many of its members made substantial personal contributions toward the success of the project.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been very supportive of our requests for unprecedented amounts of funding.
Our elected officials (especially Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz, State Senator "Chuy" Hinojosa and Representative Todd Hunter) have gone to bat for us in Washington and in the Texas Legislature.
The 17 partners of the Mission-Aransas NERR have been a great asset and we especially appreciate the contributions and support of the Texas General Land Office and its commissioner Jerry Patterson.
Over the past year or so, we have worked very closely with a terrific team of professionals to develop the design and documents that will result in this new building. I thank Project Managers Bill Simpson and Jim Shackelford at the University of Texas System, David Richter and Elizabeth Chu Richter and their excellent team at Richter Architects, and the great group from our contractor Spaw Glass, headed by Rene Capistran.
The people at MSI who have worked hardest on this project deserve my special thanks. Sally Morehead, Georgia Neblett and Steve Lanoux have been simply amazing, paying attention to every detail and there is an enormous number of details and making sure we get just what we need in this new building.
Thank you all very, very much!
University of Texas Marine Science Institute
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