UTSA THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO GivingSPRING 2015 LEADERS IN TECHNOLOGY GRAHAM WESTON AND THE 80/20 FOUNDATION COMMIT TO UTSA INNOVATIONS IN CLOUD COMPUTING Donors helped fund new uniforms for the UTSA Cheer team through crowdfunding site Launch UTSA; donors also voted for their favorite uniform option. Photo by @chrisreillyphotography ON THE COVER: Graham Weston helps launch the UTSA Open Cloud Institute on campus February 26. Photo by Mark McClendon UTSA UTSA Giving IN THIS ISSUE Spring 2015 Giving Website: utsa.edu/giving UTSA Giving is published biannually by The University of INVEstING IN BIG Data Texas at San Antonio for donors With generous backing, UTSA launches its and friends. The publication communicates the impact of new Open Cloud Institute. philanthropy on the university. 8 PRESIDENT Ricardo Romo Building a Legacy VICE PRESIDENT FOR 6 UTSA counseling center gets continued backing of founder's family. EXTERNAL RELatIONS Marjie French ASSOCIatE VICE PRESIDENT Doubling Down FOR COMMUNICatIONS Matching contribution programs can multiply donations. AND MARKETING 12 Joe Izbrand EDITOR It All Adds Up Michael Elkins Edwards A crowdfunding program turns small contributions into big gains. 14 ASSOCIatE EDITOR Michelle Mondo A High-Tech Pact DESIGNER Microsoft and UTSA partner to create an energy efficient data center. Tom Palmer 16 CONTRIBUTORS Wendy Frost Incentive in All Aspects K.C. Gonzalez UTSA's first Kudla endowed fellow is motivated by her donors. Heather Locke Green 17 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT RICARDO ROMO taLKS ABOUT INVESTMENTS IN TIER ONE GOALS PHOTOGRAPHERS Patrick Ray Dunn 3 IN BRIEF UTSA IN THE NEWS Mark McClendon 5 BY THE NUMBERS MEETING THE GOAL OF $175 MILLION 18 GIVING SCENE SNAPSHOTS OF JUST SOME OF THE PEOPLE HELPING TO PROPEL UTSA TO TIER ONE 20 GIVING THOU GHT VICE PRESIDENT FOR EXTERNAL RELatIONS: UTSA'S HISTORIAL EVENTS If you prefer to receive UTSA CONTACT US: Office of the Vice President for External Relations Giving online only, please send a message to [email protected]. One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, TX 78249 • (210) 458-4131 • [email protected] GIVING | SPRING 2015 1 DEVELOPMENT BOARD KATHLEEN K. ACOCK JOHN D. ALEXANDER JR. STEPHEN W. ARNOLD J. DAN BATES (CHAIR) KEVIN L. BELGRADE E. GLENN BIGGS JAMES H. Bodenstedt ‘96 J. DARRYL BYRD SCOTT CARPENTER HENRY G. CISNEROS LORETTA J. CLARKe ‘90, ’87 PATRICK J. CLynes ‘89 SAMUEL G. DAWSON TRISH DEBERRY WALTER D. DOWNING Jr. ‘86 JOHN W. FEIK DON FROST TOM C. FROST JR. HERIBERTO GUERRA JR. SUSAN P. HOUGh ‘91 CHRISTOPHER A. JAwORSKi ‘03 BRENDA VICKREY JOHNSON CINDY L. JORGensen ‘00 CLAYTON E. KILLINGer ‘83 (VICE CHAIR) MILTON B. LEE Dear Friends, STEVEN Q. LEE EDITH S. MCALLISTER JOHN F. MCFall ‘92 One of the most significant initiatives the university has ever undertaken on our journey to be a JANICE L. Meyr ‘79 Tier One institution is now under way. UTSA is investing $40 million in institutional resources to BALOUS T. MILLER strengthen our commitment to research by bringing 60 new top-tier scholars to the university over WILLIAM E. MORROW ‘86 the next four years. HENRY R. MUÑOZ III CATHY OBRIOTTI GREEN The GoldStar Initiative, as it is known, will recruit experts in key fields aligned with university and (VICE CHAIR) HOWARD W. PEAK IV ‘75 regional economic strengths: advanced materials, open cloud computing, cybersecurity, big data, BOONE POWELL biomedicine and sustainable communities, among other areas. JAMES R. REED If San Antonio is to remain a leader in a global economy, it must have the high caliber of research ARTHUR J. RODRIGuez ‘98, ‘00 HARRIETT ROMO that we conduct at UTSA. Our researchers will make new discoveries, teach new knowledge and GARY K. Simmons ‘00 address some of the world's most pressing issues. Through the GoldStar Initiative, we plan to GURVINDER P. SINGH significantly increase our annual research expenditures from $50 million to $75 million over the DAVID A. SPENCER next five years; soon afterward, reaching $100 million, which is a critical threshold for Tier One JOHN T. STEEN JR. JULIAN H. TREVINO designation. CURTIS T. VAUGHAN III Of course, the generosity of the San Antonio community makes a difference by supporting KENNETH L. WILSON the ongoing work of these researchers, especially in establishing endowed positions, such as JEANIE RABKE WYAtt ‘86 faculty chairs, as well as fellowship opportunities to attract the graduate students who will be EMERITUS BOARD the workhorses of important research. We cannot achieve Tier One without the support of our MEMBERS community. ROBERT M. CAVENDER This issue of Giving highlights the 80/20 Foundation and its investment in UTSA. The organization ALFREDO L. FLORES JR. is a wonderful example of the kind of “philanthropy in action” needed to augment the GoldStar GLORIA GALT BETTY MURRAY HALFF ‘76 Initiative because it has already invested in both professors and graduate students. As a result, we ROGER R. HEMMINGHAUS are the academic leader in cloud computing education. By investing in UTSA, you too help quicken NELSON W. WOLFF the pace of discovery, create new opportunities for our students and keep San Antonio at the Capital CampaiGN forefront of innovation. Committee This year has started with the promise of significant advancement and opportunities for the TOM C. FROST JR. (CAMPAIGN CHAIR) university because we have your support. Thank you for believing in the vision of a brighter tomorrow JOHN D. ALEXANDER JR. at UTSA. J. DAN BATES E. GLENN BIGGS JAMES H. Bodenstedt ‘96 ¡Mil gracias! ERNEST Bromley ‘78, ‘80 HENRY G. CISNEROS MARJIE FRENCH CLAYTON E. KILLINGer ‘83 STEVEN Q. LEE Ricardo Romo CATHY OBRIOTTI GREEN President RICARDO ROMO JOHN T. STEEN JR. KENNETH L. WILSON JEANIE RABKE WYAtt ‘86 2 UTSA.EDU/GIVING IN brief PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS GET NEW FUNDING op students who need help Tfunding their education have more help available because of a $100,000 gift from Betty Murray Halff. The Betty Murray Halff Distin- guished Presidential Scholarship en- dowment will provide approximately $4,500 per year in financial support for students in the UTSA Distinguished Presidential Scholars program. Increasing merit-based scholarships to help recruit high-achieving students will ensure UTSA remains competitive. Halff, a UTSA alumna and the university’s first director of develop- ment, has been a longtime supporter. In 2002 she and husband Howard Malú and Carlos Alvarez at the residence hall named in their honor. established the Betty Murray Halff Endowed Scholarship ALVAREZES HONORED WITH HALL RENAMING for the UTSA Ambassadors. tanding inside a UTSA residence hall on the Terry Scholars and Facilitated Acceptance to Medi- Sfirst day of spring, Carlos Alvarez and wife cal Education programs. Malú gathered with students, faculty and staff. The The Alvarez family has donated more than $4.3 timing of the event was fortuitous, since everyone million in gifts to UTSA through personal dona- was there to celebrate a new chapter in honor tions and support from their foundations and Betty Murray of the couple’s dedication to the university—the companies. Halff renaming of the building from the San Saba Hall to They are the donors of the Carlos and Malú Al- the Carlos and Malú Alvarez Hall. varez Endowment for Student Success, the Alvarez “I would like to say ‘Mi casa es su casa,’” Carlos Graduate Research Education Excellence Fund Alvarez told the crowd, which broke into applause. and the Alvarez Challenge Match for Graduate Stu- “We are certainly going to tell a lot of people about dent Excellence fund. Alvarez donations have also the successes the university is having. Thank you been leveraged to generate millions in additional for this great honor.” gifts and state matching funds. The hall houses 618 students in a suite-style lay- Carlos Alvarez, a native of Mexico, arrived in the out. Residents have access to a conference room, U.S. in 1986 to become the founder, president and computer lab, study lounges, laundry facilities chief executive officer of the Gambrinus Co. Best and a community kitchen. It is notable for housing known as the owner and brewer of Shiner Beers, the academically focused learning communities, company also owns the BridgePort Brewery in Port- including the Honors College and Top Scholars, land, Ore., and the Trumer Brewery in Berkeley, Calif. 3 IN brief A GIFT FOR A CURE SEMMES BOOST FUNDING TO SUPPORT ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH n a continued quest to help find a cure he is the dean of seven academic depart- Ifor the sixth-leading cause of death in ments with 245 faculty and 5,000 stu- America, the Semmes Foundation has dents. He also collaborates with the best given an additional $500,000 to support scientists in the world,” says foundation the work of renowned Alzheimer’s disease trustee Pat Semmes. “We are so honored expert George Perry, UTSA’s College of to support his 30-year passion for looking Sciences dean. for answers and are proud to be alongside The 2014 gift brings the total endow- Dr. Perry in the discovery of a cure for ment for the Patricia and Tom Semmes Alzheimer’s.” Endowed Chair in Neurobiology to $1.5 An estimated 5 million people age million, creating additional opportunities 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease, for worldwide collaboration and expanded according to the Alzheimer’s Association. research into the debilitating disease. Those numbers could triple by 2050, ac- Perry has held the chair since 2013, cording to a RAND Corp. research report. when the Semmes Foundation leveraged a “I appreciate the support of the matching gift opportunity that created the Semmes Foundation because it allows endowment. us to move forward with our work,” Perry “Not only is Dr. Perry an acknowledged says. “We are very grateful for their belief Patricia and Tom Semmes are longtime supporters of neurosci- creative genius in his research field, but in our efforts.” ence research at UTSA.