May 2013 Regents Report

Today@Sam has their report on the quarterly meeting of the Texas State University System Board of Regents:

[T]he regents authorized SHSU to add a College of Health Sciences; rename the Department of Nursing to the School of Nursing; move the School of Nursing in the College of Science to the College of Health Sciences; and move the Department of Health and Kinesiology from the College of Education to the College of Health Sciences.

"Full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 will drive the need for an expanded health professions workforce," Gibson said. "One estimate indicates a need for 400,000 new health professional in Texas during this decade in addition to replacing a rapidly aging health professions workforce that accounts for at least 10 percent of Texas jobs.

"Furthermore, recent data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that adjacent counties east and northeast of Sam Houston State University are considered the least healthiest in Texas," she said.

"SHSU currently offers only a small number of health sciences degree programs, yet there are currently 1,348 students actively enrolled in pre-nursing or other pre-professional programs, most of whom will be denied admission to the Bachelor of Science Nursing program or other programs due to limited capacity," Gibson said.

"New degree programs in the College of Health Sciences will provide expanded access to health sciences education and careers for SHSU students, especially those from adjacent counties east and northeast of Huntsville," she said.

In other business, SHSU was granted permission to add a swimming pool to the University Camp Phase 2 Project.