Also, in January, as the seventy-seventh legislative session got underway, eight student researchers, accompanied by three of their professors, took their research projects to Austin to participate in “Research Education in Texas Week.” This event at the state capitol is sponsored by the state’s leading public research universities as a way to show legislators how university research benefits Texas and the world. Several UH research projects were highlighted at this symposium. One, entitled “All Children Can Learn: From Classroom to Brain,” a multi-disciplinary effort involving students and faculty from our departments of Psychology, Educational Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction, Engineering, and Computer Science, examined how children, teachers, schools, parents, and communities influence the development of early reading skills and can aid in the prevention of reading problems. Another presentation, entitled “DNA Replication and Biotechnology,” detailed research relating to a cell’s ability to replicate its genome.

As is the case with the Research Experience for Undergraduates program and “Research Education in Texas Week,” the learning environment for many undergraduates at the University of Houston extends beyond the classroom and into the research lab. This
learning environment extends into the local community as well. In the fall of 2001, UH became one of the founding members of the Texas Campus Compact, a coalition of thirty-two Texas colleges and universities committed to nurturing the values and skills of civic participation through student involvement in public service. The Texas Campus Compact, which is just one group of a national consortium of 693 colleges and universities, will provide us with information on service-learning and furnish access to workshops on civic engagement and volunteerism.

It is appropriate for us to be a founding member of such a coalition because UH has always been committed to community service; for example, for more than fifteen years our College of Pharmacy has sponsored the Brown Bag Medication Review, a program designed to educate senior citizens in the local community about their medications. Through programs like this, our students continually learn the value of service in the community. But, on a broader level, as can be seen by these various accomplishments from 2001, learning at the University of Houston is itself a community experience. Unique to UH is how often learning is predicated upon becoming involved with a community, whether it is the Scholars’ Community, the research community, or the local community.

If I were asked to choose one area within the University that symbolizes our commitment to provide the world-class educational resources that this community demands and deserves, it would be the M.D. Anderson Library. A repository of human knowledge, an
educational environment, and a gateway to the international community, this library is the heart and soul of the UH learning experience. This past year, in a campaign co-chaired by Richard J.V. and Belle Griggs Johnson (’51), funds were raised to expand the library from 357,000 to 498,000 sq. ft. The $39+ million expansion and renovation project will not only change the face of the library by adding a new façade and entrance, but it will also change the face of learning at our University in a variety of ways.

The M.D. Anderson Library houses a large portion of our scholarly texts and resources. Each year 50,000 volumes are added to the shelves. The expansion will create storage space for an additional 1.2 million volumes, expanding the overall capacity to 2.8 million in the main library alone. It will also greatly expand the Special Collections and Archives suite. What effects will this have? Simply put, each new text will enhance the possibilities of learning that can take place on our campus. Furthermore, an increase in resources will facilitate additional research and attract more world-class students and faculty to our institution.

But our library is more than a place where books and old documents are found; it is an educational environment where students and faculty socialize, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. The expansion project will increase student study spaces to more than 3,000 and add a food-service area to the lobby. The project will also take on global proportions by increasing the library’s Electronic Publications Center from 150 workstations to more than 500 and by adding a 24-hour cyber-café and study lounge that will meet student demand for around-the-clock access to the library’s electronic resources.

The expansion of the M.D. Anderson Library will also triple the existing space allocated to the Honors College, which has resided in the basement of the library since 1976. At that time, 150 students were enrolled in the program; today, more than 1,200 of the University’s most academically gifted undergraduates are enrolled in the Honors College. The new Honors College suite will be located on the second floor of the addition and will feature a much larger student lounge area and an increased number of classrooms and faculty offices.

This growth is a telling symbol of how UH is expanding the definition of learning as we begin our seventy-sixth year of educating the sons
and daughters of the working men and women of our city, state, and nation.

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