University of Memphis President Shirley Raines spoke about the Memphis Research Consortium and other projects of The University at an annual meeting with U.S. representatives and senators from the Mid-South in Washington, D.C., yesterday.
MRC, a collection of hospitals and businesses in the Memphis area, was created after Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen challenged Raines to make The U of M a top-metropolitan research university in the next decade.
At the time, he said he hoped the partnership between the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Labs would spur UT to become one of the foremost research institutions in the country. He doubled UT's funding, leaving no financial relief for The University of Memphis.
Raines responded with the MRC, whose goal is to increase collaboration between researchers in the community. She requested $3 million in government funding yesterday to further its cause.
Raines also asked for $2.5 million to allow the Memphis Coalition for Advanced Networking to connect area partners with Internet II, a national network for researchers carried by the science labs in Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee. The funding would be used to set up the infrastructure required to support the high-speed data network.
Under Bredesen's proposed budget, which will take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year, the UT system will receive an additional $36.6 million in state funding on top of the more than $464 billion the school already receives, with another $17 million given specifically to UT Knoxville. This compares to the Tennessee Board of Regents, which will be given a meager $467,000 to split between its six universities, 13 community colleges and 28 technology centers.
In research money alone, UT Knoxville was granted $5.3 million, bringing their total state allotment to just below $11 million. Despite many public requests, The University of Memphis received no specific funding of its own.
Sarah Adair, Raines' government and constituent relations assistant, said safety at The U of M was another high priority.
"We talked about transportation concerns and pedestrian safety issues, particularly with the railroad crossing," she said.
Another campus issue addressed at the meeting involved using the Mid-South's reputation as a transportation hub in future plans for The U of M. Raines said the campus' proximity to FedEx, a key distribution center in the U.S., should be used
"We'd like to get transportation money to help with redesigns," she said.
Adair said the annual trip is a way to express the concerns of The University to Congress.
"We talked about The University as a whole and the financial situation we are in," she said. "Every year we go up to ask them to support projects."
Raines said she is optimistic that the trip to Washington, D.C., will ultimately benefit The University, but that no decisions were made regarding the meeting.
"(Representatives) will bring these things up," she said. "They will help to work on these things for us."
