The sun shines through the atrium roof at the School of Nursing on the day of the high winds. The atrium is now covered by plywood until it is replaced with new skylights.
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Wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles an hour peeled back the roof of the School of Nursing’s atrium on Jan. 31. Thanks to a $200,000 grant from The University of Texas System sought by retiring Dean Robin Froman, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., the atrium will have a new roof in late May or early June to once again showcase the beautiful lobby of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing.

“About 2,160 square feet of the roof was affected,” explained Rudy Gomez, assistant dean for administration in the School of Nursing. “Half of the roof blew off and it folded over onto itself.”

All classes in the Nursing School Building were cancelled that day, but an industrious repair crew from facilities management removed the damaged roof and replaced it with plywood that evening so that classes could resume the next day promptly at 8 a.m.

ENTER grants awarded to help recruit nursing faculty
Dean Froman, who was at a conference in Austin the day the roof was damaged, was having dinner that evening with UT System Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Kenneth I. Shine, M.D. “I told him about the catastrophe and asked whether he thought this was the type of thing that would be eligible for funding through an ENTER grant,” she said. The UT System Office of Health and Academic Affairs established the ENTER (Enrich Nursing Through Exceptional Recruitment) Program to provide equipment and renovations for UT System Schools related to recruiting faculty to the system’s nursing schools.

Darrell Maatsch, assistant vice president for campus operations and facilities, surveys the roof damage that will soon be repaired, thanks to a $200,000 grant from The University of Texas System.

At that time, interviews had been completed to recruit a new dean of nursing because Dean Froman had expressed her intention to retire. Eileen T. Breslin, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, had expressed a commitment to coming to the UT Health Science Center. “Turning over an intact School of Nursing building seemed relevant to honoring that commitment,” Dean Froman said.

Damage affected access to classrooms for new, larger nursing class
“This event could not have happened at a worse time,” the dean wrote in her grant submission. “Aside from being in the process of relocating Dr. Breslin to our school, we have just admitted one of the largest classes of undergraduate students to our program. Our plan for increasing undergraduate enrollments by 20 percent to respond to the nursing shortage was initiated in January with 128 students admitted and beginning study. This increased admission cohort demands that we make constant use of our two large auditoria, both accessed through the lobby where the roof blew off, to accommodate the enlarged class sizes.”

Dean received more than she requested
Dean Froman submitted the grant proposal for $150,000 — the usual cap for ENTER grants — on Feb. 13. Two weeks later she received word that the school would receive not $150,000, but $200,000. The estimated cost for the roof replacement is $225,000 to $250,000.

Grant allows university funds to be used for other purposes
“As a state university, we are self-insured. If we had not received the ENTER award the repair money would have all had to come out of our university funds,” Dean Froman said. “Those dollars can be used for other things on campus, now that we have UT system funds to help with the roof repair.”

Dean Froman is retiring March 31. She has brought $1.2 million in new revenue to the school over the past 12 months. “This last award allows us to maintain our school as one of the most welcoming and attractive on campus,” Dean Froman said. “I am pretty pleased about that as my parting accomplishment. Even though I won’t be here to see the new roof, it makes me happy to know that I am leaving the school in the best possible shape I can.”