Vanderbilt researchers: Let’s talk about containing school spending
Posted on November 5, 2009 at 10:57 am
Professors James W. Guthrie and Arthur Peng worry that the Recovery Act billions being poured into school systems across the country will lead to persistently rising education outlays “regardless of the diminishing returns in terms of student outcomes.”
Based on historic spending trends and estimating that the federal government’s stimulus contribution will grow to approximately $90 billion, Guthrie and Peng project that national per pupil revenues could increase at a rate of nearly 2.5 percent annually over the next ten years.
Yet, reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been level for four decades. And, for a half century, nearly one-third of the nation’s high-school students have failed to graduate with their class each year, while graduation rates for black and Hispanic students are even lower.
SEE ALSO: The full paper, “The Phony Funding Crisis“
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Vanderbilt opens $169M critical care tower
Posted on at 9:42 am
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is cutting the ribbon on its 11-story critical care tower today. The $169 million building has 141 new acute-care inpatient rooms and 12 surgical rooms will immediately house VUMC’s surgical intensive care, neurological intensive care and medical intensive care units.
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VU brings the value
Posted on November 4, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Vanderbilt checks in at 17th on Kiplinger.com’s latest list of the best values money can buy at private universities. It appears like one quick way the university could move up is to cut prices: Of the schools above it, only Columbia’s total cost (before financial aid) is higher.
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CHS’ Smith: More M&A opportunities coming
Posted on October 2, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The president and CEO of Community Health Systems spoke today to the Vanderbilt University’s Health Care Business Alliance Conference about his company’s strategies and the hospital market as a whole. Since Smith joined the company in 1997, it has posted a compounded annual growth rate of 28 percent and is on track for revenues of $12 billion in 2009. The company employs 85,000 people across the country and about 2,000 in the Nashville area. Here are some excerpts from this talk:
• On the benefit of CHS’ national footprint: “We are spread out, We don’t have any one hospital or any one state where we have a disproportionate share of our revenue or earnings. The importance of that is risk and avoiding risk.”
• On why centralized administration works: Smith said CHS’ centralized services – for everything from facility management to billing, customer service and insurance programs – has helped it improve hospital operations and quickly implement new programs and technology.
It also helps bring acquired hospitals into the fold more quickly. In the past year, CHS has acquired three facilities with a combined 632 beds and $430 million in revenue. Having the systems in place to absorb those facilities has helped CHS hold its own after acquisitions. The company’s share of the markets where it operates stands at about 43 percent – $12 billion of the $28 billion in hospital revenue.
• On the M&A market: Moving forward, there will be a lot of opportunities for hospital acquisitions as many of the smaller, independent hospitals continue to struggle, Smith said. Prices are now at 40 percent to 60 percent of net revenue, as opposed to the 70 percent to 80 percent of net revenue of several years ago. (For more on this topic, check this coming Monday’s City Paper.)
• On the prospect/cloud of health care reform: Regardless of what shape reform takes, Smith said the focus of health care will continue to be on patient care.
“I don’t care what the legislators do, they can’t screw this up that bad.”
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Vanderbilt helps launch online science news channel
Posted on September 25, 2009 at 2:16 am
A group of university administrators has officially launched Futurity, a Web news station dedicated to scientific research news they say is being cast aside by most media organizations.
“Futurity is a direct link to the research pipeline. If you want a glimpse at where research is today and where it’s headed tomorrow, Futurity offers that in a very accessible way,” said Lisa Lapin, assistant vice president for communications at Stanford University, who helped develop the site. “Today’s online environment is perfectly suited for this type of direct communication.”
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VU investments spared worst of market crash
Posted on at 12:49 am
Vanderbilt investment chief Matthew Wright says his team ended its fiscal year down about 16 percent, some 12 points better than the S&P 500 did in the year ended June 30. Early this year, Wright said the torrid market action of last fall had sucked 16 percent out of Vanderbilt’s endowment, which includes other assets.
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VU political science chair dies
Posted on September 15, 2009 at 11:27 am
Neal Tate, a former University of North Texas professor who led the rebuilding this decade of Vanderbilt’s department of political science, has died.
Bruce Oppenheimer, professor of political science and acting department chair, said that Tate was simply a first-rate person and friend who demonstrated great leadership. “Neal contributed a huge investment of his time and effort the past six years to guide our department. For example, the number of political science faculty increased by two-thirds under his watch.”
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Debating the inflation picture
Posted on September 9, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Longtime Vanderbilt investment manager Bill Spitz is featured in this Bloomberg story on how some college endowment chiefs are planning to handle a possible inflation surge. The chief investment officer at George Washington sees prices rising faster now than in the nightmare 1970s.
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VU football one of the best values around
Posted on August 26, 2009 at 11:22 am
So says online ticket marketplace StubHub, which ranks Vanderbilt third in its list of “great teams that also offer great bargains.”
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Up a spot
Posted on August 20, 2009 at 8:18 am
Vanderbilt comes in at No. 17 on U.S. News & World Report’s latest ranking of the nation’s top universities. That’s the school’s highest-ever rating, up one position from last year and tied with Rice and Emory.
SEE ALSO: Belmont’s rising regional rank
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Owen woos the recruiters
Posted on August 19, 2009 at 6:22 amVanderbilt’s MBA program rolls out the red carpet for those in charge of hiring at big companies — while pointing out the green aspect.
“Our goal was to create a website that would answer all of the recruiter’s questions in a well-organized format,” said Joyce Rothenberg, director of Owen’s Career Management Center. “Business recruiters I’ve talked to love that everything they need is just one or two clicks away.”
Creators say the site is also helping Owen to be more environmentally responsible by dramatically cutting the amount of paper the school prints and mails out. And recruiters say it’s much easier to find information online instead of having to store and file printed materials.
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Former Vanderbilt investment pro lands in Indiana
Posted on August 7, 2009 at 7:28 amJohn Liu, who left his post as managing director of equity strategies at Vanderbilt University last winter, has been named director of public equities for the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund. He will be in charge of about $6 bilion.
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Vanderbilt bids adieu to ‘champion of the open forum’
Posted on July 26, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Former Vanderbilt Chancellor Alexander Heard died Friday at his home at the age of 92. His presence on campus spanned more than four decades and was characterized by expansion and a fearless commitment to honest debate.
“The university’s obligation is not to protect students from ideas, but rather to expose them to ideas, and to help make them capable of handling and, hopefully, having ideas.”
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New police chief at Vanderbilt
Posted on June 22, 2009 at 10:41 am
August Washington, who has spent the last four years as chief of police at the University of Tennessee, will take up the same post at Vanderbilt in late July. He will take over from interim boss Cathy Ryan.
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Vanderbilt community clinics to get new CEO
Posted on May 28, 2009 at 9:21 amAfter two decades in Madison, Wis., Barb Snell is returning to Nashville to lead University Community Health Services, the Vanderbilt division catering to the underserved.
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