Alderson Lecture Features Announcement of New Hall of Honor - April 18, 2007

Student awards, a keynote address on health policy and the announcement of a newly-created Kinesiology and Health Education Hall of Honor highlighted the 26th Annual Alderson Lecture, which was held March 28 on The University of Texas at Austin campus.

Dr. William M. Sage, Vice Provost for Health Affairs and holder of the School of Law’s James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence at The University of Texas at Austin, delivered the keynote address, titled “Health Policy in Our Own Backyard.” Speaking to the standing-room only crowd about the state of health care today, Sage highlighted some of Texas’s most pressing health care concerns, described the wealth of resources at our disposal and proposed solutions that can be implemented in Austin and around the state.

“The talk I’m delivering is an expression of why I wanted to come to Austin and The University of Texas in the first place,” said Sage, “I came here because I work on health policy issues and, if you care about health care, Texas is the place to be.

“We’re facing many challenges right now, and we need to come to an agreement, at the state level, about why we’re spending money on health care. We need to reach a consensus that good health is absolutely necessary in order to assure that we have productive citizens and workers in the future. By and large, money currently is being spent on acute health care and not on public health.”

As Vice Provost for Health Affairs, Sage is tasked with working with other University of Texas campuses and the Austin community to increase the University’s contributions to biomedical research, health professions and health policy. One of the most ambitious projects in which Sage has been involved is the planning and development of the new 15-acre, 780,000-square-foot University of Texas Health Research Campus, located in east Austin on the former site of Robert Mueller Airport.

Before joining The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law in 2006, Sage was a professor of law at Columbia University. Prior to entering teaching, Sage practiced corporate and securities law in Los Angeles, and, in 1993, he headed four working groups of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform.

In addition to Sage’s talk, the evening also included the presentation of graduate, undergraduate and teaching scholarships and fellowships to 40 outstanding Kinesiology and Health Education students. To view a list of scholarship and fellowship winners, please visit the KHE Scholarship Page.

 

Dr. Waneen Spirduso, Oscar and Anne Mauzy Regents Professor for Educational Research and Development, announced and provided colorful commentary on the inaugural group of nine inductees to the new Kinesiology and Health Education Hall of Honor. Inductees – all of whom were University of Texas at Austin faculty - are:

• L. Theodore Bellmont
• Anna Hiss
• Roy J. McLean
• Curtis Jackson “Shorty” Alderson
• David K. Brace
• Mary Evelyn Buice Alderson
• Lynn Wade McCraw
• Jessie Helen Haag
• Karl K. Klein

“In the future,” said Dr. Jan Todd, Roy J. McLean Fellow in Sport History and co-director of the H. J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, “nominations for the Hall of Honor will include kinesiology and health education alumnae, faculty members who have made exceptional contributions to our department, and others who have been a catalyst for positive change in the fields of health education and kinesiology.”

Plaques for each of the Hall of Honor members will be hung in Bellmont Hall, and nominations for future Hall of Honor nominations should be sent to Dr. Spirduso.

The Alderson Lecture is presented each spring in honor of the late Dr. C.J. “Shorty” Alderson and the late Dr. Mary Buice Alderson, who were members of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. Dr. Shorty Alderson joined UT as a student in 1912 and was a coach and teacher on campus from 1924 to 1969. Dr. Mary Alderson joined the UT faculty in 1946 after having been a public school teacher in Hillsboro and a teacher at Hillsboro Junior College and Mississippi State College for Women. She retired in 1973.

“Few people have had such a positive effect on our field,” says Todd. “Their contributions as mentors, teachers, coaches and consultants touched countless lives and spanned a combined 85 years of service.”

The Alderson Lecture is dedicated to undergraduate professional development.

—Kay Randall, Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs, 512-232-3910

Related Links:

• KHE Scholarship Page