Regents approve new heart center

By Lisa Koivu

Daily Staff Reporter

Taking a page from its own Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University plans to bring all of its heart-related resources under one roof in a proposed new cardiovascular center.

The University Board of Regents unanimously approved plans to create such a center at its monthly meeting Friday.

"Fighting such a deadly group of interrelated and common diseases requires the mustering of our resources in a cohesive and effective fashion," Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Gil Omenn said in a written statement. Omenn did not elaborate on plans for the center at the meeting.

"This center will help our institution serve the people of this state and this nation better, as we combat both the causes and the effects of cardiovascular disease," Omenn said.

Usage of the University's adult cardiology services has increased nearly 22 percent over the past three years.

The new building, which is still in the planning stages, will house facilities for invasive and noninvasive procedures and outpatient programs that will allow patients to see multiple specialists in one visit.

After not having a meeting last month, the regents had a large agenda to discuss at this month's meeting. They also discussed parking options available for staff and faculty at the University.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Kasdin announced that by 2002, a total of 2,611 new parking spaces will be available.

Kasdin said the University didn't gain any new space for parking, it just made better use of what was available.

"As much as we complain we didn't have spaces, we noticed we weren't making good use of the existing floor plates," Kasdin said.

Kasdin also said they would be doing more to make sure students did not use parking spaces reserved only for staff and faculty.

"We will be having parking monitors to control access to the central campus structures and we will be utilizing Automatic Vehicle Identification technology," Kasdin said.

AVI, Kasdin said, is a little disc that sticks to a car windshield and triggers the gate to the designated parking structure.

Kasdin also stressed the importance of buses to the University community.

"Buses are an important part of the University's parking strategy. We can't continue to afford to take classrooms to make more parking space," Kasdin said.

During the public comments time, many people came to speak against the University's decision in May to privatize jobs within the University Hospitals cafeterias.

After Union representatives finished speaking, Regent Laurence Deitch (D-Bloomfield Hills) said he would like the board to look further into the matter.

"We need to take steps to rectify this situation and prevent it from happening again. We owe them a response," Deitch said.

University President Lee Bollinger said a meeting will be held to discuss a further course of action regarding the outsourcing of jobs.