OU considering medical alert stickers
Regents: Board also approves lease in Italy for study abroad, promotions

The OU Board of Regents on Wednesday authorized the university to enter into a tentative agreement — a memorandum of understanding — with the Tulsa company DocVia LLC, which will provide the medical alert service.

The encoded sticker would provide emergency medical personnel with information such as the person’s medications, allergies, physician, preferred hospital and any pertinent medical conditions. OU President David Boren said the state of Oklahoma already uses the system for its employees.

Anil Gollahalli, OU’s legal counsel, said after the meeting that university officials hope to have the stickers available by the fall semester, and Boren said the system could be expanded, eventually, to include encoded information in the uniforms of student athletes.

Gollahalli said according to the agreements, DocVia will provide stickers free of charge to OU faculty and staff. The university will pay the company $3 for each student who chooses to participate, and employees could pay $3 per sticker for their dependents.

Boren said the project will take two years to complete and cost about $4.7 million. More than $3 million in private funding has already been secured. Because the property is in another country, the OU Foundation will lease the property for at least six years and sublease it to the university.

Between the two semesters and two summer terms, Boren estimated 300 students will stay at the property over the course of a year. He said while about 50 universities have facilities in nearby Florence, OU will be the only American university in Arezzo.

"Some students are hesitant to study abroad by themselves, as are some parents of students,” Boren said. "With this we will have our own people on the ground in our own facilities.

→A California man who never lived in Oklahoma or attended OU has pledged to donate a $5 million challenge grant to establish a $10 million endowment for OU’s cardiac arrhythmia center.

Wilton "Will” Webster is a longtime donor and supporter of the Heart Rhythm Institute and serves on its advisory board. He has also contributed $1.5 million to OU’s scholarship campaign. Boren said the challenge grant announced Wednesday will raise Webster’s lifetime giving to OU to nearly $12 million.

→The board learned Donald and Cathey Humphreys will establish $100,000 in scholarship endowments for students in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education. One fund will provide scholarship support to undergraduates; the other is specifically for education students enrolled in OU Study Abroad.

→The board approved personnel actions that included promoting two associate vice presidents to vice presidents.

Kelvin Droegemeier, a Regents and Presidential professor of meteorology known across the nation in science circles, is now the university’s vice president for research. Lee Williams, the former vice president, remains dean of the graduate college and a Regents professor of geography.

Matt Hamilton, formerly associate vice president for enrollment, student financial services and registrar, became vice president for the same areas.

Leave a Comment

News Photo Galleriesview all

Del City apartments demolished: Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

Photos from the demolition of the Kristie Manor Apartments in Del City, which have been condemned.

10 photos

Sarah Palin book signing in Norman

View photos from Sarah Palin's book signing at Hastings in Norman.

8 photos

Norman Christmas tree lighting: Friday, Dec. 5, 2009

View photos from the Norman Christmas tree lighting Friday, Dec. 5, 2009.

12 photos

OU women vs. UTA: Thursday, December 3, 2009

Women's college basketball game between the University of Texas Arlington and the Oklahoma Sooners at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Thursday, December 3, 2009. Photos by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

10 photos

Page 1 of 5

Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next