The last time the UT System Board of Regents met to discuss Los Alamos, they took the advice of System Chancellor Mark Yudof and voted not to pursue a bid on the national laboratory, which designs and maintains nuclear weapons.
Yudof said he and other UT officials "were unable to bring together a joint partnership we thought necessary to manage" the laboratory.
Today, nearly three months after that February meeting, the board will re-open discussion and public testimony on a possible bid by the UT System to enter a partnership for the management and operations contract of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The reconsideration of the board came a week after Lockheed Martin Corp., a company that has had ties to the UT system for "quite a few years" according to System spokesman Michael Warden, announced its plans to pursue a bid for Los Alamos.
After the announcement, Warden said board members asked Yudof if the announcement changed anything for the System's decision not to bid and if there were any changes in the competition.
Board Chairman James Huffines said in early April that Lockheed Martin's "excellent reputation," does change the dynamics in competing for Los Alamos.
The UT System issued a statement several days after the announcement and said, "Lockheed Martin's record as manager of Sandia National Laboratories is outstanding and has appropriately received widespread praise."
UT System spokesman Anthony de Bruyn would not comment on whether or not Lockheed Martin has invited the UT System to enter a partnership bid on Los Alamos.
However, Warden said there are advantages for the System because of its past partnerships with Lockheed Martin.
The relationship between the UT System and Lockheed Martin was further established April 6 when the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Washington, D.C., with Sandia Corp., operator of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.
Under the memorandum with Sandia, which designs non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons, nuclear or classified research will not be conducted by UT faculty members at Sandia, and on-site courses will be offered to Sandia scientists.
De Bruyn would not comment on what role the UT System would play in the possible Los Alamos bid.
Since the System formally announced in February 2004 its interest in pursuing a bid in Los Alamos, some have criticized the partnership because of previous security concerns at the lab, including data that went missing last summer while it was managed by the University of California.
Austin Van Zant, a former UT Watch member and policy analyst for the Legislative Study Group, said he plans to testify as a UT alumnus against the partnership, because he doesn't see the benefits of the partnership.
"I really question why the University is interested," Van Zant said. "I think it's probably just attaching their name to [Los Alamos], but I really question that considering the lab just opened and has been plagued by scandals over the last three years."
He said "associating the University with a lab like Los Alamos will associate the University with nuclear weapons and the destruction they have caused."
UT Student Government President Omar Ochoa said SG has not taken a position on the Los Alamos bid, and he is planning a public forum scheduled for May 4 at 5:30 p.m., where Yudof, Huffines and UT President Larry Faulkner will be present.
The location of the forum has not yet been decided.
Today's board meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the ninth floor of the Ashbel Smith Hall, 201 W. Seventh Street. No action will be taken during the meeting.
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