Galveston County Daily News, Nov. 2, 2008 In this guest column, Kathleen O'Connor says that UTMB employees are, in a sense, stockholders with a vested interest in maintaining the value of UTMB's reputation and drive to accomplish its education, research and clinical missions. "Trying to disconnect the clinical, educational and research missions of UTMB is like trying to separate conjoined triplets who share a single beating heart," she said. "In the end, if the state government doesn't step in to help UTMB rebuild and restructure, it will lose an incredible investment in an outstanding institute. ... [W]e now plead with those in power to influence the future of UTMB to not destroy our institution through inaction, but to put an investment into rebuilding."