AUSTIN -- UTEP and six other universities would compete for state money to propel them to elite status under a bill that the Texas House and Senate approved Sunday and sent to Gov. Rick Perry's desk.
"This will change our state and make us competitive with states like California and New York," said state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, author of the bill.
The measure would establish criteria for schools to seek millions of dollars legislators plan to make available for seven institutions, including the University of Texas at El Paso, that want to be designated as national research schools.
Ensuring that UTEP would be in the running for that title was El Paso lawmakers' top priority for the 140-day legislative session that ends Monday.
A national research institution, or "tier-one university," generally means a school receives at least $100 million a year in research grants and has selective admissions, low student-faculty ratios and competitive salaries.
Only two public universities in the state, UT Austin and Texas A&M University, are considered tier-one institutions. By comparison, six public institutions in California are in the top tier.
The bill approved Sunday sets up several criteria for universities to obtain incentive funding that would allow them to hire high-level faculty and invest in research that would spur them to the tier-one category.
One of those criteria was that a university would award at least 200 doctor of philosophy degrees, or Ph.D.s, each year.
Initially, state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, voted against the bill, because he said it would put UTEP at a disadvantage and would put Texas Tech University and the University of Houston on the fast track.
"One of those criteria is based on historic discrimination," Shapleigh said.
The University of Houston awarded 208 Ph.D.s last year and Texas Tech awarded 184, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. UTEP awarded just 31.
Until the 1990s, Shapleigh said, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees universities, would not allow UTEP and other Hispanic-serving institutions to create a wide range of doctoral programs.
UTEP started its first Ph.D. program in geological sciences in 1974. The coordinating board did not approve another Ph.D. program at UTEP until 1990.
In the end, though, Shapleigh said he supported the bill because, "a great majority of what's in the bill is good."
The bill passed with a vote of 31-0 in the Senate and passed the House with a vote of 141-4.
The $500 million that schools will initially be competing for won't be available for another five years.
Shapleigh said there would be time to change the bill before real dollars are at stake for UTEP.
"We need it," he said of the bill, "but we need to fix it."
Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.