AUSTIN -- Texans will vote this fall on a measure that would make nearly a half-billion dollars available to schools such as UTEP that are aiming for national prestige in research.
But lawmakers and higher-education officials said that, even if voters approve the money, it could be several years, even a decade, before the University of Texas at El Paso could take advantage of those dollars.
"It is a more distant opportunity," UTEP President Diana Natalicio said in an interview.
Legislators approved a plan this year to make millions in incentive dollars available to seven public universities, including UTEP, hoping to catapult the schools to the level of national research institutions.
In total, the schools would be able to compete for more than $680 million by making strides in research funding and philanthropic contributions. A small portion of the money is scheduled for distribution as soon as this fall, but the biggest part -- $425 million -- requires voter approval in November and would not be distributed for about five years.
"This is a very important step by the Legislature to transform Texas higher education," Natalicio said.
Almost no one disagrees that Texas needs to invest in more top-notch universities, but some, including Natalicio, worry that the criteria established for schools to receive money would put historically underserved institutions such as UTEP and UT San Antonio at a disadvantage.
Lawmakers and university officials have long complained of the state's dearth of elite universities, so-called tier-one schools. Such schools are generally considered to be those that receive at least $100 million in research grants annually and have selective admissions, low student-faculty ratios and competitive salaries.
Just three Texas institutions are tier-one schools -- UT Austin, Texas A&M University and Rice University. California is home to nine public and private tier-one universities.
After years of political infighting among legislators over which school in which area should become the next top-flight university and receive the accolades and potential economic boon that accompanies the title, lawmakers decided this year to design a competition.
Under the legislation approved and awaiting Gov. Rick Perry's signature, UTEP and six other "emerging research institutions" -- UT Arlington, UT San Antonio, UT Dallas, the University of Houston, Texas Tech University and the University of North Texas -- would be rewarded for steps they make toward reaching tier-one designation.
Some funds, which do not need voter approval and could be available as soon as this fall, would be used as match money. Universities could receive those dollars to match money they get for research grants and donations from private contributors to support research.
Those dollars are the ones Natalicio said she plans to concentrate on leveraging for UTEP. "What we're trying to do is focus heavily on increasing our philanthropic gifts and working on increasing our research volume," she said.
The more research grants and private contributions UTEP lands, the more state money it could rake in and invest in doing even more research and marching along toward tier-one status.
Gathering more research dollars and private money also would put the school closer to accessing the $425 million fund that voters will decide on in November.
If voters approve a change to the Texas Constitution, lawmakers would be able to rededicate an inactive higher education fund and use those dollars to reward universities on their way to the top tier.
But before any of the seven emerging universities could be eligible to dip into that big pot of money, they would have to obtain $45 million annually in two consecutive years for a specific type of federally funded research. They would have to meet four of six additional criteria.
Among the six criteria are endowments of at least $400 million, awarding 200 doctoral degrees per year and having high-quality faculty.
Right now, Natalicio said, UTEP gets only about $26 million a year for the kind of research required to dip into the big incentive fund.
But she said she was confident that with the help of the other matching dollars available right away, UTEP would be able to pull in the remainder of those research funds to qualify for the big money pot.
What she is concerned about is UTEP's ability to grant 200 doctoral degrees a year anytime soon.
"Some institutions, and specifically UTEP and UT San Antonio, only got started recently in offering doctoral degrees in any number," she said.
The slow start was not their choice.
UTEP's gradual rise to a more comprehensive university with a wide variety of master's and doctoral programs came after a lawsuit filed in the late 1980s by LULAC against the state of Texas.
Until the 1990s, UTEP had only one Ph.D. program.
"We were told we would only have one doctoral program forever and ever," Natalicio said. "We didn't accept that, but that's what we were told."
The lawsuit claimed state officials discriminated against Hispanic students by consistently underfunding border institutions. Lawmakers responded in 1989 by creating the South Texas/Border Initiative with $460 million for nine border institutions and by approving upper-level academic programs for those schools.
Now, UTEP has 16 Ph.D. programs, and seven more are in the pipeline, Natalicio said.
Last year, the university awarded 31 Ph.D.s.
By comparison, the University of Houston awarded 208 Ph.D.s last year and Texas Tech awarded 184, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
"The point is," Natalicio said, "if you don't have more doctoral programs, it's pretty hard to conceive of how you're going to graduate 200 Ph.D.s each year."
Luis Figueroa, legislative attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which also participated in the lawsuit that sparked the Border Initiative, said the tier-one funding criteria perpetuate decades-long discrimination against schools that serve minorities.
"We're concerned the criteria are going make it impossible or very difficult for universities that Latinos traditionally access to receive that tier-one funding," he said.
Though it may take UTEP and other universities longer to access that big pot of money that voters could make available, Natalicio said, other schools would also take years to qualify for the funding. The University of Houston, she said, is closest to meeting the research funding requirement, but is still several million dollars short.
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said lawmakers would have time to change the criteria for accessing the dollars when they reconvene in 2011 for the next biennial legislative session.
"If we start right now, UTEP might access tier-one money within a decade," he said.
During the legislative session this year, Shapleigh attempted to change the criteria to consider factors that would be more favorable to UTEP, such as population, and to reduce the number of doctorates that would be required. His suggestions failed, and it's likely he would meet stiff opposition again from state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, a key author of the tier-one funding plan.
Duncan, whose district is home to Texas Tech, said he would oppose lowering the criteria for tier-one money.
Texas schools striving for tier-one status should not compete just with one another, he said, but with schools across the country.
"No matter what criteria you use, there are three institutions that are always going to be in the lead," he said, referring to Texas Tech, the University of Houston and UT Dallas. "It's just the way it is. Historically, right, wrong or indifferent, institutions developed over the years."
That does not mean that schools such as UTEP and UT San Antonio won't eventually be able to reach those goals, too, Duncan said.
"These are things that take a while to develop," he said. "You just can't declare yourself a national research university."
Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.