At the end of each session of the Texas Legislature, we assess the impact of new legislation on UTEP, the students we serve, and the region whose human and economic development we seek to foster.
I am very pleased to report that this legislative session may well be remembered as representing a critical turning point in transforming higher education in Texas and at UTEP in particular.
The most exciting specific development was the passage of legislation designed to elevate UTEP and six other institutions to national research (Tier One) university status.
UTEP's significant progress in research and doctoral education during the past 20 years had already earned us designation by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as an "Emerging Tier One University."
The 81st Legislature moved us a step closer to this Tier One goal by creating a framework of state-funded incentives to reward UTEP and the other six institutions for the progress we make in continuing to move toward it.
We thank the members of the El Paso delegation for their support of this important legislation, and especially acknowledge the leadership of Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo and Rep. Dan Branch of Dallas, who chaired the Senate and House committees on higher education.
Specifically, the bill will award state matching funds to UTEP and other Emerging Tier One universities for success in securing competitive research grants and philanthropic gifts that support research and doctoral program growth and productivity on our campuses.
Gifts to UTEP of $100,000 or more from generous donors who designate them for support of research and doctoral education will be matched from a pool of $50 million in state funding appropriated for this purpose. With such support, UTEP will be able to recruit and retain additional highly competitive faculty and doctoral students who will generate more research proposals and funding, and accelerate our momentum toward becoming a national research or Tier One university.
There were other important actions taken by the 81st Texas Legislature, such as a $186 million increase in support of talented, low-income students through the TEXAS Grants program, but there is no doubt that passage of Tier One legislation will have the greatest long-term impact on Texas higher education generally -- and on UTEP's place in it.
Through this legislative action, the commitment to transforming Texas higher education has truly begun.
This bold commitment to higher education by the Texas Legislature comes at a time when many other state legislatures, from Arizona to California to Florida, have responded to the severe economic downturns they face by dramatically reducing investments in their public universities.
By contrast, Texas is building on its ambitious "Closing the Gaps" student participation and success goals by turning its attention to increasing the number of universities across the state whose heightened level of research and graduate education will assure Texas' competitiveness and quality of life in the global economy of the 21st Century.
And with continued hard work and support of our alumni and friends, UTEP will be one of those universities!
Diana Natalicio is president of the University of Texas at El Paso.