This month, the Texas state government enacted a law that will change the face of higher education in this state. With its population booming, Texas may be on the verge of supplying higher education that meets the demands of most of its citizens. However, many prospective students will still remain underserved in their areas.
The new law offers seven universities across the state a path to attaining the money and resources they need to be top-tier universities. But the geographical locations of these institutions must be noted.
If UT-El Paso and Texas Tech rise to top-tier status, they will greatly serve the western part of the state. Students in the DFW metroplex will enjoy proximity to a tier-one education as well, with UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington and the University of North Texas included in the law. However, the farthest south this education expansion will stretch is UT-San Antonio, a whopping 80 miles away from the state’s flagship campus in Austin.
South Texas is a rapidly growing area, not just in terms of the state but in a national perspective as well. The Rio Grande Valley is currently experiencing steady job growth, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. This steady growth is also noticeable a few hours up the coast in Corpus Christi, and Laredo’s population has doubled in the last 10 years, according to the Census Bureau. Most of the jobs in the region are within governmental and medical fields, areas that are traditionally unaffected by recession and catch the interests of many students.
The growth in the South Texas region translates into a high demand for higher education. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Web site, South Texas student enrollment in public institutions of higher education jumped 38 percent between 2000 and 2007.
This increase was the largest of any region in the state. In fact, the average number of 18 to 35-year-olds from South Texas enrolled in such institutions is 17.4 percent, above the state average of 15.6 percent. The most important trend to consider is that South Texas students are far less likely to attend college outside of their home regions than are students from other parts of the state.
Southern students are showing a profound eagerness to learn, but the tight-knit nature of communities within the area engenders a desire in students to stay close to home.
South Texas is notorious for its citizens’ generally low income levels, but that has not stopped the growth and endeavors of some local universities. Texas A&M-Kingsville founded and maintains a pharmacy school that many walking this campus would be more than happy to attend. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is utilizing its resources to the fullest by cultivating a highly respected marine biology program. As of today, Texas A&M International in Laredo and UT-Pan American in Edinburg both have Ph.D. programs.
The state senators and representatives of South Texas districts have failed their constituents by not taking advantage of a golden opportunity to expand education in South Texas. Apparently, cutting the voyage to a top-tier university by an hour is enough for the prospective college students of South Texas.
If these legislators were true representatives of their communities, they would recognize how much it means for the close families of South Texas to have a top-notch school in their neck of the woods. The entire region has plenty to gain from obtaining a top-tier university somewhere nearby; a win for Brownsville would have been a win for Kingsville would have been a win for Laredo and so on.
This situation also begs the question of what type of leadership runs South Texas universities. Plenty of spokespersons and deans from universities across the state came forward in the past several months advocating the transformation of their respective institutions into top-tier universities. Virtually none of these voices came from south of Interstate 10. The repercussions of a failure to act on this opportunity will be realized in South Texas, and hopefully its leadership, soon enough.
Avelar is a government senior.
