Breadcrumbs

Page title

South Texas Sojourn

Main page content

This week I made my first of many campus visits, heading down to South Texas to see how progress is going on establishing UT Rio Grande Valley. Georgeann and I had a wonderful time meeting students, faculty, staff and administrators.

It was a whirlwind day – we toured each campus of what will be UTRGV by August of this year, making stops in Harlingen, Brownsville and Edinburg. We were able to witness the amazing technology at the new SMART Hospital on the campus of the UT Regional Academic Health campus. But our favorite part of the day was lunch with students at UT Brownsville and an afternoon meeting with students at UT Pan American.

Meeting these dynamic young people who are so full of optimism and hope for the transformative changes UTRGV promises to bring inspires me and serves as a reminder that all we do should be focused on what is best for the more than 200,000 students served by our UT institutions.

I was awestruck by all that has already been accomplished in a relatively short time to bring this new university to life. The determination of all involved to open the doors just seven months from now to what will likely be the nation’s second largest Hispanic-serving institution is nothing short of extraordinary.  

I plan to visit the Rio Grande Valley again soon to meet publicly with stakeholders who are eager to see UTRGV become a reality.