March 9, 2018 • Local News
El Paso Times: Texas Tech chancellor lauds fast-growing El Paso campus after tour; says popular with legislators
The Texas Legislature should be more generous with higher education funding in the 2019 session than it was in last year's tight-budget fight, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert Duncan said Thursday at Texas Tech's El Paso campus.
"The 2015 Legislature was very generous to higher education, but the last session was a little tighter," Duncan said during a short news conference prior to a meeting of the Texas Tech University board of regents, which last met in El Paso in 2012.
The regents' meetings are mostly held in Lubbock, where the Texas Tech University System administration, and its largest campus, are located.
"The economy looks a lot better right now; I foresee higher education being highly supported in the next session. There's always issues and things that have to be worked through. But I think it's our opportunity to show legislators the benefits that we provide for the citizens of our state," Duncan said.
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso had a 1 percent cut in state funding in last year's legislative session, or a reduction of about $1.2 million for 2017-2018, Texas Tech officials reported last year.
The El Paso Health Sciences Center, which now includes a medical school, nursing school, biomedical sciences graduate school and a future dental school, "has been popular in the legislative process," Duncan, a former legislator, said as he stood on the ground floor of the ultramodern building housing the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
He held the news conference with Rick Francis, an El Paso banker and Texas Tech board of regents chairman, and Dr. Richard Lange, president of the El Paso campus.
The still-growing campus, which became a full-fledged Health Sciences Center five years ago, "is a model for how to start a big concept like this," and how to grow it, Duncan said.
"It's a very successful investment for the Legislature," Duncan said.
Duncan and the 10 regents took about an hour tour of the El Paso campus Thursday morning prior to the start of the regents 1½-day board meeting, during which Lange presented his five-year strategic plan for the El Paso campus.
The plan for 2017-2021 calls for increasing student enrollment, increasing medical research and recruiting more faculty, Lange said at the news conference.
The Central El Paso campus now has 662 students and 250 resident doctors in training, Lange reported to the regents.
The medical school has grown from 40 students when it opened in 2009 to the current 414 students. There also are 200 nursing school students and 48 biomedical sciences graduate students.
A dental school is set to open on the campus in 2020.
An $83 million research lab and classroom building is under construction — the fourth new building to be built in the past several years on the fledgling campus located near Alameda Avenue and South Concepcion Street. It's tied to the adjacent county-operated University Medical Center of El Paso and El Paso Children's Hospital.
The new lab and classroom building will help the El Paso campus double its medical research and substantially expand classroom space as the campus further increases enrollment, Lange said at the news conference.
The El Paso campus, which had "pretty substantial growth" over five years, is important to El Paso and to improving health care for the region, Lange said.
Francis, the Texas Tech board of regents chairman, said Thursday's tour and board meeting were "showcasing this campus and our bicultural community to some of the leaders of our state that comprise the board of regents."
This showed them "what a great, growing, vibrant part of our community this campus has become," Francis said. "A large percentage of local students have been accepted here, and that will help change our health care paradigm" for this medically underserved area, he said.
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