Third time’s the charm

Despite UTRGV being placed on accreditation probation and receiving a $24 million reduction in state appropriations, President Guy Bailey is confident the university will continue to grow and succeed.

In its second year, UTRGV also faced major transportation concerns from students, faculty and staff, as well as budget issues with its School of Medicine.

However, things are looking hopeful for the university’s third year as its enrollment and retention rates have increased, Bailey said. The president said he is proud of everything UTRGV accomplished in its second year.

“We had a good year,” he said. “We had very good student retention rates, about 80 percent, and it looks like going into year three, we’ll be above 80 percent. Even better, our second- and third-year retention rates are above 70 percent, and that’s really good. Our students are being successful and that’s the single most important thing.”

Bailey also said the university had a good fundraising year as it racked up about $33 million.

UTRGV was prepared for the reduction in its budget, according to Bailey.

“We kind of saw this coming,” he said. “We put a soft hiring freeze on, and that helped us prepare to deal with this without having to make too many big cuts.”

Most of the budget reductions were in special items, Bailey said.

Last spring, Bailey said in a March 22 Staff Senate meeting that the university can partially offset the reductions in state appropriations by increasing its enrollment.

In Fall 2016, UTRGV’s enrollment reports showed 27,560. This fall, that number has increased to 28,588, preliminary figures show.

“That enrollment growth is partly better retention rates,” Bailey said. “We’re very pleased with that. … That enrollment growth will partially offset state budget cuts as well.”

The president said he believes UTRGV’s Fall 2017 enrollment will remain at a 1,000-student increase.

Transportation

A recurring issue several university leaders mentioned was transportation between campuses.

As previously reported by The Rider, many students have been left behind on both campuses because there are not enough seats on the Vaquero Express Campus Connector.

To address this problem, Parking and Transportation Services Director Rodney Gomez said his department increased the seating capacity by 70 percent after obtaining two large shuttle buses with 56 seats each.

Additionally, UTRGV is expecting to receive five new shuttle buses with a 40-seat capacity in November.

Bailey said he was aware of the situation students, faculty and staff faced and is focused on resolving the issue.

“The ridership on the buses was much higher last year than we anticipated,” Bailey said. “We think we’re now ahead of it, but that is one [issue] that we’ll continuously reassess. Our first concern is student success.”

Student Government Association President Alondra Galvan said the SGA met with university officials last spring to address the transportation issue.

“We were not ready in the fact that we did not have the required amount of seats for the people who used the shuttle,” Galvan said. “I think that was the biggest [issue] we did face.”

Galvan and Bailey are hopeful transportation won’t be as big an issue this semester.

Probation

Bailey also told The Rider university officials are working closely with representatives of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to resolve the school’s probationary status.

In October, a SACSCOC special committee will visit the UTRGV campuses. In the meantime, the university is finalizing some of the communication issues, most of which had to do with the website.

Faculty Senate President Dora Saavedra told The Rider Bailey and UTRGV administration have updated the senate on the school’s probationary status.

“[SACSCOC] accreditation and the [Liaison Committee on Medical Education] accreditation for the medical school are a goal that we need to reach this coming year so that we can be fully up and running,” Saavedra said.

Staff Senate President Lisa Smith said the group invited Deputy Provost Cynthia Brown to speak during a recent meeting about the school’s probationary status.

“[Brown], basically, said that everything is looking great,” Smith said. “They’re working on the final report and that our responses to the findings that were cited were all great. … Everything was pretty much addressed.”

Staff Senate

Smith said a topic the senate wants to address this fall is recognition of staff.

“One of the items that occurred due to the transition was years of service,”she said. “The previous years of service at legacy institutions are going to be included and HR had to approve the years of service from all the legacy institutions. So, it was a complex process for them to figure out.”

The Staff Senate is working with Human Resources to arrange an Employee Years of Service Award ceremony for both staff and faculty.

Smith said she hopes to celebrate employee service with a unified institutionwide ceremony and, eventually, make a consistent plan for an annual service award ceremony. The Staff Senate hopes to have the first award ceremony in October or November.

On Wednesday, the Staff Senate will launch its inaugural strategic plan. The launch will take place during the UTRGV Day celebration scheduled at 10 a.m. in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus and at 2 p.m. in El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus.

“You’re basically going to get an overview booklet and that’s going to have all of the different areas,” Smith said.

Asked if she had a message for the campus community, Smith replied that the core priority of UTRGV is student success, but staff success plays a big role as well.

“I want to encourage [the UTRGV campus community to have] active participation and to reach out to us,” she said. “We’re so large that it’s hard to address those areas we need to address and investigate. So, they can email us to our email address. We also have a feedback submission tab on our website and they can do that anonymously.”

The Staff Senate’s email is staffsenate@utrgv.edu. To submit comments, visit utrgv.edu/staffsenate/feedback.

Faculty Senate

In Faculty Senate news, Saavedra said the senate will talk with new Interim Provost Patricia McHatton to find out how UTRGV is handling the issue of better communication that was presented in its White Paper.

Last fall, The Rider obtained a copy of a 23-page study dated July 10 that identifies “issues/concerns and recommendations regarding processes that impact teaching, research/scholarship and/or service” at UTRGV. The senate submitted the White Paper to Bailey at his request.

The document states that communication with faculty, staff and students is “not ideal.”

Saavedra said Bailey has committed to meet with the Faculty Senate at least twice a semester and McHatton committed to meet with the group on a regular basis.

“We wanted improved communication, more transparency and we want to implement shared governance across the institution,” Saavedra said.

One of her main goals for the fall semester is to push the idea of shared governance.

Saavedra was elected Faculty Senate president for the first time in November 2015 and has had the shared governance initiative in mind since then.

“It’s been a little bit of an uphill struggle, but I think now there are enough people who are on board with that idea, who want to work on it and I think we’ll be able to get that at least started,” the Faculty Senate president said.

She also said the senate will work on administrator evaluations this fall.

“If you have a happy faculty and a happy staff, you’re going to have happy students and more productive people,” Saavedra said. “We just want to make this the best climate that we can make at UTRGV.”

SGA

This fall, the Student Government Association hopes to be more active with the student body to help address issues affecting the university.

Galvan said instead of waiting for students to come to them, the SGA will go out and attempt to find those in need.

“We’re not a club for political science majors,” she said. “SGA is the official representation of the student body. A lot of students tend to say, ‘Oh! It’s like you guys are the lawyers or the U.S. government but on a university scale.’ … We want to ensure that the student voices are being heard.”

Galvan encourages students to come to the SGA with any concerns they may have so the association can speak with the appropriate administrators or departments to resolve the issues effectively and efficiently.

“I’m excited for this year,” she said. “We have a great team, a great group of students. … We have students from different backgrounds, from different experiences and that has allowed us to have a more diverse SGA membership. … We do have a lot of ideas we would like to implement this year. Our main goal is to make our UTRGV experience better for everyone. We want to make positive changes, not only to our current UTRGV students, but for the future generations that do come.”