Provost candidate hears concerns - The Rider Newspaper

Dr. Luis Zayas, candidate for provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, speaks about the educational opportunities UTRGV has, including the diversity in language and culture, during a forum held last Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus. Daniela Martinez Salazar/THE RIDER
Dr. Luis Zayas, candidate for provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, shares his experiences as a professor and dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin during an open forum held last Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus. DANIELA MARTINEZ SALAZAR/THE RIDER
Viridiana Zúñiga, a translator-interpreter in the UTRGV Translation and Interpreting Program, speaks about the benefits and advantages the university has as a Bilingual, Bicultural and Biliterate Institute during an open forum for the second candidate for provost and vice president for Academic Affairs last Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus. DANIELA MARTINEZ SALAZAR/THE RIDER
Dr. Luis Zayas, a candidate for UTRGV provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, speaks about the key opportunities that are available at UTRGV and how he would use his background and leadership styles to make the most of them to further the university’s purpose during an open forum Feb. 20 in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus. Zayas is the founding dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at University of Texas at Austin and a professor of social work at the university, where he is also a professor of psychiatry at the Dell Medical School. ISABEL MORALES/THE RIDER
Dr. Luis Zayas, a candidate for UTRGV provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, speaks about how he practiced in the community for a while and then returned to Columbia University to supervise a unit of students in a hospital there. ISABEL MORALES/THE RIDER

During an open forum last Tuesday, the second candidate for provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, said his priorities include reaching Level 1 research funding, but UTRGV professors asked what his strategies would be to establish equal educational opportunity.

Luis Zayas, who also addressed the university community on the Edinburg campus Feb. 20, served as dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin from 2012-2022. Currently, Zayas is a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

He said his priorities are student success, faculty development, reaching Level 1 research and serving faculty members across the programs.

Viridiana Zúñiga, a translator-interpreter for the Translation and Interpreting Office, said although UTRGV receives grants for and is supposed to be bilingual, bicultural and biliterate, the university has yet to take advantage of the resources given.

“We have the designation, but we are not taking advantage of it,” Zúñiga said. “Because of the region, we can influence families from the [Rio Grande] Valley but also from Northern Mexico. If we put this into action … this will translate into a bigger student body.”

She then asked Zayas about plans to take advantage of the B-3 title.
“There are steps to building those, and not just building hopscotch programs,” he replied. “How to get to a B-3 and where a solid B-3 builds on to the next level. I don’t think we can hopscotch and leave behind what’s important.”

Zayas said the Interpreting and Translation Online Master’s program being No. 1 in the nation is “one of the many characteristics that makes UTRGV the great university we want it to be and continue to strive for.”

Physics and astronomy Professor Juan Madrid said UTRGV is trying to incorporate Spanish, English and bilingual classes, but the biggest challenge the university will face is to become similar to UT Austin.

“We are some 20 years behind, from what I saw in Austin, from the administrative point of view, from the research point of view,” Madrid said.

Resources, funding and the number of students are the main differences between the campuses, according to Zayas.

“If we aspire to do more, we are going to need more Ph.D. programs, and to do that we are going to need more equipment, hire more professors, get a class for them, make sure we can fund their labs,” he said. “How exactly do we persuade, I’m not sure, except that I’ve worked with three different presidents at UT Austin and watched how they’ve done it.”

Mercedes Torres, program manager at the B3 Institute, said that before legacy institutions University of Texas at Brownsville and University of Texas-Pan American merged, the marine biology program was wholly based in Brownsville, but since the merger, it is only offered in Edinburg.

“We are here to help out students, to push them to fly, that’s the concern as staff, as a faculty [member] and a student,” Torres said about the availability of programs between the campuses.

Zayas said he believes there is a solution.

“I know that I’ve never run into anything in academia that doesn’t have a solution,”
he said.

Psychological science Professor Mario Gil said the department has struggled to recruit clinical psychologists and clinical researchers in order to compete with other programs and receive American Psychological Association accreditation.

“To have a neuropsychologist who is bilingual, who has a good track record and so on … it has turned out that we struggle to compete with other programs,” Gil said.

Zayas said he has learned to not wait for the candidates to apply, but look for them.

Balaji Rajagopalan, the third candidate for provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, will address the university community from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. today in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus and at the same time Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus.

Rajagopalan serves as dean and professor in the College of Business at Northern Illinois University. He is the vice president of the Northern Illinois Research Foundation.

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