 "Photo: Ken Muir")
Texas Tech and six other emerging research universities in Texas are one step closer to achieving the goal of tier-one status after voters approved Proposition 4 on Nov. 3 with 56.6 percent of the vote in favor and 98.5 percent of precincts reported as of press time.
The proposition creates the National Research University Fund, or NRUF, and re-appropriates $500 million from the Higher Education Fund to the NRUF. The universities that will be able to draw from the fund are Tech, the University of Texas-Arlington, UT-Dallas, UT-El Paso, UT-San Antonio, the University of North Texas and the University of Houston.
The fund was made possible by House Bill 51, which passed during the 2009 Texas Legislative Session. The bill created criteria for required universities to draw from the fund and created various incentives to help the universities reach the goals.
Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said the fund will perpetuate similarly to an endowment fund, raising money with the interest earned from the fund. Because of this, the state will not need to raise taxes to keep money in the fund.
“It’s a huge affirmation by Texans of our legislative agenda to create more tier-one universities,” said Branch, one of the co-authors of House Bill 51 and chairman of the House Higher Education Committee.
Sandra Torres, a resident of Lubbock who voted for Proposition 4 on Tuesday, said she thinks the proposition is important for the university in terms of research and attracting better faculty and students.
“More research is better, not less,” Torres said. “So whatever would attract better-quality faculty and would give the university more grant money to do more research and draw more attention to the area, that would be fantastic.”
Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said the university will continue to secure funding and to fill five of the seven requirements to draw from the fund.
“Texas Tech is a tier-one university when it comes to teaching,” he said. “What we’re working on is tier-one as far as research is concerned.”
Hance said the vote is probably the most important statewide election the university has been part of and one of the most important days in the history of Tech.
Kendre Parker, a senior psychology major from Fort Worth, said she voted for the proposition because she wants Tech to become one of the few tier-one schools in Texas.
“I definitely see degrees becoming more promising,” Parker said. “They are definitely going to mean a lot more when you go to apply for a job, and I also think that we are going to make a lot of advances within the university.”
The next step in the process for the universities, Branch said, is to draw from upcoming incentives provided by HB 51, including a $126 million fund to benefit universities that draw more research and a $80 million fund to benefit universities for improving graduation rates.
Within the next year, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will meet to discuss the subjective criteria laid out in the bill, Branch said, and will confer with the legislature to make sure the rules to allow universities to draw from the fund are clear.
If the rules are not consistent and the board finds problems with them, he said, they can make changes to correct misunderstandings and any lack of clarity.
“It’s time for us to step up and meet our competition because we’re not doing well in terms of national research universities,” Branch said.
The process will take time, he said, but he feels the rules will be in place by the time any universities are nearing the benchmarks set by the bill.
Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, said the concept was widely accepted by the legislature from the beginning, and the higher education community was a huge supporter of it.
“We want those (seven) universities to be on an even par with universities around the nation,” he said.
Despite a need to grow from the $500 million in the fund to support all seven universities, Duncan said, the state will find other sources of revenue rather than increase taxes for Texas residents.
Because the fund is an endowment, he said, only the return from the fund will be used, not the principal.
“I’m very satisfied and very pleased for the future of higher education in Texas,” he said.
Each of the 11 constitutional amendments listed were passing Tuesday as of press time.
16 comments
(sorry that its all spaced but otherwise it wouldn't do it.)We are however second, people seem to think because that University is in Houston its a bad university, I have a couple of friends their and have been their myself and it is a really nice place. Wreck 'Em Tech!
They are clearly not the frontrunners because they do still need to gain 100 million in research money as well as a Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. Of all the schools who are competing to become teir 1, only Tech has the majority of the requirements necessary.