Reflections on the Termination of Two Universities and the Creation of a New University

Authors

Martha May Tevis, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

In 2012 the University of Texas System Regents voted to approve a request to merge two of its campuses, The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) in Edinburg, Texas, and The University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) in Brownsville, Texas, 1 campuses located approximately 65 miles apart in South Texas. In September 2015 a new university will be created as an Emerging Research One university featuring a new medical school. In this paper I relate the history leading up to the consolidation of the two universities and explore the impact of the merger process.

A visit to the web foretells both nationally and internationally many universities have merged or have considered mergers in recent years. Susan Resnick Pierce, President Emerita of the University of Puget Sound, enumerates the most common reasons for mergers: “declining enrollment; untenable tuition discounts; too much debt; the growing skepticism on the part of prospective students, their families and elected officials about whether the value of a college education is worth the cost; staggering amounts of deferred maintenance and decreased state support for public campuses.”2 In the UTPA/UTB merger funding and the opportunity for more programs are the major impetuses.

Comments

Preserved in ScholarWorks. Copyright © 2015 by the Society of Philosophy & History of Education

Recommended Citation

Tevis, M. M. (2015). Reflections on the Termination of Two Universities and the Creation of a New University. Journal of Philosophy & History of Education, 65(1), 109-122.

First Page

109

Last Page

122

Publication Title

Journal of Philosophy & History of Education