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Testimony Before the House Committee on Higher Education

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Austin, TX

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members.  My name is Bill McRaven and I am chancellor of The University of Texas System.

I am pleased to speak with you today about the UT System’s plans to expand educational offerings and programs.

As my first year in this position came to a close, I addressed the Board of Regents about my vision for the System, which very much is focused on today’s subject.  I described to the board what I called eight “quantum leaps” for the UT system.  I have provided the committee with an outline of these, which include the following expanded educational offerings and programs:

  • The Texas Prospect Initiative—proactive engagement by the UT System with public schools and others in pre-K through 12 to strengthen the pipeline to higher education.  We will do this by working with pre-K through 12 to enhance students’ strong foundation in the basics, particularly reading, and by strengthening our own preparation of teachers and counselors.
  • The American Leadership Program—implementing leadership courses that will be required of all students attending a UT institution, in addition to developing a leadership institute to provide executive level leadership training
  • Leading the Brain Health Revolution—leveraging and connecting the brain health science education and research across our 14 academic and health institutions in areas such as aging, neurological diseases, traumatic brain injuries and concussions, and mental health challenges.
  • The UT Network for National Security—bringing together our more than 40 centers and institutes that today focus on national security, to become THE national authority on scholarly activities in national security
  • UT System Expansion in Houston—developing a new center of intellectual and innovation growth and capacity, a “brain hub”, in the nation’s 4th largest city to aid the energy, finance, health care, technology, gaming, advanced manufacturing, aerospace and other sectors to fuel both academic enterprises and economic development.

This is an ambitious agenda.  As it develops and we begin to assess the resources and policies needed to further it, we may well be asking you and your colleagues in the legislature to invest with us in this vision, not for the UT System but for the State of Texas.

Of this agenda, the item that has attracted the most public attention is the Houston initiative, for which we are purchasing a large tract of undeveloped land, perhaps the single largest remaining tract of undeveloped land, a short distance from the Texas Medical Center and downtown.  In fact, the first of what will be a series of land acquisitions closed last Friday, and now UT owns a little over 100 acres in Houston.   We are committed to developing this property in a way that will benefit the City of Houston, the State of Texas, and all of Texas higher education.

It will truly be a generational effort to develop this intellectual and innovation hub.  Our goal is to build something that will bring the best talent to the city for collaborative research and education in the key fields today in medicine, engineering, energy, and aerospace.  But more significantly, we want to bring the talent that will invent the key fields of tomorrow, enterprises and industries and businesses that today we only imagine. We also want this initiative to look at new ways to deliver educational content that supports our growing population across Texas.  

I believe much of the concern that has been expressed about this initiative is based on false assumptions and uninformed speculation about the UT System’s plans, for example that we intend to develop a new university or branch campus on this acreage.  This is not our vision.  By the end of January, I intend to appoint a Task Force composed of Houstonians who are leaders in the civic, business, academic, and medical realms critical to Houston.  I will ask them to organize sector-based subcommittees and, through extensive study and public outreach and input, help us frame our vision and make recommendations for this initiative. 

My charge to the task force will emphasize that the development of this site and the activities on it should align with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s strategic vision for Texas higher education and its new 60x30TX strategic plan.  To help ensure this, I have asked Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes to name a representative to the executive committee of the Task Force.  In addition, I will ask the Task Force to emphasize the need for the activities on this property to facilitate and encourage collaborations with the broader higher education community in Houston and across Texas, as well as nationally and globally.

We firmly believe that the future uses of this site will benefit all of the excellent existing higher education resources found in Houston.  I have spoken with the higher education leaders in Houston and with its new mayor, your former colleague Sylvester Turner, and with Commissioner Paredes and the chair of the Coordinating Board and assured them that our goal is not to detract from others’ efforts and excellence, but rather to enhance them. Our long experience at the UT System in education, research, and medicine is that talent attracts talent.  The world-class institutions of the Texas Medical Center are clear evidence of this principle. 

We already collaborate with Houston area institutions, both in health-related and academic research and education.  For example, we have a dual degree program with the University of Houston for baccalaureate-level nurses, as well as fast track programs for students moving from UH to our medical school in Houston or to UTMB in Galveston.  We have an MD/MBA program in collaboration with UH Clear Lake.  UT Tyler has partnerships with Houston Community College and San Jacinto College at the Houston Engineering Center, located on the Houston Community College’s Alief Campus.  We can use this new site in a way that will further leverage the strengths of all of higher education in Houston to create more educational and economic opportunity.

This project is the opportunity of a lifetime for higher education, the greater Houston area, and the State of Texas, and we trust that through the Task Force deliberations and our continuing consultations with those in Houston, all will  reach the same conclusion.

At the UT System we look at expansion of higher education opportunities for Texans, regardless of which institutions offer them, as a positive achievement rather than a turf battle.  More higher education, more students obtaining marketable skills and certificates or degrees, is needed for Texas to remain strong economically and societally.

Texas is the only one of the nation’s six most populous states that is seeing growth in its population of those who will soon head off to college.  Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, even Florida and California have seen declines, some dramatic, in their youth ages 15 to 19 since 2010, while Texas, and Harris County, have seen this group grow each year.   All of us need to ensure these young men and women have the educational opportunities they need to succeed.   

When new offerings and programs are proposed or implemented, our first question is whether they will increase opportunity for Texans through more and improved education or research or economic development. This is our first and primary consideration, whether the proposal comes from the UT System, or the Texas A&M System, or the Texas Tech System, or the University of Houston System, or the North Texas or Texas State system, or a free-standing public or private institution.

I know my counterparts generally agree with this proposition.  In fact, those were the words used by my friend John Sharp when he proposed an expansion of engineering programs at Texas A&M—Kingsville.  Chancellor Sharp was quoted as saying, “It’s not about what is best for Texas A&M Kingsville, Texas A&M College Station or any one university. It is about what is best for the children of the Rio Grande Valley.” I agree.

In almost every geographic market we serve through the UT System — whether it is Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Central Texas, or the Rio Grande Valley — there are other institutions, and each of us occasionally propose new or expanded programs.  We may question — or we may be questioned — about whether a proposed educational program is duplicative, because duplicative programs within a close geographic proximity usually do not expand opportunity.  But at the end of the day, if the program expands opportunity for Texans, and a program has the approval of the Coordinating Board and aligns with the Board’s strategic plan, we support it.

Finally, let me say that if there is a single word that UT System presidents, faculty, and staff hear from me more than any other, it is the word “collaborate.”  My entire professional career has focused on getting people and institutions to work together for the public good.  

I will personally ensure that our expansion in Houston offers opportunities for all academic and research institutions to collaborate and improve!

Thank you for allowing me some time today.  I’d be glad to answer any questions.