Staples anticipates a milestone year for UHCL in 2014

UHCL President William Staples held a university-wide meeting Sept. 30 with faculty and staff to discuss updates to the four-year initiative, budget information, tuition and the upcoming 2015 legislative session.

Throughout the meeting, Staples shared the stage with Provost Carl Stockton and Michelle Dotter, vice president of administration and finance.

The main item on the agenda was the university’s transition from an upper-level institution to a four-year institution. Staples opened the meeting with words of appreciation for UHCL faculty and staff helping make the transition a success.

“It is hard to really fathom all the work that went in to get us to this point,” Staples said. “I truly believe we did it the right way. We didn’t hurry. We didn’t try to do it in six months or a year. I think that would have been nearly impossible. It was thought out and it was well done, and you’ll see the results here in just a second.”

Staples pointed out there have been two milestone anniversaries in UHCL’s history, 1971 when legislation was passed to create UHCL and 1974, when the university opened its doors for the first time to more than 1,000 students and 60 faculty members.

“The third-most critical date in the history of this institution other than 1971 and 1974 will be 2014,” Staples said. “So whether it’s 10 years from now or another 40 years from now, people will look back, and I think this will be one of those milestone years.”

Previously, the university had limited interaction with K-12 school districts because freshman and sophomore students needed entry-level courses not offered at UHCL.

“Not having a pathway into this institution from high school was a limiting factor because then our undergraduate enrollment is heavily tied to the success or lack thereof of community college transfers,” Staples said. “This changes that significantly.”

The university also has a new fixed-rate tuition plan available to undergraduate students. Dotter explained that the plan allows students to sign an agreement on year one guaranteeing them the same tuition rate for four years.

“It’s meant to give students some predictability,” Dotter said. “It’s meant to encourage them to graduate in four years, because at the end of that four years they would see maybe a fairly substantial increase in their tuition.”

Staples is hopeful the next state legislative session will include tuition revenue bonds after the Senate and House failed to come to terms last session.

“They couldn’t agree, and it died,” Staples said. “And I think they were somewhat embarrassed that it died, because they were supportive of it. They’re already talking about it now and I honestly don’t believe they’d be talking about it now if they weren’t really thinking about it in terms of the next session which doesn’t start till January.”

With additional resources, the university could start on its new facility plan, which includes a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) building on the Clear Lake campus and a health sciences building on the Pearland campus.

Also at the Pearland campus is the new nursing program with 26 students enrolled.

“We received official approval last October just before this meeting from the coordinating board,” Stockton said. “We have our first class this fall. That’s a program that we’re offering out at Pearland. It is growing very rapidly.”

The university is planning to ask the state for supplemental appropriation, which means to recoup money that has already been spent.

“We’re going to ask for money we had to spend for this year, 2014-15,” Staples said. “The legislature will be looking at the budget basically 2015-16 and 2016-17, the next biennium. But we’re also going to ask for money that we’ve already spent, in addition to the money we’re going to ask going forward.”

With more than 400 incoming freshmen and sophomores, 536 new international students and general growth, 2014 has been a record-breaking year for the university in both enrollment and financial grants.

“We have a record enrollment this year,” Stockton said. “You can see the official 20th day number, after the drops, is 8,677. Last year we were at 8,164. That is significant.”