Texas Tech’s enrollment numbers will continue to climb and university officials are working to ensure the rate at which the school grows doesn’t sacrifice quality. The system’s chancellor, Robert Duncan, says the right balance is important.
Just more than 37,000 students enrolled at Texas Tech University last fall. In the fall of 1997, the number of undergraduate and graduate students stood at around 25,022. That’s more than a 32 percent increase in 20 years.
Duncan says university president Lawrence Schovanec’s priority is to not leave quality behind for the sake of more tuition dollars.
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“I think the growth of Texas Tech University, as it relates to general academic here, the flagship, has been very steady and it hasn’t been so fast that we can’t keep up with it, “ Duncan says. “By that I mean the facilities but also through faculty. The climate here has always been faculty mentorship and I think if you talk to graduate students who have been here over the years, they all have a fondness for their experience with faculty.”
The university is working to increase the number of undergraduate Hispanic students. This fall the U.S. Department of Education declared Texas Tech a Hispanic-Serving Institution, or HSI. The education department requires that 25 percent of undergraduate students be Hispanic for a university to gain the designation. That could mean up to $10 million dollars in federal funding in 2019, though other sources could be gained before then.
27.8 percent of undergraduate students are Hispanic. That number is 38.8 percent for this year’s freshman class. Duncan says Schovanec refers to the increased diversity on campus as a “signature educational experience.”
“That shows that we are meeting the needs of Texas and providing a signature educational experience. It’s what we’re about. It’s what we’ve always been about and we’re not losing that,” Duncan says.
A big plus for undergraduate students at Tech is the encouragement and support they get to engage in research. Faculty members mentor them, a happening that Duncan says gives students get a leg up before they decide whether to go on to graduate studies.
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“I applaud Dr. Schovanec. That program alone is going to be a significant game changer in the long run,” Duncan says. “As these students go through, they have mentors with their faculty as well as that word gets out and I think Texas Tech becomes a premiere location for students who want to be in research, academia and who have the ability to be PhD scientists in the future.”
Duncan says natural growth the next couple of years will get Texas Tech to the goal of 40,000 students by 2020 – unless there’s some downturn or change in the economy.
“I think we’re really set to be able to accommodate that well,” Duncan says. “I think we need to think about: if we do this, how do we do it smartly?”
There’s enough staff and faculty in place, and housing can handle the increase. Duncan cited the McDougal apartment housing project on the east side of University, the new Honors College dorm and the West Village for both undergraduate and graduate students.
“You have to have attractive places for people to live if you want to bring them in from Houston, Dallas or wherever,” he says.
Listen next Wednesday for part two of our conversation with the Chancellor.