The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
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Despite everything we faced in 2021, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley continued to focus on creating value in higher education and health care. From establishing one-of-a-kind scholarships to making historic investments in our students, faculty, and staff, the past year left no doubt about how bright The Future of Texas can be.
I invite you to learn about the impacts of this unique year on UTRGV and its community in this 2020 - 2021 Annual Report. Regardless of your connection to the university, I hope you will find that these stories, emerging from a period of isolation, can bring us all a little closer together.
Here's to continued success in 2022 and beyond.
Sincerely,
Guy Bailey, Ph.D.
President
Guy Bailey has been president
of UTRGV since May 2014.
CREATING VALUE
IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE
2020 - 2021 ANNUAL REPORT
Free Tuition:
No One Does
it Better!
Working to help ensure that all students have access to higher education, UTRGV expanded its already unrivaled free-tuition program.
The Tuition Advantage program now covers the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for students with a family income of $125,000 or less and who also have unmet financial need. This new threshold covers 90% of households in South Texas.
Most top scholarship programs cover the cost of an undergraduate education. UTRGV's Luminary Scholars, made possible, in part, by a historic $40 million gift from philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, provides students the opportunity to obtain a bachelor's degree and a subsequent master's or medical degree without paying any tuition or mandatory fees.
Unrivaled Scholarship
Helps Students
Light the Way!
Seal of Excelencia Certification
UTRGV was one of 10 institutions in 2021 to earn Excelencia in Education’s prestigious Seal of Excelencia — a certification that signifies a school’s commitment to accelerating Latino student success.
Investing $14 Million in Employee Salaries
UTRGV increased its base wage by 32% and made market and equity adjustments to faculty and staff salaries, upholding a commitment to being a top employer in the region. Overall, UTRGV has invested $38 million in salary adjustments since 2015.
Making a Big Splash!
New Natatorium a Game changer for the Region
UTRGV, in partnership with the City of Pharr and the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, celebrated the opening of a natatorium designed to benefit the entire community with its state-of-the-art facility. The facility features a 50-meter competition pool, a dive pool with springboards and platforms, and spectator seating. It will also serve as the home of the upcoming UTRGV women’s swimming and diving program.
Community Partnership Leads to New and Unique Collegiate High School
The new UTRGV Harlingen Collegiate High (UTRGV-HCH), a collaborative endeavor between UTRGV, City of Harlingen, and Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District, provides students with a unique opportunity to earn college credit from UTRGV while still in high school.
The program is designed with the academic core curriculum at the center of the experience, allowing students to complete high school graduation requirements, while developing a transcript of university credits that are most applicable and transferrable to the students’ future majors. In addition, students may select a pathway in engineering, computer science, or education, opening doors for major exploration while becoming core complete.
What Others are Saying About UTRGV
By keeping tuition low and offering generous aid to its students, UTRGV has lessons for the rest of the country
“The press tends to focus on the failures of higher education, including especially the low graduation rates, poor outcomes, and massive debts at schools with large numbers of low-income enrollees. Yet hundreds of post-secondary schools—like UTRGV—are doing right by their students, providing a quality education at a reasonable price.”
Washington Monthly
“When it comes to helping low-income students achieve economic success, it turns out that the most successful colleges are not the nation’s elite universities like Stanford, Duke or those in the Ivy League. Instead, they are schools like UTRGV — public, Hispanic-Serving Institutions which provide the most economic mobility for students.” “Those are some of the conclusions of a new report – ‘Out with the Old, In with the New: Rating Higher Ed by Economic Mobility’ from Third Way, a national think tank.”
New Study Shows UTRGV Helps Low-Income Students Get Ahead
Forbes
Cancer and Surgery Center
Essential for Community
Addressing an underserved health care need in the region, UTRGV will build a new Cancer and Surgery Center, with oncology advisory services provided by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — a world leader in cancer care and research. The center will provide much-needed access to specialties and clinical services in medical, radiation and surgical oncology, as well as clinical research across those areas.
Institute to Transform Brain Health in the Region
The UTRGV School of Medicine, together with its clinical arm UT Health RGV, officially opened its Institute of Neuroscience, an all-encompassing research, education, clinical care, and community partnership facility. The institute will place particular emphasis on working with underrepresented minorities and expanding on an already strong research program, with particular focus on brain diseases that affect South Texas.
Nursing Facility Will Help Address Nationwide Shortage
UTRGV has partnered with the City of Pharr to expand the university’s School of Nursing by building a new facility that will provide more students with state-of-the-art training, clinical and research opportunities.
Providing Vaccines and Tests During the Pandemic
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UTRGV School of Medicine and its clinical arm, UT Health RGV, has played an integral role in helping the region stay safe by providing/analyzing over 120,000 tests and 92,000 vaccines, as of February 2022.
Enhancing
Health Care in
the Rio Grande Valley
How UTRGV
Stacks Up
Total number of:
MEDICAL
STUDENTS
222
248
MEDICAL
RESIDENTS
UT Health RGV-operated sites:
COVID-19 vaccines administered:
COVID-19 tests conducted/analyzed:
29
92,065
125,819
All figures as of February 2022
How UTRGV Stacks Up
UTRGV recently signed memorandums of understanding with Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District and McAllen Independent School District to construct similar collegiate high schools with pathways aligned with each of the respective school communities.
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
AND HEALTH CARE
2020 - 2021 ANNUAL REPORT
CREATING VALUE
What Others are Saying About UTRGV