UTPA, McAllen Announce Opening of UTPA McAllen Teaching Site
The University of Texas-Pan American is branching out in more ways than one with the establishment of the UTPA McAllen Teaching Site, a location that will offer greater convenience and accessibility to lifelong learning opportunities for Rio Grande Valley and other Mexican border residents.
Starting fall 2009, UTPA will provide 12 graduate level courses in the Colleges of Education, Business Administration, Arts and Humanities and Science and Engineering at a 10,000 square foot leased facility located at 1800 South Main Street along Eastbound Frontage Expressway 83 in the Main Place Shopping Center adjacent to La Plaza Mall. A Memorandum of Understanding between the City of McAllen and the University to facilitate the site’s establishment was signed at a ceremony June 26 at the McAllen City Hall.
Other services planned to be offered at the McAllen Teaching Site are professional development courses, certification training classes, English language training and other continuing education courses demanded by the community or identified by local government and business partners as important to maintaining a marketable and competitive workforce. UTPA plans for the future also include an expansion of offerings at the site that will further help South Texas College students who want to go on to earn a bachelor’s degree.
“This is another step in UTPA’s ongoing process to establish and enhance a top quality comprehensive educational system serving a diverse population of learners in this region. In the past 10 years this University has been instrumental in changing the face of the Valley as far as educational attainment, economic vitality and an improved quality of life,” said Dr. Paul Sale, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
This is not the University’s first venture into offering classes at a location away from the main campus in Edinburg. In 2003, UTPA opened a facility in Rio Grande City to alleviate the 50-mile commute by a number of Starr, Jim Hogg and Zapata County residents. More than 200 students have since graduated primarily in the University’s education programs from the Starr County Upper-Level Center and most have gone on to teach in Valley schools.
Mayor Richard Cortez of the City of McAllen said the new site will be a win-win proposition for McAllen and the region.
“This will not only affect our students but our economy. Residents who are interested in higher learning will have another choice with the McAllen Teaching Site,” Cortez said. He added, “To have a UTPA site in our city that offers advanced career opportunities for our citizens will bring great value. I can’t express in words the joy it brings, and on behalf of our citizens I wish to thank those responsible.”
Dr. Cynthia Brown, vice provost for Graduate Studies, Academic Centers and Continuing Education, said the establishment of the new site arose from the great demand the University received, from graduate students in particular, for a more convenient location to attend classes after work.
“The calls primarily arose from teachers and school district administrators who said they could not get to Edinburg in time following their workday,” she said.
Four of the courses offered this fall are ones in the master’s degree program in educational administration. Other courses will meet the needs of business professionals interested in UTPA’s MBA program and health care workers seeking foundation courses to pursue master’s programs in the health sciences. At some point, Brown said, the University will also offer its English Language Institute classes popular with Mexican workers who cross the border twice weekly to take the classes on campus.
The facility, with a projected capacity of 200 students on site, will have eight classrooms, one configured as a conference room setting for seminar type classes. All classrooms will be “smart” classrooms, which means they will be equipped with all the technology and interactive capabilities that are available in UTPA‘s campus classrooms, recognized as state-of-the-art in The University of Texas System.
“We are putting in all the infrastructure necessary as far as computing so those classrooms can be interactive simultaneously with campus,” Brown said. “We will be able to beam courses from there into sites in Mexico and other places and vice versa.”
Brown said since graduate course demand will be greatest at night, more professional continuing education courses will be offered during the day at UTPA’s McAllen Teaching Site. One such class is a certified public manager’s certification, a national designation pursued by managers of school districts, cities and counties. Another popular course of this type is the Continuing Legal Education class on ethics for lawyers who need continuing education credits each year to maintain their license. Brown indicated some students who have completed the certified public manager course are now going a step further in their quest for professional development and career enhancement by entering UTPA’s Master of Public Administration program.
“People need to know that the opportunities to obtain top notch advanced education from the upper level graduate institution in this area are ‘closer than you think,’” she said.
For more information on the UTPA McAllen Teaching Site, contact the Office of Graduate Studies at (956) 381-3661.