Now is the Time for Texas Tech
Texas Tech has an unparalleled opportunity to become the State of Texas’ next national research university. The state Legislature has named Texas Tech and six others as emerging research universities. Some or all of those could achieve national research university or Tier One status. Attaining that goal is in the hands of the university.
Funding Sources
The Legislature established a set of criteria as well as funding sources to aid the seven universities. A short-term funding source called the Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIP) was established by the legislature to provide immediate funding to the emerging research universities. Texas Tech in early September announced it has raised $24.3 million in private gifts that qualify for about $21.5 million in matching TRIP funds over the next two years. These gifts and TRIP funds will go toward endowed chairs, professorships, facilities, equipment, program costs or graduate stipends or fellowships.
A second, long-term funding source would provide an endowment similar to the Permanent University Fund (or PUF) that the University of Texas and Texas A&M enjoy. The new fund is called the National Research University Fund, or NRUF. It will repurpose an existing but unused state fund into an endowment for new Tier One universities once they achieve certain benchmarks. It requires a constitutional amendment that voters must approve in a state-wide election in November 2009.
Tier One Criteria
The benchmarks that universities must meet to achieve national research university status are high but Texas Tech is dedicated to reaching the goal.
The first criterion is high research productivity. A university must have at least two years of annual restricted research expenditures of more than $45 million. Texas Tech has a way to go to meet that mark, but Texas Tech currently has some extraordinary opportunities to bring in new researchers. There are about 100 faculty openings and generous donors have created endowed chairs that will allow Texas Tech to attract nationally prominent researchers in solar power, nuclear power and other areas of sustainable energy. There also is a commitment to bring in high-quality doctoral students to increase our research production. Already in place is funding for 80 new doctoral students to begin in September. That number will double for fall 2010. These fellowships have been awarded in areas such as creative and technical writing, agriculture, engineering and environmental toxicology, where an extraordinary level of academic excellence has been recognized for several years.
There are six additional criteria, of which a university must meet four. Texas Tech already meets one, sheltering a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and belonging to the Association of Research Libraries. The university is close on two others: size of endowment (more than $400 million) and number of Ph.D.s awarded (at least 200 per year). Other criteria include a high-quality faculty, high achievement of the freshman class, and high-quality graduate programs. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will define benchmarks in the future, but Texas Tech will either exceed them or be very close.
Texas Tech is also aggressively recruiting high-quality undergraduate students. Our Honors College, a long history of undergraduate research, and the breadth of our offerings from the arts to the sciences will help us achieve that goal.
Texas Tech is a great university with a long heritage of providing an education of the highest quality for students. We now have an opportunity to become one of the great research universities in United States. There is no better time to be at Texas Tech University.
