The University of Texas at San Antonio may seem to be business as usual, but this quiet giant has a thing or two up its sleeve. With 134 undergraduate and graduate programs and over 29,000 students, UTSA is now turning heads and making people take notice as it has become a stand-out university in Texas.
With the prospects of becoming a tier-one university, UTSA has gained momentum on many levels, including research. According to a recent article published through the UTSA website (www.utsa.edu), Robert Gracy, UTSA vice president for research said, “To say we’ve almost doubled our research activities in the past five years is really significant. Today, we are certainly on an upward trajectory to tier one status. We have developed a stronghold of collaborative research partners in the region and our recruitment of top faculty will certainly lead to even larger increases in research expenditures in the coming year as those individuals gain traction at UTSA.” Research activities are key in gaining the tier-one status and the funding that goes with it.
As this University continues to grow, so does its housing. According to the San Antonio Business Journal, American Campus Communities Inc. has begun developing a new apartment complex with 14 building and 792 private bedroom and bathroom “configurations” which will serve the students at the University of Texas at San Antonio. It is scheduled to be completed in time for fall of 2011 and will be located next to the main campus.
With Larry Coker at the helm of its newest venture, the University of Texas at San Antonio now has a football team. Twenty-four high quality athletes recently signed National Letters of Intent to play for the school. The team will begin playing in 2011 as a Football Championship Subdivision Independent and will begin a reclassification period to become a Football Bowl Subdivision Independent in 2013.
What football team is complete without a band? In March of 2010 University of Texas at San Antonio hired a marching band director to lead a 150 member marching band for the 2011 season. Ron Ellis, the new band director, said he planned to expand the band to 350 members eventually.
The high quality research, new buildings, new housing, football team and band added to a myriad of other accomplishments make the University of Texas at San Antonio a true stand-out. Additionally, the June 2010 Edition of Diverse Issues in Higher Education Magazine ranked UTSA fourth in the nation in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to Hispanics.
Ricardo Romo, president of the University of Texas at San Antonio, summed it up best by saying that the University will work on creating a tier-one university for a “tier-one city.”
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