The Board of Regents Academic and Students Success Committee discussed a proposal Friday to open a UH System facility in collaboration with Lone Star College.
The proposal suggests a northwest campus will make it easier for commuting students to transfer to a four-year institution and to acquire undergraduate and graduate degrees near their homes.
The program, if passed, would be modeled after programs such as UH-Sugarland, UH-Clear Lake and UH-Victoria. Other schools across the state may also plan to extend their systems to the region.
‘If we don’t do it, somebody else will,’ said John Antel, provost and UH System vice chancellor. ‘We want to be sensitive to potential students in suburbs.’
The initiative will serve more than 250,000 students enrolled in regional school districts in the Houston metropolitan area.
The proposal is a cooperative program among the Texas State System, Texas State University, Texas A&M and the UH System.
The degrees offered by each respective institution will be developed and included in the final proposal to the board in April.
If the proposal is accepted, UH and UH-Downtown will offer undergraduate degrees in business, humanities, social sciences, teacher education, criminal justice and technology to students attending the new facility.
Graduate degrees will include educational administration, teaching, human resources development and project management.
‘We don’t want to put a mediocre product out there,’ Antel said. ‘We want quality over quantity.’
The universities plan to reach potential students who find it difficult to commute to UH System campuses.
‘Students there would prefer to go to Sam Houston (State University) in Huntsville than drive down 290 or more to come here,’ Antel said.
The program will serve Houston Community College and Lone Star College students who plan to transfer to a four-year university.
It will offer courses at closer facilities and provide similar programs to those established at UH-Clear Lake, UH-Victoria and UH-Sugarland.
The committee is concerned this program may affect enrollment in programs already established within the UH System, and that if students are offered another facility to attend, enrollment at main campuses will lower.
Antel is confident this initiative will successfully provide students in the northwest region with the opportunity to seek higher education as well as increase enrollment for the UH System.
‘This will take three to four years to get positive results,’ Antel said. ‘This doesn’t affect programs here. We can do both.’
The UH System proposed to lease a facility co-located with Lone Star College in order to maximize the transfer of students into UH System program and to leverage efficiencies offered through shared services, according to a press release.
Antel and TSU President John Rudley will meet later this month to review university proposals. If all issues are resolved, the final proposal will be submitted to the Board of Regents in April and then to the Coordinating Board.
