Academic and Research Facilities Student Services		Academic and Research Facilities The University Library, housed in an elegant and comfortable six-story building with seating capacity for 2,300 users, is open on a daily basis, 97 hours a week. It houses over one million books and government publications, as well as over one million microforms. Subscriptions are maintained to 2,600 journals and newspapers. Most materials are available for loan to university students, faculty and staff. Books, journals, and audio-visual materials are listed in the Library's computerized catalog (LUIS). This catalog allows users to conduct searches by author, title, subject and key word. It is accessible from terminals on all floors of the library, campus offices and home. In addition, the Library LAN (Local Area Network) provides access to over 40 databases in all major areas of study at the University. These databases provide bibliographic information as well as selected abstracts and full text research articles and reports. Internet access to catalogs of other academic libraries is also available. The professional staff of the Reference Department provide instruction and assistance in locating and using traditional hardcopy as well as the electronic resources of the Library. Librarians are also available to provide assistance with specialized collections in departments such as Government Documents, which receives half of all materials published by the Federal Government; and Special Collections, which houses rare books as well as the following thematic collections: Art, Printing, Military History, Western Fiction, Chicano Studies, Border Studies and Oral History. The Library's manuscript and archival materials are also located in the Special collections Department. The Access Services Department provides automated check-out services, makes reserve materials available and provides inter-library loan services. The CPM (Current Periodicals and Microforms) Department houses journals and newspapers that are less than two years old, newspapers and microform collections. The Library Technology Center provides IBM and Apple microcomputers for student use. Standard word processing and other software packages are available. In addition, the Center has an extensive collection of educational videotapes for use in the Library. Self-service photocopying equipment is available on all floors of the Library and a full-service Copy Center is located on the first floor. Study rooms and graduate study carrels are conveniently located throughout the library. The Center for Effective Teaching and Learning (CETaL) is a resource for university faculty. CETaL provides the faculty with workshops, the opportunity for faculty mentoring services, and a library of teaching and learning materials. Through these services, faculty can then document their teaching effectiveness. CETaL seeks to cultivate an environment where teaching is highly valued and where teachers strive to continuously improve their effectiveness. It is a scholarly center working to find, document, and report the best teaching practices at UTEP and elsewhere. In addition, CETaL aids faculty in doing scholarly research on teaching, curriculum, and other issues related to delivery of instruction. CETaL is a resource for those who understand that teaching is a complex and interactive process among many parties in a variety of environments, and that it can be taught, improved, and evaluated. Under the auspices of the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, UTEP is embarking on an initiative to deliver instruction via new communication and instructional technologies through the Office of Technology Planning and Distance Learning (TPDL). Located in UTEP's new UGLC, the Office of TPDL has enabled UTEPp to be an active partner in the new UT Telecampus, offering university courses across the U of T System Campuses using a variety of interactive videoconferencing, web-based delivery systems, and the Internet. TPDL's mission is to be the UTEP campus center for the design, delivery, and evaluation of distance education; to collaborate with public and private institutions to meet the expanding needs for higher education and workforce retooling; and to develop graduate and undergraduate instructional programs that integrate a variety of print, fact-to-face, and electronic communication for teaching and learning. TDPL will help faculty, staff, and students design and adopt instructional materials for distance learning; learn to run equipment to distance learning classrooms; and schedule or conduct facilities as well as provide technical assistance during video conferences and during periods of multimedia classroom use. TPDL's office is located at the new Undergraduate Learning Center (UGLC), Suite 316, and can be contacted by phone at (915) 747-8901, by fax at (915) 747-8610, and by email at tpdl@utep.edu. TPDL's web site can be visited at http://www.utep.edu/tdl/. UTEP's specialized research centers provide research opportunities for faculty and students, coordinate academic and research programs, and sponsor seminars and conferences of interest to the university community. In the Materials Center for Synthesis and Processing (MCSP) faculty and students conduct research on the synthesis and processing of materials, including advanced, optical, and semiconducting materials. A major goal of the MCSP is to increase the access of minorities and women to careers in science and engineering by providing outstanding research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. The Materials Research Institute (MRI) administers UTEP's multi-disciplinary Ph.D. program in materials science and engineering. It also sponsors materials-related conferences and seminars and coordinates UTEP's linkages with materials programs in Mexico. Through manufacturing related research, outreach, and education, the Institute for Manufacturing and Materials Management (IM3), brings University-based research and technology to the plant floors of manufacturers in El Paso, Cuidad Juárez, and Las Cruces. IM3's manufacturing outreach programs assist area manufacturers in personnel development, technology utilization, product commercialization, and process and facility modernization. As a partner in the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, IM3 helps manufacturers convert from defense-related to civilian production and utilize technology originally created for the defense industry. By providing information and technical assistance to private and public sector entities, UTEP's Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development, part of a consortium that also includes centers at Texas A&M University International and the University of Texas Pan-American, enhances the competitive position of the Texas-Mexico border region in the emerging global economy while integrating the region into the state's economy. UTEP's Center focuses on demographic and economic analysis, community education, information services, international trade assistance, project coordination, surveys, and data acquisition. It houses BorderBase, an innovative, on-line computer network that is the definitive source for U.S. -Mexico border information. The Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM) coordinates faculty and student research addressing problems of waste, air quality, water resources, energy, and environmental policy affecting the El Paso Southwest. Students receiving support through CERM get first-hand experiences on projects such as management of water resources in the El Paso/Cd. Juárez area, development of alternative energy technologies including wind energy and solar ponds, and investigations of environmental toxicology in desert habitats. CERM also coordinates education and community outreach programs, including UTEP's doctoral program in environmental science and engineering. Established through a five-year, $6.5 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Pan American Center for Earth and Environmental Science (PACES) contributes to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth by maintaining a database of remote sensing, geophysical, geological, and environmental data generated by NASA and other agencies, focused on the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Faculty and students affiliated with PACES are developing a high-level computer language to facilitate the access and integrated analysis of the data and use the Center's databases for pure and applied research in the earth and environmental sciences. PACES represents a collaboration between UTEP and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, along with other universities and agencies. Established in 1992 through a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Border Biomedical Research Center (BBRC) supports biomedical and biostatistical research focusing on the U.S.-Mexico border region. The Center includes a Cell Biology Unit, consisting of three core research facilities (the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Core Facility, the Cell Culture Core Facility, and the Analytical Cytology Core Facility) housed in the Biology Building and the Biostatistics Unit housed near the Department of Mathematical Sciences. A local area network connects all members of both units electronically. The Laboratory for Environmental Biology, a component of UTEP's Centennial Museum, is the major research and teaching support unit for the field-oriented biological sciences at the University. It is a major regional center for collections of plants, modern vertebrates, modern mollusks, and late Cenozoic fossil vertebrates and mollusks of the Southwest and Mexico. The Center for Geotechnical and Highway Materials Research coordinates basic and applied research related to the nation's transportation infrastructure. It is an internationally known center of excellence in nondestructive testing of transportation facilities and is expanding its activities to include transportation planning and infrastructure management. The Center's laboratory facilities are comprehensive and modern. It is equipped with a modern soil and paving materials research test facility for conducting the most advanced dynamic and static laboratory tests, such as cyclic triaxial, resonant column, resilient modulus, and almost all tests for mechanistic design of flexible pavements. A national leader in research and education focusing on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (CIABS) provides support for faculty and student research, sponsors seminar series and publications addressing border issues, and works to forge linkages between UTEP and universities in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. CIABS also coordinates UTEP's undergraduate degree programs in Latin American and border studies, as well as the only U.S. Ph.D. program in Border Studies, which is offered in conjunction with the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1996, the Public Policy Research Center coordinates UTEP's efforts to research, analyze, and/or interpret public policy. Faculty and students from a variety of disciplines analyze issues in three broad areas: (1) general economic policy; (2) international trade policy, with an emphasis on the North American Free Trade Agreement; and (3) investment in both physical and social infrastructure. Recent research has addressed issues related to regional economic development, criminal justice, water policy, and health reform. The Center sponsors community forums on policy issues, and students undertake activities such as conducting exit polls during local, state, and national elections. The FAST Center for the Structural Integrity of Aerospace Systems was established in 1995. Funded primarily by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, FAST is a partnership among UTEP, Texas A&M University, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. FAST's interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students conduct research to test the safety of aging military aircraft, using non-destructive evaluation to detect and characterize flaws before defects reach critical size that could lead to catastrophic failure. The Center also offers a series of technical seminars, bringing experts in the field to campus to interact with UTEP students. The Center for Electronics Manufacturing (CEM) was established in 1995 through a grant from the Department of Defense to conduct cutting-edge research that enables the electronics industry in general and the defense electronics industry in particular to meet today's challenges; to transfer DoD technology to the civilian electronics industry; and to support human resource development in science and engineering. Faculty and students at CEM conduct state-of-the-art research projects in four areas: Quality Assessment and Control, Agile Production Control, Industrial Base Modeling, and Interface and Control. CEM also sponsors curriculum development and leads technology transfer efforts with small business through an Industrial Lecture Series and participation in regional, national, and international conferences.

The University of Texas at El Paso Developed by the UTEP Web Development Team Revised: April 07, 1999