Liberal Arts Dean’s Message – Winter 2025

Welcome to our newsletter! We hope you had a successful Fall 2024 and a great start to 2025. We are excited to see everyone enjoying the brisk winter weather as we start the spring semester.

In these stories, we are excited to report that the College of Liberal Arts is meeting the needs of our bilingual, binational and multicultural student body through Spanish-language courses, expanding our collaboration with universities in Mexico and enhancing our unique coursework offered in the college.

We have also begun work on the new Borderlands Digital Humanities Center, led by Elisabeth Takehana, Ph.D., associate professor of English. This new research center will be a collaboration with the University Library and allow our faculty and graduate students to further their research.

Another piece of great news is the progress on the construction of the new building for the College of Liberal Arts, Texas Western Hall. In addition to building opportunities that celebrate our distinct bicultural environment, we are building new learning environments. We are excited to share that we recently reached a key milestone in a significant addition to our University’s landscape – the “topping out” of Texas Western Hall.

The topping out tradition celebrates the final phase of a building’s construction, when the last beam in a structure is hoisted to the top. The College of Liberal Arts team was present to celebrate the occasion, along with campus leaders and the construction team.

We eagerly anticipate moving into the 125,000 sq. ft. complex, which will house offices, classrooms, labs, state-of-the-art collaboration spaces and study areas boasting a stunning view of the west side of El Paso’s Franklin Mountains. While this new building will house several Liberal Arts units, all students are welcome to unwind, study and socialize in the common areas and gardens in and around the complex.

Please be sure to check out upcoming exhibits and events organized by College of Liberal Arts faculty and staff, such as exhibits in the Rubin Center for Visual Arts, as well as performances from the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Department of Music, and The Dinner Theatre.

Have a great semester, and Go Miners!

Anadeli Bencomo
Dean, College of Liberal Arts