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A Year of Momentum: UTEP Breaks Fundraising, Research, Graduation Records

Last Updated on September 28, 2022 at 3:30 PM

Originally published September 28, 2022

By MC Staff

UTEP Marketing and Communications

• Record-high fundraising for second consecutive year
• All-time high freshman enrollment
• Record research expenditures and new research grants awarded
• Two major projects to bring UTEP’s Hispanic-serving expertise to national stage

In her annual Fall Convocation address to the faculty and staff today, UTEP President Heather Wilson announced that The University of Texas at El Paso raised $38.9 million during FY2022 to support scholarships and fellowships, facilities and faculty.
In her annual Fall Convocation address to the faculty and staff today, UTEP President Heather Wilson announced that The University of Texas at El Paso raised $38.9 million during FY2022 to support scholarships and fellowships, facilities and faculty. Photo: UTEP Marketing and Communications

EL PASO, Texas (Sept. 28, 2022) – In her annual Fall Convocation address to the faculty and staff today, UTEP President Heather Wilson announced that The University of Texas at El Paso raised $38.9 million during FY2022 to support scholarships and fellowships, facilities and faculty.

“This historic level of support will allow us to improve on the things that make UTEP exceptional,” Wilson said. “This means more scholarships for our students so they can afford college with less debt and become the teachers and nurses that will care for us and our loved ones, or the business leaders who will create jobs and grow our economy. The support we receive from our donors enables this work, and we are grateful for the generosity they’ve shown us.”

This is the second consecutive record-setting year for the University’s fundraising efforts. This year’s total represents a nearly 50% increase from last year’s contribution total of $26.9 million.

“As the nation’s leading Hispanic-serving university, UTEP does transformative work on behalf of students. This fosters a spirit of philanthropy that surrounds the University and attracts this record-breaking level of investment in our students, faculty and staff,” said Jake Logan, vice president for institutional advancement. “Our team and partners from across campus have worked tirelessly to highlight UTEP’s life-changing research and educational opportunities.”

During her speech, Wilson also highlighted several major successes for the University during the past year, including record research activity, the largest freshman class in school history, the largest graduating class in school history, and renewed student engagement.

Research Records

When it comes to research, UTEP advances knowledge and its application, Wilson told her audience, pointing to new peak figures for the second consecutive year. In Fiscal Year 2022, UTEP received 254 new awards that will support $117 million in externally funded research projects.

“This has been a record-breaking year for research at UTEP, and we are implementing changes to continue our forward momentum,” Wilson said.

Largest Freshman Class

More first-time college students started classes this semester than ever before at UTEP. The previous first-time-in-college record was set in Fall 2019, when 3,400 freshmen enrolled.

This semester’s surge came just a few months after the University saw its largest graduating cohort — 3,126 spring and summer 2022 graduation candidates — in its history in May, and more than 5,200 degrees awarded in the 2021-2022 academic year.

“I could not be more excited about the momentum we have here at UTEP,” Wilson said. “We have never been better positioned to transform our community through the empowering education of our students and meaningful research.”

In her address, Wilson also made special mention of the ongoing efforts by UTEP students to get involved on campus and reclaim the connections and activities that were put on hold during the pandemic. These include:

  • 253 student organizations on campus with 6,500 student members in Fall 2022

  • Over 17,000 students participated in at least one activity during over the past year, an 18% increase from the previous year.

America’s Leading Hispanic-Serving University

In her speech, the UTEP President also highlighted two major projects that aim to leverage the University’s expertise to bring efforts to serve Hispanic students to national scale.

With support from the UT System Board of Regents, friends of the University and Dr. Natalicio’s estate, this year UTEP endowed and launched the Diana Natalicio Institute for Hispanic Student Success and hired Dr. Anne-Marie Nunez and Jacob Fraire – national thought leaders in the sphere of Hispanic education – to lead the institute.

Also this year, UTEP led the launch of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, which Dr. Wilson chairs. The 21 member universities are the only institutions that the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has recognized as top research institutions and the Department of Education has also recognized as Hispanic-serving.

“As America’s leading Hispanic-serving university, it is up to UTEP to lead the way,” Wilson said. “We have a responsibility to show the rest of the country how to open the doors of opportunity – the pathway to excellence, to a better life, to a broader impact – to those who historically have been underserved by higher education.”

Other high points for the University over the past year include:

  • The approval by the UT Regents of the Paydirt Promise Plus, a $55 million endowment to increase scholarships for students from modest means. Thirty-six percent of UTEP undergraduate students had their tuition and mandatory fees fully paid for this fall through a variety of grant and scholarship funds.

  • The Department of Commerce announced that a team led by UTEP and the City of El Paso is the only Texas site to earn a Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant. This grant will support and expand manufacturing and aerospace in West Texas.

  • UTEP graduated the largest class of healthcare professionals in its history: 1,110 graduates from the Colleges of Nursing and Health Sciences and School of Pharmacy. Ninety percent of those graduates have first jobs in the region and 60% of the nurses in the region have been educated at UTEP.

  • A new scholarship program funded by contributions from faculty and staff is now available with matching gifts from an anonymous donor. For up to 25 faculty or staff members who agree to donate $10,000 to an unrestricted scholarship, their contribution will be matched by $15,000.


About The University of Texas at El Paso
 

The University of Texas at El Paso is Americas leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 170 bachelors, masters and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.