Prairie View A&M University

Mission

Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research and service. It is committed to achieving relevance in each component of its mission by addressing issues and proposing solutions through programs and services designed to respond to the needs and aspirations of individuals, families, organizations, agencies, schools, and communities – both rural and urban.

PVAMU is a state-assisted institution by legislative designation, serving a diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population, and a land-grant institution by federal statute. Having been designated by the Texas Constitution as one of the three “institutions of the first class” (1984), the university is committed to preparing undergraduates in a range of careers including but not limited to engineering, computer science, natural sciences, architecture, business, technology, criminal justice, the humanities, education, agricultural sciences, nursing, mathematics, and the social sciences. It is committed to advanced education through the master’s degree in education, engineering, natural sciences, nursing, selected social sciences, agriculture, business, and human sciences. It is committed to expanding its advanced educational offerings to include multiple doctoral programs.

Though the university’s service area has generally extended throughout Texas and the world, the university’s target service area for offering undergraduate and graduate programs of study includes the Texas Gulf Coast Region, the rapidly growing residential and commercial area known as the Northwest Houston Corridor and urban Texas centers likely to benefit from PVAMU’s specialized programs and initiatives in nursing, juvenile justice, architecture, education, and social work. The university’s public service programs, offered primarily through the Cooperative Extension program, targets the state of Texas, both rural and urban. The university’s research foci include extending knowledge in the disciplines offered and incorporating research-based experiences in both undergraduate and graduate academic development.

Priorities and Goals

Programs

  • Strengthen the quality of academic programs
    • Conduct external academic program reviews
    • Achieve specialized accreditation of selected academic programs
    • Achieve licensures in applicable academic program areas
    • Eliminate nonproductive academic programs
    • Increase the prominence of faculty scholarship
    • Increase the number of faculty FTEs producing research/scholarly and creative works
    • Retain regional accreditation
    • Retain accreditation of specialized programs

Students

  • Improve the academic indicators of the student body
    • Conduct annual reviews of admission standards/requirements
    • Increase students’ standardized test scores
    • Collaborate with Texas’ other educational programs to increase the number and success of transfer students
    • Increase the caliber of students admitted and enrolled
    • Increase the number of students who adhere to the university’s conduct standards
  • Promote programs that contribute to student success
    • Engage students in rigorous educational programs and provide an environment conducive to success
    • Increase the percentage of PVAMU graduates who are accepted to graduate and professional schools
    • Increase job placement rates of all PVAMU graduates

Research

  • Increase applied and basic research
    • Enhance the research environment
    • Enhance the expertise of faculty and staff
    • Align university research goals with federal, state and industry needs and goals
    • Enhance pre- and post-award services to the university’s research and sponsored program community

Administration and University Operations

  • Strengthen campus environmental health and safety programs
    • Implement off-site storage of critical data
    • Prepare and train for business continuity
  • Achieve and maintain financial stability
    • Expand financial capacity
    • Address potentially critical funding issues involved with the eventual loss of special Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan funding
    • Meet or exceed the goals of the current capital campaign
    • Take appropriate steps to “right size” the annual operating budget
    • Increase the availability of scholarship funds
    • Increase the size and number of endowments for student scholarships and academic chairs
    • Increase funded research
    • Stay competitive in tuition and fees with other general academic institutions in Texas
  • Increase the efficiency of university operations
    • Design and implement a document imaging program
    • Identify additional outsourcing opportunities
    • Improve the quality of support staff
    • Transfer fiscal processes to online applications
    • Maximize space usage

External Relations

  • Strengthen advancement programs, including fund raising
    • Communicate the accomplishments of the university through publications to constituent groups
    • Enhance corporate relations through Industry Cluster publications that show the strength of corporate partnerships with the university
    • Use technology to communicate the university’s accomplishments to a broader audience
    • Continue to implement the fund raising model and university advancement model developed from the planning study and refined by Ketchum’s progress reviews of Extend the View: The Capital Campaign for PVAMU
  • Increase and enhance the visibility and awareness of the university to the community at large/all stakeholders
    • Effectively communicate to all stakeholders the PVAMU Vision/2020
    • Expand service to the community by promoting service learning, distance education, continuing education, K-16 programs, small business and entrepreneurial initiatives, cooperative extension and health care by engaging people and resources in a renewed commitment to outreach
    • Improve the climate for diversity

Commentary on Top Priorities

  • Continue implementation of the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan, which should extend to 2010 or beyond, as the institution’s core priority
  • Concurrent with the implementation of the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan will be a continued emphasis on the strategic priorities of aggressive recruitment, fund raising, research and quality enhancement programs involving people, infrastructure, programs and finances. Critical to achieving these goals is the increased efficiency of university operations and increased visibility of the university at large to its core stakeholders. The synergy and symbiotic relationship of these thrusts will ensure the continued success of the institution.

Commentary on Other Topics

Enrollment

PVAMU has achieved moderate to accelerated steady growth, with a 6 to 7 percent annual increase at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Consonant with the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan and the state’s “Closing the Gaps” plan, the campus will target community college and commuter students to help generate the enrollment target of 12,500 by 2015.

Affordability

The institution continues to offer a highly affordable education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for both in-state and out-of-state students relative to peer institutions.  The approximately 88 percent of undergraduates on some form of financial aid reflects the economic background of the institution’s core student body.

PVAMU has not priced itself out of the higher education market and will remain sensitive to the income levels of its core constituency as part of its recruitment and pricing strategy.

Graduation and Retention Rates

The campus’ freshman retention rate has increased approximately 5 percent over the past five years. The institution also anticipates that graduation rates will continue to improve with the upward shift in retention rates. The number of total degrees awarded also continues to increase and is expected to accelerate as part of this increased retention rate. More than half of the institution’s graduates are first-generation college students, reflecting PVAMU’s commitment to its core constituency and mission.

Retention and graduation rates will continue to rise and future targets will be met. The institution will continue to be sensitive to the special needs of first-generation college students in retention and graduation.

Success of Developmental Education Students

Retention rates continue to improve in part due to specific highly successful programs targeting developmental education students. With more than half of the institution’s students being first-generation college attendees, the pattern and need for such services is unlikely to decline.

The institution will continue to maintain and enhance successful developmental education programs. Additionally, targeting a commuter population and community college students as potential transfers should reduce pressure somewhat on these programs.

Diversity

At present, approximately 90 percent of PVAMU’s total enrollment is African American. Concurrently, Hispanic enrollment is increasing at a modest pace and Anglo enrollment remains stable. Approximately three-fifths of current faculty are African American.

In conjunction with the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan and the Closing the Gaps campaign, greater emphasis will be placed on increasing the diversity of faculty, staff and students, particularly Hispanics. The university has also hired a director of multicultural affairs to provide additional focus on diversity issues.

Academic Excellence Efforts

The university’smost recognized academic excellence efforts are in the area of developmental education, as indicated by the recent selection for a STAR Award from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Excellence also is found in emerging doctoral programs, particularly juvenile justice, as exemplified by research funding and a strong faculty with a solid record of publication. Excellence is found in programs such as nursing as demonstrated by their high pass rates on professional exams.

Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan benchmarks will continue to be met as indicators of academic excellence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Research

The institution ranks third in the A&M System in research expenditures, which have increased every year since 2001.

Increasingly strong new doctoral programs with a research-oriented faculty are being added and funded through the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan and should result in increased external research funding. Also, expectations concerning research in the areas of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure will continue to be raised, as well as increased research support services to assist in securing resources.

Fund Raising

The institution is in the midst of a $30 million capital campaign as part of the Office for Civil Rights activities. Among other things, the funds will provide matching funds for additional endowed chairs and will fund scholarships.

The university’s fund raising component has been strengthened as part of its long-range strategy to increase the funding stream to further the institution’s goals and priorities.

Fiscal Stability

The institution continues to achieve and maintain fiscal stability by addressing potentially critical funding issues associated with the eventual anticipated loss of special Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan funding.

To meet the goals of achieving and maintaining fiscal stability as noted in the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan, to priorities will be fund raising, enrollment growth, increasing operational  efficiencies and increasing endowments.

Operational Efficiencies

By design, implementation of the Office for Civil Rights Priority Plan will initially require some additional inefficiencies in space and staffing in order to implement new programs and allow them time to self-amortize. The physical plant and programs will be developed initially, followed by enrollment growth and operational efficiency.

Goals will be the continuation of an aggressive enrollment management plan to provide adequate enrollment for new buildings and programs, and to maintain fiscal stability and institutional priorities and goals. A review of staffing and salaries will be undertaken during the upcoming year to further increase efficiencies in personnel and performance. An ongoing review of academic programs will help increase efficiencies in the academic section.