Texas A&M International University

Mission

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) prepares students for leadership roles in their chosen profession in an increasingly complex, culturally diverse state, national and global society. TAMIU provides students with a learning environment anchored by the highest quality programs built on a solid academic foundation in the arts and sciences. To fulfill its mission, the university offers a range of baccalaureate and master’s programs and the doctor of philosophy degree in international business administration. In addition to offering excellent undergraduate and graduate programs, the university pursues a progressive agenda for global study and understanding across all disciplines.

Through instruction, faculty and student research, and public service, TAMIU embodies a strategic point of delivery for well-defined programs and services that improve the quality of life for citizens of the border region, the State of Texas, and national and international communities.

Priorities and Goals

Academics

Develop, maintain, assess and improve academic programs, administrative/educational support services and student services to admit, retain and graduate qualified students who achieve established learning outcomes designed to prepare them for success in their chosen careers.

  • The university will aggressively recruit students with special attention to residential students who would fill the residential community to at least 50 percent by fall 2005. A revamped first-year student experience will include an expansion of learning communities (begun in fall 2004) and strengthening student support networks including advising, tutoring and mentoring as overseen by the First Year Retention Task Force
  • Continued program development at the baccalaureate and master’s levels, as recently approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), will allow the university to meet the needs of students in its service area. In addition, freestanding programs at the doctoral level will be explored in criminal justice and in curriculum and instruction. The university will pursue collaborations in nursing and allied health with The University of Texas Health Science Center and in joint degrees with the Tecnológico de Monterrey at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
  • Accreditation from national, professional or specialized accrediting organizations will be maintained. The university is currently preparing the response to the Southern Accreditation of Colleges and Schools On-Site Visit to include the Quality Enhancement Plan, which will focus on undergraduate writing and create a campus culture that promotes and values writing.

Research

Strengthen and expand faculty and student research and scholarship

  • The Office of Graduate Studies and Research will be fully operational in fall 2005 and will integrate study and research resources using the recent endowed gift of $10 million. It will support grant writing to increase external research opportunities and pursue collaborative research and scholarly activities for faculty and students.

Service

Maintain, strengthen and expand service to all university stakeholders

  • The university will expand collaborative service efforts with community and service area partners. Funding for a partnership with the City of Laredo to build a regional baseball complex is underway. In addition, discussions are ongoing with the Laredo Children’s Museum to build a teaching exploratorium adjacent to the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center and Planetarium.

Financial Resources

Obtain appropriate resources to assure continued growth and enhancement of all areas of the university

  • The university will continue development efforts to identify, obtain and retain financial support from a variety of sources to supplement State of Texas funding. Alumni will be involved in fund raising efforts beginning with an alumni music festival, called Autmus Fest, in October 2005. Partners for university initiatives, including completion of the theatre in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts and the athletics building in Phase V, will be identified and pursued; additional donors will be solicited to enhance scholarship opportunities and endowments for faculty research and faculty chairs; and stronger collaborations with the Texas A&M Research Foundation and Meyers and Associates in Washington, D.C., will be pursued to increase federal initiatives.

Human Resources

Recruit and retain a well-prepared and motivated faculty and staff for the continued delivery of excellent programs and services to all university stakeholders

  • The university will recruit, hire and retain qualified faculty and staff and provide a work environment that is conducive to teaching and learning; a competitive faculty/staff benefits and compensation package; establish policies that encourage ongoing development for faculty and staff; and recognition for achievements of faculty and staff.

Physical Resources

Provide and maintain physical resources for high-quality programs

  • The university will seek funding for new physical resources; continue to update and expand campus technology; provide a healthy, safe and secure environment for all members of the campus community; and operate, maintain and renovate facilities to serve the needs of the institution’s educational programs, support services, research and mission-related activities.

Commentary on Top Priorities

Academics

Increase Student Enrollment

  • New program development, the university’s major priority for the past decade, has slowed, allowing us to focus on assessment and possible modifications to existing programs to increase enrollment of nontraditional students.
  • The major new academic offering, system engineering in the College of Business, should begin in fall 2006. This is viewed as a natural complement to the university’s first Ph.D. in international business (launched in 2004), which recently selected its second cohort.
  • While historically enrollment continues to grow, (2000: 3,038; 2002: 3,724;  2004: 4,269; see the enrollment module), external factors such as state reductions in Texas Grant and state caps on B-On-Time loans have had a negative impact on our students.
  • The availability of a cheaper educational alternative at our local community college is bolstered by any increases in tuition and fees at TAMIU. (Tuition and fees for 12 SCH in fall 2003 were $1,603; in fall 2004, that figure had risen to $1,758, for an increase of 9.6 percent.)
  • Internally, part of this effort will begin with a reorganization of Student Affairs that moves Enrollment, Admissions, Financial Aid, the Registrar, and Housing from the provost to the new associate vice president for student success. Additionally, TAMIU recruiters will give presentations at every high school in Laredo at least twice weekly. (See the collaboration data module.)
  • Other collaborations, such as our Laredo Educators Coalition (a group of university and college presidents and superintendents of school districts) provide opportunities to identify additional partnership opportunities. (See the collaboration data module.)
  • Other factors incorporated to fuel student enrollment growth include
    • Expansion of two privately funded scholarship funds: Sames Scholars and Sánchez Scholars.
    • An aggressive development program targeting donors interested in supporting scholarships.
    • A planned move of the intercollegiate athletics program from NAIA, Division I, to NCAA, Division II. The growth of our athletics program has had a marked impact on the diversity of the student body, which this move is expected to increase.

Develop a Culture of Residential Campus Life

  • In fall 2004, the university opened the Residential Learning Community (RLC), the first facility ever available in Laredo for traditional, first-time freshmen. Surprisingly, many parents are apparently unwilling to allow their sons or daughters to live on campus, in part because it is cheaper to live at home and in part because families prefer to stay together. Our challenge is to attract students and create a sense of excitement to live in the RLC, while at the same time identifying resources to help offset the cost of residential living.
  • As noted in our National Survey of Student Engagement of both first-year and senior students (see the excellence data module), benchmark scores for student-faculty interaction, a hallmark of the new RLC design and thrust, are 42 percent for first-year students and 40.1 percent for seniors, relative to similar institutions in the same Carnegie classification. Improving this will help elevate the culture of residential campus life.
  • An additional challenge faces any plan to increase residential living: TAMIU’s on-campus housing is divided between American Campus Communities (ACC), and our own A&M System financing. To coordinate both groups  programmatically and fiscally, the university and ACC must work together to create seamless connections and coordination between two student facilities. After much discussion and a number of proposals, we have structured our shared commitment with strategies that can ensure a coordinated campus housing system.

    Those strategies:
    • Housing Affordability – All students living in campus housing in fall 2005 will receive a $1,000 scholarship ($500 each semester), to be applied toward the cost of residential living.
    • Reducing expense to students – Food service prices have been renegotiated and reduced with Aramark Food Services. This area now reports directly to our vice president for administration.
    • Creating campus culture by working with all players – The university, working with American Campus Communities, has produced a series of activities designed to foster a culture of living, studying and working together on campus

Fully Implement the Results of Assessments for Improvement of Academic Programs and Services

  • The on-site team from SACS, in its review of the university for reaccreditation, recommended a more thoroughly integrated system for linking program assessment and review, the strategic plan and the budgetary process.
  • We have developed Project INTEGRATE, a web-based, online reporting mechanism for annual assessments that helps establish clear links between the strategic plan and the budgetary process. The end of FY 2005 sees the end of the present Strategic Plan, and a new Plan framing institutional priorities has been drafted. In FY 2006, we will develop and implement intranet capabilities to manage the flow of information generated by Project INTEGRATE.

Financial Resources

Pursue strategic alliances with private philanthropy, government agencies and the Laredo education community

  • FY 2005 has been an extraordinary year for fund raising at TAMIU. A gift of $10 million has created a permanent endowment supporting graduate education and governed by the new Office of Graduate Studies. As shown in the graduates data module, we have seen a 25.1 percent increase in students seeking graduate degrees from 2000 to 2004, but expect the availability of graduate scholarships to boost student enrollment.
  • A gift of $1 million will allow construction of a magnificent pipe organ in the recital hall of the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
  • Also pledged is $1 million to establish a special high-tech classroom to teach value investing, followed by a trading room hooked directly to the NYSE and the NASDAQ, for the College of Business.
  • Additional new funds for scholarships have been created, and large numbers of pending solicitations appear promising.
  • The Grants Office has quadrupled its federal initiatives, which has prompted the addition of two new positions. Total research expenditures increased 12.2 percent from 2001 to 2003 (See the research data module.)
  • The university is working with faculty to increase sponsored research, and has capped salaries for summer teaching in an effort to encourage faculty to conduct research then. Research expenditures per FTE tenured/tenure-track faculty have increased 19.1 percent over the same period. (See the research data module.)
  • Additional efforts to forge productive strategic alliances include
    • Working with the City of Laredo and private philanthropy to create a baseball complex on the campus to serve the university as well as Little League and softball teams in Laredo and South Texas.
    • Finalizing plans with the Laredo Children’s Museum to seek A&M System Board of Regents approval to construct a teaching museum with emphasis on math and science (an exploratorium) next to the recently completed Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center and Planetarium. The exploratorium is a natural complement to the planetarium, which has welcomed 5,000 schoolchildren since its April dedication.
    • All of these strategic alliances, directed to very diverse communities, can greatly strengthen the university’s outreach to the community and region, fuel recruitment efforts and further facilitate fulfillment of our mission.

Commentary on Other Topics

Affordability

The university aggressively seeks financial support for students as evidenced by the increase of almost 82 percent in scholarships and grants from $8.57 million in FY 2001 to $15.6 million in FY 2004. The focus has been on scholarships and grants with student loans as a last resort. Average borrower indebtedness has risen by $522 since FY 2001. The university will continue to enlist donor support for scholarships.

Graduation and Retention Rates

The university awarded 829 degrees in FY 2004. This represents a 48.6 percent increase over FY 2000 with a six-year baccalaureate graduation rate of 38.7 percent for the 1997 cohort. Retention rates after one year have shown a slight decline. Recognizing that academic support is critical to completion of the baccalaureate, the First Year Retention Task Force, organized in spring 2005, brought together faculty and administrators to discuss data, strategies and program implementation, and will provide recommendations to improve both retention and graduation rates.

Developmental Education

A continuing concern is the increasing developmental education needs of students.

The percentage of freshmen and sophomore students in developmental education was 19 percent for FY 2003 and 2004. Fall 2003 incoming freshmen posted 26 percent  and fall 2004, 37.4 percent. (See the student profile data module.)  The increase for freshmen may be due to elimination of the 87.5 high school GPA exemption in effect for fall 2004. (See the enrollment data module.)

For FY 2004, 57.23 percent of the students enrolled in developmental courses (unduplicated count) met the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) requirements either by passing the test, successfully completing the developmental sequence or complying with the state’s retest requirement. Not included are the 12.26 percent who passed the developmental course but did not retest as required by law, and so are not included in total TSI standard students count. The TSI completion rate per semester instead of per academic year is higher, at 72 percent. (See the enrollment data module.)

The highest rate of failure, both initial and after developmental studies, remains in mathematics. The FY 2004 percentage of student success in each of the disciplines as measured by the TSI are as follows:  53 percent mathematics, 65 percent writing and 70 percent reading.

Developmental students predictably lag behind their nondevelopmental peers in college-level courses, averaging between .5 to .9 GPA points lower, depending on the discipline. The retention rate from fall to fall was 59.02 percent in FY 2003 and 56.35 percent in FY 2004.

The challenge is the first-year is retention of students. (See the retention data module.)  To meet that challenge, in fall 2001, TAMIU developed a First Year Experience Course, GENU 1300, Theories and Applications of Learning, to help those students most at risk of failure.

The data have fluctuated somewhat, but on average, intervention has improved retention by an average of 59 percent (2001-2003) compared to 52 percent (1997-2000, academic years when the course was not in place).

The decision was made to increase the learning community opportunities for freshmen for fall 2005, to introduce paired courses for freshmen, to undertake an intensive data  assessment project that might identify factors in attrition and retention, and to support GENU 1300 as an option for freshmen who are not required to take it.

Diversity

The student body reflects the region it serves, which is predominantly Hispanic. Enrollment for black and Asian students has also increased by 82 percent and 43 percent, respectively. The university will continue its commitment to provide access to quality education for all students.

Academic Excellence

Academic excellence is reflected in the increase in TExES pass rates from 77.5 percent in FY 2000 to 91.5 percent in FY 2003; the over-90 percent pass rate in the nursing licensure exam each year since 2000; the percentage of lower-division semester credit hours taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty, 45.6 percent; and the increase in the total endowment from $4.4 million to $4.8 million.

The faculty will continue to play a key role in student success. Competitive faculty salaries will allow the university to attract and hire top-rate faculty. Salaries for each faculty rank are above the average for peer institutions. Data from the National Study of Student Engagement will be used to assess student perception of writing, which is the focus of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan.

Research

The director of grant resources in the Office of Graduate Studies and Research will work closely with faculty to provide increased opportunities for external research. There has been an 12.2 percent increase in total research expenditures; a 29.3 percent increase in federal research alone; an 11.1 percent increase in the number of tenured/tenure-track faculty with extramural grants; and total federal research expenditures per FTE tenured/tenure-track faculty of 19.1 percent. Research opportunities have steadily increased with the support provided by grant resources, and will continue.

Fund Raising

The university has been fortunate in cultivating partners for support of infrastructure, academic programs and scholarships. The university strategic plan includes an objective to increase alumni financial support, involvement and partnership. To date, the university endowment has grown from $4.4 to $4.8 million.

Fiscal Stability

The university will continue to work with the A&M System and the A&M System legislative team to garner support. The university will identify, obtain and retain financial support from a variety of sources to supplement State of Texas funding.

Operational Efficiencies

The university continues its commitment to working with Historically Underutilized Businesses. The percentage of expenditures has increased to 37.2 percent, for which the university has received statewide recognition. Classroom and laboratory usage has increased and more closely approaches the state goal. The classroom utilization rate has increased from 32.2 percent to 36.9 percent and the laboratory utilization rate has increased from 18 percent to 21.8 percent. Nonfaculty personnel increased from 298 to 318 with a staff-to-faculty ratio of 14.1; the faculty-to-student ratio is 16:1.