How a late-night phone call upended higher education in South Texas

Ten years ago this month, the University of Texas System welcomed a new school into its stable of award-winning public universities scattered across the state. In August 2015, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, or UTRGV for short, accepted its very first class of students.

But the school wasn’t entirely new; instead, UTRGV was the result of a long-anticipated merger between two much older institutions — the University of Texas-Pan American, located in Edinburg in Hidalgo County, and the University of Texas at Brownsville, which was then partnered with another local school called Texas Southmost College, in Cameron County.

A lot has happened in the 10 years since the merger, not least of which was an all-new mascot called the Vaqueros — Spanish for “cowboys” — which the university uses to refer to both its men and women students and athletes. Along the way, the university has grown its enrollment, added new programs, founded a medical school, and grown its endowment to nine figures thanks to a new ability to tap into the Permanent University Fund.

But how did two established universities become one mega-school serving Texas’ southernmost border counties? It all started with a late-night phone call and a question: how could the Valley’s universities tap into the Permanent University Fund? Of the UT System’s 15 universities, UTPA and UTB were the only two that were ineligible for the funding, according to an August 2015 news release from state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg.

“Decades of brainstorming… culminated in October 2012 with a midnight phone call between then-UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa and former UT System Regent Eugene Powell,” Canales’ news release reads.

But merging the two schools wouldn’t be as simple as snapping your fingers. It took three more years for UT System officials to convince the Texas Legislature to approve the merger, for UTB to sever its partnership with Texas Southmost College, and for everyone else to prepare for a revamped, rebranded university that boasts two main campuses in two different counties.

In the 10 years since the merger, UTRGV has seen explosive growth — not only in the number of students who attend and have graduated, but also in the variety of programs of study it offers and the number of communities where it has established new physical footprints.

“What an amazing 10 years it’s been!” Veronica Gonzales, UTRGV’s senior vice president for government and community relations, said during an August 19 meeting of the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court, where officials had gathered to celebrate the milestone anniversary.

Over the last decade, UTRGV has grown its enrollment to more than 34,000 students and graduated 60,000 students at a time when “many colleges around the country are declining in enrollment,” Gonzales said.

Today, UTRGV offers 45 degree programs “at the bachelor, graduate, doctoral and professional level,” UTRGV Director of Governmental Relations Ruben O’Bell told Cameron County Commissioners during a similar celebration on August 5.

But it’s not just undergraduate studies that UTRGV has invested in. In 2015, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine was established. The med school received its accreditation in October 2015 and welcomed “42 medical residents in six hospital-based training programs,” according to a history of the med school published by UTRGV.

“I’m proud to say that we’ve now graduated six classes of the medical school and that in this last class, of the 55 students that came in, 31 are from the Rio Grande Valley,” Gonzales said.

UTRGV also opened the state’s first podiatric school in 2022. A cancer and surgery center is set to celebrate its official grand opening later this year, and an optometry school is slated for 2027.

UTRGV has spent the last decade expanding its footprint in the two cities that house its main campuses. In Edinburg, the university has purchased land to expand student housing and dining. Meanwhile, in Brownsville, UTRGV has plans to convert a defunct elementary school into the School of Art and Design. UTRGV has also expanded its presence in other Valley communities.

“UTRGV stretches over 120 miles and has locations throughout the entire Rio Grande Valley, from South Padre (Island) all the way to Rio Grande City,” O’Bell said.

The university now boasts “off-campus research and teaching sites” in Harlingen, Weslaco, McAllen, Port Isabel, South Padre Island and Rio Grande City. That includes a $21.5 million, 14,500 square foot marine studies facility in Port Isabel called the Marine Ecosystems Research Facility.

On Saturday, August 30, UTRGV will celebrate another milestone event: its first Division I football game. The Vaqueros will face the Sul Ross State University Lobos in their inaugural gridiron match.