The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) President Heather Wilson held a student town hall meeting on Jan. 27, at the Undergraduate Learning Center (UGLC) to engage students and staff on campus updates that are underway or planned for the near future.
The Prospector sat down with President Wilson following the town hall to discuss upcoming campus changes, including construction projects, free speech policies and her vision for the university in the coming years.
“There will be a lot going on, on campus. There will be rearrangements because we have to. Some people may be in temporary spaces, and we want to take a look at the planning of the whole campus while things are being redone,” Wilson said about the reconstruction and restoration of the east and west union.
The discussion followed the opening of the $110 million Texas Western Hall, which replaces the Liberal Arts Building and serves as the new home for the College of Liberal Arts. Demolition of the original building has already begun, with plans to restore the campus arroyo, a natural drainage system that runs through the university. The redesigned arroyo will capture water to support surrounding desert life while also serving as a campus landscape feature.
“We’re close to the final design of housing [which will include] 500 housing units. It’ll be just north of Kidd Field, so really enclose to campus, and it’ll be a traditional dorm with an integrated cafeteria and meal plan on the ground floor,” Wilson said.“We don’t have that on campus now. We have apartment kind of living, but we don’t have a freshman dorm, so that will be the next addition to campus.”
The projects are being funded through a $118 million allocation from the University of Texas Board of Regents.
President Wilson also discussed free speech policies which have been part of national discussions impacting college campuses.
“Most of the changes here haven’t had a huge amount of impact, given what our policies and procedures were before. There was a new piece of legislation from the state legislature, and we were fully compliant with that. For student groups and faculty, there’s not really a change at all,” Wilson said.
UTEP’s free speech policies allow students to express ideas, speak and assemble on campus freely as long as their activities remain lawful and refrain from disrupting regular university operations.
Wilson said outside groups and organizations will experience slight policy changes that encourage them to remain within designated campus areas to avoid interfering with university operations.
“UTEP chose to keep a free speech area,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have to, but Leech Grove is our free speech area so if there’s a group that has no affiliation with UTEP but they want to be on campus, pass out their literature and say what they want to say, as long as they are not disturbing classes or impeding students going where they want to go, they can do that in Leech Grove.”
She also discussed campus safety efforts and communication protocols the university has with other law enforcements entities to ensure a safe campus.
“We have UTEP police here on campus. We also have close connections with all the other law enforcements in the region: Federal, state, local,” Wilson said. “Part of the keys to keeping everyone safe is lots of communication between those entities. We have certain obligations to students living on campus or people working on campus. If there’s some kind of unresolved threat or something, we have an obligation to immediately inform. We follow those rules and the procedures so that to the maximum extent we can keep campus safe.”
Under Wilson’s leadership, the university has continued to reach new benchmarks in enrollment, graduation rates and research.
“We’re at record high enrollment, record high persistence to graduation, record high six-year graduation rates and record high research.
Research has gone up 70% in the last year,” Wilson said. “It’s about how do we just continuously get a little better tomorrow than we are today? How do we accomplish our mission even better next year than we’ve done this year?”
Wilson also highlighted the discussion of upcoming notable guest speakers and the range of campus events and community outreach opportunities hosted throughout the year, including those held at Sun Bowl Stadium and the Don Haskins Center.
“We have 3,500 faculty and staff, 26,000 students and 360 student organizations. A faculty member can invite anyone to their class! Most of the things that we have that people are aware of are concerts at the Sun Bowl, monster trucks and games at the Don Haskins. Theres always something going on at UTEP!” Wilson said.
Student town hall meetings are held regularly across individual colleges and at the university level. Wilson also meets monthly with the Student Government Association (SGA) to discuss agendas and student concerns.
President Wilson encourages students to stay informed through official UTEP social media platforms and university websites for upcoming town halls and campus updates.
Vanessa Orozco is a contributor and may be reached at [email protected]
