University of Houston System
UH System Center Support
New Item
Requested Biennial Funding: $2,600,000
The greater Houston area has been experiencing significant growth in population, jobs and community college enrollments over the past several years, with much of this growth occurring in the northern and western parts of the area.
Through UH System centers such as the UH System at Sugar Land (established in 1995) and the UH System at Cinco Ranch (established in 2001), the UH System universities have demonstrated that they have the flexibility and foresight to serve the needs of growing communities through off-campus operations.
Enrollments continue to grow in Sugar Land, and in fall 2002 a new facility opened, providing space for over 30 classrooms and the more than 20 faculty members who have been permanently assigned to the center. Similar enrollment growth has been experienced at the UH System at Cinco Ranch. Each center offers 32 bachelor's and master's degrees in high demand areas such as business, education, engineering, technology and computer science.
The lessons learned in developing the system centers at Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch will enable the UH System Administration to successfully implement similar initiatives in Northwest Houston and other high growth areas.
Maintaining this level of service and expanding into new areas, however, cannot be accomplished without an investment of significant resources for program development, infrastructure development and operations (e.g., facilities, information technology) and administration. Exceptional item funding would provide the resources needed to develop and operate these new enterprises, which would expand access to higher education in the Houston metropolitan area.
Texas Aerospace Scholars/Technology Outreach Program
|
Existing Item
Requested Biennial Funding: |
$ 1,400,000 (continuing) |
| $ 1,266,000 (new) | |
| $ 2,666,000 (total) |
The Texas Aerospace Scholars (TAS) initiative brings the excitement of space exploration to students across the state, encouraging them to pursue careers and degrees in math, science, and engineering.
Technology Outreach Program (TOP) was created to increase public awareness of NASA technology and make the technology more accessible to the public sector's use.
Exceptional item funding for TAS would be used to expand the Community College program by 100% to include a larger representation of community colleges in Texas; implement an internship program for high school graduates considering careers in science, math, and engineering; and partner with Space Center Houston to implement NASA distance-learning opportunities for rural, minority, and border area K-12 students.
Exceptional item funding for TOP would enable the aggressive expansion of the program throughout the state to benefit Texas small businesses and inventors to ensure Texas' future growth and prosperity and continued world leadership in technology.
