Prepared Remarks
William A. Staples
President, University of Houston–Clear Lake
Legislative Appropriations Request ( LAR ) Hearing
Before Governor’s Office of the Budget and Legislative Budget Board
University of Houston–Clear Lake Presentation
Hilton University of Houston Hotel
September 18, 2006
The University of Houston–Clear Lake’s legislative appropriations request for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 is based on the performance of the institution during the past two years and the new initiatives to be pursued in the next two years.
For Fall 2005, UH–Clear Lake served 7,853 students with 4,151 at the undergraduate level and 3,702 at the graduate level. During the past two years, UHCL has closely monitored and responded to the issues of not only student recruitment, but retention and graduation as well.
For the Fall 2005 academic year, UHCL had a 90% retention rate for undergraduate students and an 86% rate for graduate students and our four year graduation rate for transfer students was 74.8%.
For fiscal year 2006, UHCL graduated 2,153 students which included a 9.4% increase in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded. The so–called nontraditional students who are older, attending school part–time and working full–time are the traditional students for UHCL. The average age of our students is 30 years old.
During the past two years, UH–Clear Lake has developed new academic programs to meet the needs of area businesses, government agencies, and public school districts. New degree programs include a Master of Science in Biotechnology and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Currently in development is a Master of Science in Engineering Management.
UH–Clear Lake has also increased the number of off–campus courses and programs at a number of locations including the University of Houston System at Sugar Land in Fort Bend County, UH System at Cinco Ranch in Katy, Texas, downtown Houston, Texas Medical Center, area community colleges including Alvin Community College in both Alvin and Pearland and San Jacinto College, the Alief and Clear Creek Independent School Districts and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Three graduate programs in instructional technology, software engineering and business administration are available to our students online. UHCL has built strong relationships with major industries in the Houston/Galveston region with special focus on the aerospace, healthcare, petrochemical, and public school sectors.
UH–Clear Lake has also further strengthened its partnerships with the nine members of the Gulf Coast Community College Consortium. Over 80% of UHCL’s undergraduates have attended a community college prior to enrollment at UHCL. UHCL has articulation and joint admissions agreements with these community colleges for each of the undergraduate degrees offered. UHCL has extended its partnerships with area community colleges to also include local school districts. Currently, four school district–community college–UHCL partnerships are in place to recruit, retain, and graduate students in the field of teacher education. UHCL will place increasing emphasis on the development of K–16 partnerships.
For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the University of Houston–Clear Lake requests an increase in formula funding. The increase in funding for UH–Clear Lake would enable the university to offer more courses to our students both on–campus and off–campus, increase our ability to meet targets for Closing the Gaps, and minimize future tuition and fee increases for our students. In addition, the issues of faculty and staff salaries, utilities, and insurance are on–going concerns.
We request tuition revenue bond debt service for the $10.6 million that was authorized for tuition revenue bonds for renovation and expansion of UHCL’s Arbor Building which is the oldest building on our campus.
We also request increased funding for the Higher Education Fund (HEF) as authorized during the 2005 session. UHCL uses HEF resources to fund the library, computing, and deferred maintenance.
UH–Clear Lake’s exceptional item requests are targeted to meet critical issues facing our city, region, and state. The items requested address needs related to our environment, technology, teacher recruitment, and bilingual education. UHCL has requested exceptional item funding for two existing and two new programs as well as restoration of the 10% reduction which impacts not only our existing special items but institutional enhancement which supports operations.
The Houston Partnership for Environmental Studies, a current special item of the University of Houston–Clear Lake and the University of Houston, funds the Environmental Institute of Houston which focuses on environmental research, environmental education via teacher training, and public outreach. Competitive funding of faculty research by EIH provides an incentive for faculty to apply their expertise to regional problems. Prevention of air and water pollution is currently the highest priority for the Houston region. EIH is a partner in expanding air quality research and transferring that knowledge to educators and the public through a modeling stakeholder group and new K–12 curricula on air pollution. During 2006, EIH staff have provided 44 workshops, reaching over 900 teachers, and over 68,000 students.
A second existing special item, the High Technologies Laboratory, provides seed money for initiatives related to the aerospace industry which is concentrated in the Clear Lake area due to the presence of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and major aerospace contractors including the United Space Alliance, Lockheed–Martin, and The Boeing Company which have responsibility for both the space station and space shuttle programs.
Previous projects between and among UH–Clear Lake, the Johnson Space Center, and the aerospace contractors have led to joint research initiatives in various engineering fields including computer and software engineering related to mission and safety critical systems. A major new development in the Clear Lake area occurred on August 31, 2006 when NASA announced the award of the Crew Exploration Vehicle contract as part of the Constellation Program to Lockheed–Martin. The overall value of this contract is $1.5 to $4.2 billion and will create approximately 1,100 new jobs.
The new exceptional item requests are the Success Through Education Program (STEP) and the Collaborative Bilingual Educator Preparation Program. The Success Through Education Program is a teacher education project comprised of special academic programs and comprehensive support services that guide students through a seamless track from high school to community college to the University of Houston–Clear Lake, culminating in a college degree, teacher certification and employment in local school districts. The pilot STEP program has proven effective, and the requested funding is intended to allow expansion of this program.
As of 2005, 951 students participate in the program, at all three levels, with 124 of these at UHCL. To date, this program has graduated 475 certified students. UHCL has established partnerships with six high schools in four school districts and four community colleges. With increased funding, two new partnerships will be established with at least one high school and community college in two school districts. About 100 high school students and 70 community college students will participate, with some 30 additional students enrolling in teacher certification programs.
The Collaborative Bilingual Educator Preparation Program seeks to address a major problem facing the State of Texas. As the number of English Language Learners (ELL) in the state of Texas continues to grow, so does the need for bilingual teachers, counselors and administrators. The Texas Education Agency continues to list a critical shortage of bilingual teachers and notes that the vast majority of ELL students in pre–kindergarten and kindergarten are taught by teachers who are not certified and about 40% of the ELL students in elementary classrooms are taught by those not certified as bilingual teachers.
Currently the Texas Education Agency lists approximately 15% of Texas public school students as Limited English Proficient. Almost all school districts express a critical unmet need for bilingual teachers and also express a similar need for bilingual counselors and administrators who can work effectively with bilingual children and their families. The proposed exceptional item request is to provide a program that will recruit 24 bilingual students into a preparation program for certification as bilingual teachers, and also provide stipend and scholarship support for six bilingual teachers preparing to be counselors and six bilingual teachers preparing to be principals. UHCL’s School of Education has been awarded $3 million by the U.S. Department of Education from 1999 to 2006 for bilingual teacher, counselor, and administrator training.
The University of Houston–Clear Lake is committed to being a partnership–oriented and community–minded university which offers relevant and responsive academic programs to meet the needs of our city, region, and state. With increased funding, UHCL will not simply maintain, but expand our service to the Houston/Galveston region to address the issues of the access to and affordability of higher education in Texas to improve the college attendance and graduation rates for the citizens of Texas.