 "Photo: Kelly Matherly")
Texas Tech administrators visited with a State of Texas employee Thursday about improving higher education.
Ray Paredes, Texas state commissioner for higher education, said he was on campus visiting with various Tech administrators about academic issues.
One item Paredes said he discussed with administrators is the program "Closing the Gaps by 2015" developed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
According to the "Closing the Gaps by 2015" progress report, the goals of the program are to increase enrollment across the state, improve graduation rates, "increase the number of nationally recognized programs," and "increase the level of federal science and engineering research and development obligations to Texas institutions."
Paredes said the goal is to increase enrollment in higher education schools by 630,000 by 2015.
"That simply gets us to parity with other states in terms of college enrollment," he said. "That's how far Texas is behind in the percentage of young people who go to college."
He said he is in support of Chancellor Kent Hance's goal to increase Tech's enrollment to 40,000 by 2020, but hopes that does not degrade the value of education.
"The size of the institution is less important than the quality of education," Paredes said. "I think obviously we will have to have a number of institutions grow in order to reach the goals of 'Closing the Gaps,' so Texas Tech's willingness to increase enrollment will help us reach our goals."
He said what excites him more than Tech enrollment rates growing are the growth rates of graduates.
"We want to improve success rates," he said. "We want a higher percentage of students to actually finish their programs - we want to decrease the dropout rate."
About 55 percent of Texas college students graduate, Paredes said, which is near the national average. He said he would like to see that number increase to about 66 percent. Lora Weber, director of the Office of Strategic Alliances for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, said "Closing the Gaps by 2015" was adopted in 2000.
"We're about halfway, so it seemed like a good time to go around and visit with people about where we are," she said. "We're doing well on a lot of fronts. "It's encouraging, but there are things that we would like to do better."
According to the progress report, "of 19 measurable targets, 12 are currently above benchmarks." Some targets below benchmarks include Latino enrollment, national rankings and federal support for science and engineering research and development.
Paredes said the promotion of Proposition 2 also was on his agenda.
According to the Proposition 2 fact sheet, the proposition is "a constitutional amendment allowing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to issue bonds for providing low-interest, low-fee student loans."
Paredes said if the proposition passed, the state loans offered would have a lower interest rate than most federal and commercial loans.
"We were concerned about the availability of financial aid for students in Texas," he said. "We want this bond measure to pass because a lot of students who take out loans have to worry about interest rates. Our loans are offered at a much lower rate because we do not have any profit money."
According to the fact sheet, "the bonds used to finance low-interest student loans will be repaid by the students who borrow the money" and "will have no impact on property taxes, sales taxes or other taxes collected by the state."
Voting for Proposition 2 will take place Nov. 6, and if passed, loans will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis, Paredes said.
Another issue Paredes said he discussed with administrators was the transition of Angelo State University into the Tech System.
"The legislature gave us the responsibility of overseeing this process - so far, so good," he said. "There are some issues that have to be resolved."
Paredes said dealing with the transition of bonds from one system to another is a complex process still in the works.
Meeting with administrators to discuss legislative strategies also was something Paredes said he accomplished.
"I know, for example, one issue that is of concern here in Lubbock is tier-one status for Texas Tech," he said, "and whether it is going to have the resources to become a major research university. Those are the kind of issues we need to start planning for."
He said he believes compared to other Texas higher education institutions, Tech fairs well.
"Texas Tech is a very good school and it wants to get better and we want to see that," Paredes said. "We support Texas Tech wanting to grow and become a prestigious university; the more prestigious a university is, the more it helps the local economy and the economy of the state."
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