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EMAIL INCLUDED: Victoria Chamber votes for UHV switch. Thoughts?
By gabesemenza in Crowdsourcing
March 18, 2011

The following text was copied and pasted from a mass e-mail sent out today by Randy Vivian, president and chief executive officer of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

The Victoria Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has voted to support HB 2556, which would switch the University of Houston-Victoria from the University of Houston System to the Texas A&M System. We believe that the change would better serve the citizen and students of the area and the State. Some of the reasons for our support of the switch are:

  • The University of Houston System is working toward the admirable goal of being the best metropolitan university system in the country. We applaud the UH System for this goal but fail to see, and have yet to be shown, how University of Houston, Victoria fits into this concept.

  • The University of Houston System is working to make the Downtown campus a Tier One Research Institution. Again, we applaud the UH System for this goal and want them to be successful in this endeavor. We also see that this being the number one goal of the System all other endeavors within the System are secondary to Tier One status. Growing a destination university outside of the Houston metropolitan area has been placed as a low priority to the System.

  • The Board believes that the switch to the Texas A&M System would benefit both the students and the Citizens of Victoria and the surrounding area.

  • The Texas A&M University System enrolls one in every five public university students in the state and consistently ranks in the forefront in graduating underrepresented students.

  • The Texas A&M University System has a long history of successfully building the capacity of its family of universities (Laredo, Corpus Christi, Texarkana) and Victoria would utilize this successful legacy to build a vibrant university due to its location, costs, and accredited program mix.

  • An alliance with the Texas A&M University System will add value to students' degrees by connecting them to one of the most powerful and successful networks of graduates in the nation.

For these and many other reasons we believe that the switch to the Texas A&M System is in the best interest of the Community, Students, and University. We believe that this switch will also aid the State in achieving the goals set out in the "Closing the Gaps Initiative".

We are asking that you let Representative Geanie Morrison and State Senator Glenn Hegar know of your opinion on this matter. Please forward this email to all interested individuals. The time to act on this matter is now. Please email your thoughts to one or all of the following individuals.

Rep. Geanie Morrison: geanie.morrison@house.state.tx.us

Sen. Glenn Hegar: glenn.hegar@senate.state.tx.us

Randy Vivian: randyvivian@victoriachamber.org

Dennis Patillo: dpatillo@stewart.com

Thank you for your time in reading this email. More importantly, we need you to act and email the above individuals. Please, take the time to write and let us know your opinion. Your views are critical to the outcome of this piece of legislation.

So, what are your thoughts regarding the chamber's vote in favor of realignment?

Thanks for the input,

Gabe Semenza / Advocate public service editor