MCALLEN, RGV - Gov. Greg Abbott’s hiring freeze for state agencies and higher education institutions could impact efforts to recruit faculty and staff for Texas A&M University’s new McAllen campus.
Chad E. Wootton, associate vice-president for external affairs at Texas A&M University, gave an update about the McAllen education center to the McAllen Economic Development Corporation’s board of directors.
Chad E. Wootton“The governor has announced a hiring freeze for higher education and state agencies. That will have some impacts on us as it will our fellow higher education partners, here in the region and around the state,” Wootton said.
“We have proposed some exceptions to those rules and are awaiting the Governor's review of that. In particular, for us here in McAllen, it impacts our hiring and staffing up for the new programs we are planning here.”
Texas A&M University System Chancellor participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the McAllen facility on Dec. 15. “Monday, the construction will commence in earnest out at Tres Lagos. We are still on schedule for that facility being available to us for Fall 2018. So, we are continuing through those processes and making sure we are taking care of all the accreditation responsibilities, etc., related to that,” Wootton said.
The $40 million McAllen campus is part of the huge Tres Lagos subdivision project being constructed in north McAllen by developer Mike Rhodes. The campus project will create over 61,000 square footage of space to include mid-size, general use classrooms, wet and dry laboratory spaces, an auditorium for large class teaching, student and other gatherings, as well as student services and administrative support offices. Additionally, parking and utilities to the site are included.
Funding for the McAllen education center includes over $30 million from Texas A&M’s allocation of the permanent university fund and other reallocated university sources, in addition to an agreed $10 million investment in infrastructure from the City of McAllen and Hidalgo County.
The McAllen education center is slated to open in Fall 2018, although some degree program offerings are already available for students in public health, nursing, and soon-to-be-announced interdisciplinary engineering. Additional degree offerings from Texas A&M University are being discussed for future enrollment.
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Interviewed after the MEDC meeting, Wootton said: “We respect and appreciate the role our state legislature has in looking out for the welfare of the people of Texas and how we use our resources. But, the Governor has announced a hiring freeze and we are in the process of understanding exactly the rules of engagement that he would like us to abide by for that. But, it will impact us as we attempt to hire faculty, as we attempt to hire staff across the university, including preparing for the next academic year, which will begin late August of 2017.
“And, of course, that includes our initial plan for offering new degree offerings here in McAllen. And so, there are faculty and staff that would be associated with that project that we would have been hiring here in May, June, July in preparation for them to begin offering course work or some of our programs supports. So, right now we are in a holding pattern and awaiting word from the Governor's office on which and what hires we are going to be able to make at this time.”
Wootton said there is an “ongoing ebb and flow” when it comes to hiring faculty.
“Faculty come, faculty leave. We have, particularly at the end of the Spring semester, mid-May, our non-tenured track faculty that are on annual contracts. Their commitment for last year will be complete and then we would begin the process of either renewing or adding new contracts for future years, particularly beginning in the fall of 2017.”
Asked how the hiring freeze - announced by Gov. Abbott last month in response to lower than expected revenue estimates - would impact those non-tenured track faculty, Wootton said: “It is unclear at this time if we will be able to extend those contracts. If the Governor's Office gives us rules to abide by that allow us to extend those contracts, we will be fine. If there needs to be a pause, at worst we will have a late start to that process and so, again, all of that may have an impact on how and what we are able to do in the hiring arena.”
Asked how many faculty members Texas A&M is looking for as it ramps up its McAllen campus, Wootton said: “It depends on which degree programs we receive final approval for. Currently, we have, of course, our programs in public health and one of our nursing programs. Those faculty actually come in and out of McAllen and, obviously, the Bryan-College Station campus. The new program we have approved currently is in engineering and then we have two to three other degree programs that we are finalizing through the Coordinating Board approval process. Assuming all of those were to make, we will have core curriculum faculty, so our humanities faculty, our economics, our science-based faculty.
“And so, in the initial program proposal we had about 14 faculty that we would be hiring in different forms. It could be that it is someone coming from College Station with this assignment. It could be a new hire. It could be a new contract for non-tenured track faculty. But until we get those program approvals and now, of course, understand the rules related to hiring freeze, we won't be able to know how exactly we will proceed at this point. But, plans are in place and we await word on what the Governor will allow us to do.”
Asked to comment on the fact that Abbott’s hiring freeze crunches up on higher education’s need for more faculty and staff to cope with more students, as Texas’ population grows, Wootton said: “That is the heart of the challenge that our Texas Legislature and our representatives face. They are trying to maintain efficient government in an environment where our state continues to grow. Each of those people who come into our state, or children that are born, those that are educated here, will have a need for the services of our state. They will need good roads, they will need good healthcare, they will need the ability for public safety to be maintained. We think and we feel there is a higher need for education. So, we recognize that that is the tough challenge that our legislature faces and, of course, we all face in our local communities. We respect it, we want to be good citizens as well, as a state agency, and we will do our part to help when we can.”
State Rep. Terry Canales is aware of Texas A&M’s need to hire faculty for its new McAllen campus. The Edinburg lawmaker penned a letter to Gov. Abbott about this on Friday. The letter read:
State Rep. Terry CanalesDear Governor Abbott:
It has recently come to my attention that hiring freezes that you announced on January 30, 2017 could potentially delay or prevent hiring at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Medicine and the Texas A&M McAllen Higher Education Center. It is imperative that all Rio Grande Valley institutions of higher education have the ability to ensure that personnel are in place to meet the needs of our area.
Recently, UTRGV matched with its second class of 50 medical students in preparation for the second year of UTRGV medical school education. The school is currently in the process of hiring faculty for the second, third, and fourth year of medical education. Just two months ago, Texas A&M University broke ground on a 65,000 square-foot building in McAllen’s Tres Lagos Development, with some classes expected to start in fall of 2017. With the growth of higher education opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, there will be additional hiring at our learning institutions.
We must work together to ensure that area colleges and universities have the ability to continue to smoothly deliver classes. In conversations with administrators from both institutions, they seem cautiously optimistic that there will not be any major problems due to the hiring freezes. Yet, I write to you today to request that special attention is placed on our South Texas intuitions of higher education. Thanks so much for your time and attention to this important matter.
Very Truly Yours,
Representative Terry Canales
