Today, Sunday, September 26, 2015, the omens unite. Padre Island, Texas, will experience a Red Tide.
The moon will be full and “double.” The moon will be Red or Maroon. There will be an eclipse. Meaning of the omens? Some bad things, some good things. The tide and the eclipse will soon pass; nature will be restored. Meanwhile, the Valley will grow and prosper.
A new Texas A&M campus in northwest McAllen was announced September 15, 2015. Chancellor John Sharp, local and state leaders witnessed the signing. But there is controversy. Is it duplication? What deals might lie under the City of McAllen granting 100 acres of land plus commitment of $10 million? I don’t know and, to an extent, I don’t care. As a graduate of UTPA, considering UTRGV and looking for other possible options for graduate work, I welcome this new opportunity. I say “The more the merrier.” Or, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” (Perhaps there still is hope for a Texas A &M Law School?)
I know from my own Latin American experience, and from interviews, the Texas A&M brand is highly regarded throughout the Americas (Interview, Dr. Gary Mounce, UTPA, Retired and UT Austin Ph.D.). The venerated University of Texas degree is still prestigious, but many prospective graduates from Mexico and Latin America seek the STEM type of education offered by Texas A&M.
Indeed, Texas A&M already has a beneficial presence in South Texas (the Weslaco AgriLife Research and Extension Center, the McAllen TAM Health Science Center campus, with the School of Public Health, School of Nursing, and activities of the TAM School of Pharmacy at Kingsville). Interviews at the long established McAllen campus reveal A&M’s positive commitment to Public Health, focusing on prevention of diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases. Students and faculty work with many local organizations to develop practical solutions to community health problems. (Dr. Ann Millard, Associate Professor, and Adjunct Professor Isidore Flores).
The new campus’s mission lies also in the area of Biomedical Science, as well as Engineering Technology and additional Agriculture and Life Sciences. The courses will be taught by professors from College Station. If many of those courses will be, necessarily, “on-line,” that is simply a national trend to be expected. Education is changing. Technology is changing. We must change with it.
Speaking of change, Hidalgo County Judge Ramon García calls the eminent presence of the new Texas A&M (set for 2017) a “game changer.” State Senator from the area, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa is enthusiastically on board, seeing “education as the great equalizer.” Critics have voiced their opinions in these pages and around the Rio Grande Valley. They raise pertinent questions.
Many of these questions must be addressed. Some examples might be: fear that the A &M degree might be “devalued;” the need for clearer data re outcomes of current higher education; unsatisfactory graduation rates; dangerous student debt, etc. (Dr. Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr., RGG, September 21, 2015).
I understand some of these are national concerns. Many of our families and students are only too aware of them. But when the State of Texas and Texas A&M are willing to invest in the Valley, should we not be ready to take the offer and do the best with it we can? Is there really a need to be so negative about the measures taken?
I, for one, am ready and willing to pay my taxes for the good of the community and to accept the challenge. The jobs provided in the building and staffing of the campus can only be a plus. Investment in education often produces ten-fold profits for the economy. Yes, there are flaws in the process and the plans (or lack of complete transparency in the plans).
Sure, there may have been a better plan, with more participation. But I prefer a pragmatic and utilitarian approach. I suggest we think of the philosophical advice of Voltaire: “the Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.” More education is good. More economic development is good. Let us embrace the omens. May the new Maroon Moon shine on us all.
