MCALLEN, Texas - Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen hosts an open house twice a year. They call it Aggieland Saturday.
Speaking at the Spring semester open house, Dr. Sandra Hansmann, assistant provost at the campus, explained its purpose.
"It gives people an opportunity to come to our campus and meet everybody, fall in love with how terrific our campus is here in McAllen," Hansmann said.
"Our goal is to introduce prospective students and their families to our ten different degree programs, to show them our incredible facilities, to give them an opportunity to meet our faculty and our staff and learn about our student support services. That's kind of the goal.”
Faculty for all ten programs are on hand to talk to parents and potential students. Also on hand are student ambassadors and staff.
“Some of our programs have really incredible student ambassadors who want to come and help man the tables with our faculty to explain our student services. We also have our incredible staff members here today to man the tables,” Hansmann, explained. “And then we actually have some groups who come all the way down from College Station because they also support our students. So we have people from libraries, for example, and from our international programs office, our Global Engagement Office. They're also here.”
At the time a Rio Grande Guardian reporter was there, there seemed to be more potential female students who wanted to learn what A&M has to offer than male.
“We love that, because A&M, a long time ago was largely a male campus. So it is incredible to see the number of young women we have here, the number of females who are interested in coming,” Hansmann said.
“I think that’s a little bit reflective of the (Rio Grande) Valley as well. But once we actually have students in our classes, our ratios are pretty solid. Only a few more females than males, so only a few more women than men. But you're right, it really does depend on the program.”
Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen is part of A&M College Station. So, graduating students get the same Aggie Ring.
“Yes, we are A&M. We like to tell people, if you just imagine that a giant hand grabbed a building from College Station and dropped it right here, that’s what you have. So we are College Station, just not there. So it's the same admission criteria, ten of the same degrees, and then all the graduation requirements, progression requirements, requirements for the hiring of our faculty and staff. That's all College Station.”
Hansmann said A&M is working hard to offer something different in the Valley.
“I think we have a really neat mix of programs here that have a lot to offer that are different here in the Valley. We work very hard at this campus to make sure that we are a great value-add to the community, in terms of access to types of degrees that aren't available anywhere else.”
Asked how many students Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen has, Hansmann replied:
“So, we have about 500 students right now. It's our largest Fall class and our largest Spring class, and we expect that we will be breaking that record every year for many years to come. In terms of enrollment targets, we expect to be at about 1,000 students or so in just a few years.”
Texas A&M University Higher Education Center at McAllen recently celebrated the opening of its second building.
“It is the Nursing Education and Research Building, and it houses a state-of-the-art simulation lab for training Aggie nurses. Aggie nurses represent something incredibly special and incredibly important for the Valley. The way that the students train and the experiences that they have in the community are all centered around the Aggie values of selfless service, of leadership, of excellence, of loyalty, respect and integrity. So it's really a different way of training nurses. It's very special.”
As there is a large shortage of nurses in the Valley and across Texas, A&M’s investment in nursing programs is critical, Hansmann said. “We are really working to fill those gaps,” she said.
Education in the veterinary profession is also on offer in the new building. “We have a state-of-the-art lab on the first floor that is going to enable this campus to do a great deal more research than we've ever had the capacity for before. They are doing a lot of work around global one health. So it's a lot of work around cross-border or trans-border concerns, health related concerns, veterinary related concerns, vector borne diseases, things like that.”
Asked if she would like to add anything else, Hansmann said: “Well, I guess what I would say is that Texas A&M is doing something really unique and really special here in the Valley. We are focusing on degrees and opportunities for our students that are deeply connected to our industries here in the Rio Grande Valley, that lead to great, well-paying jobs, that give a lot of mobility and help our students be right here at home, if that's where they want to be.”
