EDINBURG, Texas - Dr. Nolan Perez, a UT System regent, has praised the leadership of UT-Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey.
In a speech at an Inaugural Ph.D. Launch Celebration hosted by UTRGV’s College of Engineering & Computer Science (CECS), Perez, a Rio Grande Valley native, said there is no UT president trusted more than Bailey by the board of regents.
“We’re super proud of the leadership of Dr. Bailey. There's not a president that we trust more than Dr. Bailey, that I can assure you,” Perez said. He said that when Bailey calls the UT System with an idea or a proposal to improve the university, its students, faculty and staff, the answer is always “yes,“ followed by “anything more you need, sir.”
Perez, a medical doctor who lives in Harlingen and has offices in Brownsville, McAllen and Harlingen, was appointed to the UT System board of regents by Gov. Greg Abbott. Perez said it takes “bold leadership” to make things happen and Bailey has that in abundance.
“We always tell our presidents, it's okay if you make mistakes. But make mistakes being bold, doing bold things to benefit our students, to benefit our faculty, to benefit the community. And if you do that we have got your back. Obviously, it's a little bit more complicated than that. And Dr. Bailey, that's why he's the enterprise leader, not us. But, we support the heck out of what he does.”
Perez said it is not easy being a university president these days. He said presidents have to “thread the needle” of politics and other issues, with both internal and external stakeholders.
“But, we have an amazing leader (here at UTRGV),” Perez said. “Think about this for a second. When UTRGV started, this was the most unprecedented startup in higher ed in America. We had the simultaneous dissolution of two universities, UT Pan American and UT Brownsville. At the same time we were putting a new university (together) with a school of medicine in a distributed campus model. Think about that. Wrap your brain around that. Most universities are just in one place. It took an amazing, brilliant and innovative visionary, but also a very cool calm and collected leader like Dr. Bailey and he's been a steady hand. Let's give him another round of applause for his leadership.”
The audience, which mostly comprised engineering students and their families, along with university and community leaders, applauded to Bailey, who was sitting in the audience.
Earlier in his speech, Perez said it is “just a blessing” for him to be “part of the solution” in working to end the brain drain that the Valley suffers.
“I’m so proud and I can tell you this, the Board of Regents is just super impressed with Dr. Bailey's leadership and the leadership of everybody in this room that continue to provide more opportunities for our brilliant, brilliant people in the Rio Grande Valley,” Perez said.
“Think about the young faces of the students. These are the faces of the future of this great state and the future of this United States of America. So we need to match that talent. Talent is universal. Talent is everywhere for these kids when they're born in the Rio Grande Valley. We just need to bridge that gap. Talent is universal but opportunity, unfortunately, is not. It's up to us here at UTRGV to create those opportunities, to bridge that gap so that we can educate the best and brightest people in this country. And then, when we do that, obviously we transform this region like we are doing right now.”
Perez said UT has some great universities . However, he said that when he meets Gov. Abbott he always tells him that, in his capacity as a regent, he is most passionate about helping UTRGV.
“I want to help support the university that's going to help transform… think about… that big UT System building we have (in) downtown (Austin). I go there and I always remind our board that the great stuff doesn't happen here. The great stuff happens in universities, that's where you educate students. That's where you provide healthcare, like the School of Medicine here at UTRGV, that's where you drive research and innovation, new ideas, new ways of doing things, right? And that's where you transform communities, which is what UTRGV is doing.”
Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of Regent Perez’s entire remarks at the CECS event:
https://youtu.be/8s55FicyPzE
