Message from the President
April 29, 2019
Dear Colleagues,
Last fall, Academic Affairs conducted a comprehensive technical review of all of our undergraduate degree programs to verify all degree requirements. While curriculum is the purview of the faculty, the accuracy of our degree plans is the purview of Academic Affairs, Health Affairs, and Strategic Enrollment. It is the degree plan that serves as the road map to graduation for our students and ensures that students who desire to graduate in four years can actually do so. The technical review of the degree requirements at UTRGV revealed that most of our degree plans include graduation and other requirements that are not a part of, but rather in addition to, the 120-hour degree plan. It is our responsibility to honor the program lengths approved by the THECB. In the coming months and prior to Fall 2019, I am asking the divisions of Academic Affairs, Health Affairs, and Strategic Enrollment to work collaboratively with faculty to review and revise our degree plans.
The most far-reaching (though by no means the only) additional degree requirement is the university-wide six-hour language requirement. I strongly support a B3 requirement for UTRGV (after all, bilingualism biculturalism, and biliteracy are part of our strategic plan and of our heritage), but the requirement must be cast within the context of the THECB’s 120-hour bachelor’s degree requirement. Precisely how we do this will vary from program to program, but please remember that this is part of who we are. Under the leadership of Dr. Patricia McHatton and the B3 Institute, a task force made up of representatives from each college offering undergraduate degrees will be formed to design a B3 student experience that is unique to UTRGV and true to who we are. This experience will ideally be multi-faceted and embedded into the curriculum throughout the student’s experience.
Thank you for your hard work on this. I trust you will work collaboratively and expeditiously on behalf of our students.
Guy Bailey
President