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Tim Zielenbach/Caller-Times
WELCOME: Robert Roesch’s steel statue of a cascading wave stands at the entrance of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Behind it, construction continues on one of many new buildings.
Tim Zielenbach/
Caller-Times |
Island university expands its shores
New colleges and programs make urban campus an academic force to reckon with
By Icess Fernandez/Caller-Times
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi continues to grow into the four-year university status it obtained 10 years ago.
Infrastructure, curriculum and enrollment are changing, university officials say.
"We are looked upon as a school on the move," said Manuel Lujan, dean of enrollment services. "We continue to grow."
In regards to infrastructure, A&M-CC has three new buildings in the works.
The first is the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, created by a $46 million endowment from former Caller-Times publisher Ed Harte. Ground was broken on the building in May 2003. The facility should be completed by January 2005.
The research institute has developed the first science-based doctorate program on campus — a doctorate of philosophy in coastal and marine sciences. A&M System regents approved the program in October. The degree still needs to be approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Also being built is the Performing Arts Center and the Classroom Building. The Performing Arts Center will house the communications and theater department, the music department and the South Texas Institute for the Arts. The center should be completed this October.
The 60,000-square-foot Classroom Building will house 19 classrooms and serve 900 students .
Curriculum also is changing.
Along with the Harte Research Institute-related degree, system regents have recently approved transforming the school of nursing into the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, adding another college to the campus.
The nursing college will help in the nationwide shortage of nurses, said Mary Jane Hamilton, director of the school of nursing.
"For us, it provides more opportunity, more diversity and serves more people," she said. "For the medical community, we are being granted more autonomy and we produce more nurses."
It also will make it easier to hire facul-ty, said Eve Layman, assistant professor of nursing. "This gives us the ability to draw in faculty with different expertise to participate in research," she said.
A stand-alone college compared to a school gives the program more credibility, said university president Robert Furgason. "By making it free standing, it gives it visibility, importance to the university and the university activity programs," he said.
Regents also approved converting the fine arts department into the School of Visual and Performing Arts. The school would still be a part of the College of Arts and Humanities. Furgason said that a new director would be hired. The school is an area of anticipated growth, he said.
"We anticipate that it would be a college in about five years," he said.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board must also approve the new school.
As for enrollment, more students are taking classes at A&M-CC. Lujan said enrollment has increased from 7,607 in fall 2002 for all levels to 7,861 in fall 2003. The school has had a steady increase since fall 2000 with 6,823 students. The school had 7,369 students in fall 2001.
Contact Icess Fernandez at 886-3748 or fernandezi@caller.com
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