The following higher education impact statement was produced by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Educational Impact Statement Regarding House Bill 1566

Relating to Lower-Division and Upper-Division Courses at

 Texas A&M University-Texarkana

Provisions

·                    The bill would amend Sections 87.571 (a) and (b) of the Texas Education Code, removing Texas A&M University-Texarkana's designation as an "upper-level" institution of higher education. 

·                    The bill would remove the current prohibition against offering freshman or sophomore programs and add permissive language to the effect that Texas A&M University-Texarkana "may offer lower-division courses, but is not required to do so in any academic year for which the Texas Legislature does not appropriate money specifically for that purpose."  This downward expansion would change Texas A&M University-Texarkana from an upper-level university to a four-year university.

Background

·                    Texas A&M University-Texarkana offers 20 baccalaureate and 12 master's degree programs.  The institution is a non-residential, upper-level university established in 1971 as an upper-level center on the campus of Texarkana College, the local community college.  Legislative action made the institution a free-standing university in 1993.  The institution joined the Texas A&M University System and its name was changed from East Texas State University-Texarkana to Texas A&M University-Texarkana in 1996.   It is located on the Texarkana College campus. 

·                    In fall 2002, Texas A&M University-Texarkana had a headcount enrollment of 1,367 students:  872 undergraduate students and 495 post-baccalaureate and master's students.  Enrollment in that semester was 81 percent white, 15 percent black, 2 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent other.  Approximately 25 percent of the students come from Arkansas, almost all of whom are from Texarkana or the neighboring two counties.

·                    Texarkana College was founded in 1927 as a public junior college and as a branch of Texarkana, Texas, Public Schools Systems. The first building to house the college was owned by the school district and contained classrooms, laboratories, administration/teachers' offices, and a gymnasium. The laboratories and gymnasium were used jointly by the college and high school. In 1957, separate Boards of Regents were established; in 1958, revenue bonds were issued and facilities expansion ensued. Growth has continued over the years, including construction of student dormitories, and culminating in fall 2000 when the Business Administration and Computer Technology and Information Systems Building was completed.

·                    In fall 2002, Texarkana College had a headcount enrollment of 3,526 students, including 2,110 freshmen and 1,240 sophomores (95 unclassified).  Of the remaining students, 29 already have associate degrees and 52 had already received baccalaureate degrees. Enrollment in that semester was 85 percent white, 13 percent black, 1 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent other. 

·                    Texas A&M University-Texarkana is located in the Upper East region of the state.  This region is served by a variety of public and independent institutions of higher education, most of which are in the southern part of the region. Besides Texas A&M University-Texarkana, public institutions include The University of Texas at Tyler and The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, Texas State Technical College at Marshall, and seven junior or community colleges:  Kilgore College, Northeast Texas Community College, Panola College, Paris Junior College, Texarkana College, Trinity Valley Community College, and Tyler Junior College.  Independent institutions include East Texas Baptist University, Jacksonville College, Jarvis Christian College, LeTourneau University, Lon Morris College, Texas College, and Wiley College.  Projected population growth for the region is low.

·                    Texas A&M University-Texarkana is about 120 miles away from each of the two nearest public four-year universities:  The University of Texas at Tyler and Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Recent chronology related to possible establishment of independent campus, possible partnership with Texarkana College

·                    Texarkana College and Texas A&M University-Texarkana have shared some resources and facilities, including a library, since the creation of the latter institution in 1971.  Texas A&M University-Texarkana students also make use of the Texarkana College health center, student center, and bookstore.

·                    Under the sponsorship of Representative Telford, the 77th Texas Legislature passed HB 2840, which gave Texas A&M University-Texarkana permission to enter into a partnership with Texarkana College in the manner authorized by Subchapter N, Chapter 51 of the Texas Education Code.

·                    In 2002, Texas A&M University-Texarkana and Texarkana College proposed a partnership that would merge most operations of the two institutions.  The Texarkana College Board and the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved the partnership.  Based on prior experience with the partnership between The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, Coordinating Board staff believed that the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) would have concerns about the governance structure of the proposed partnership, which would have had one president reporting to two different boards.  SACS is the regional accrediting organization for public and private higher education institutions in Texas and 10 other southern and southeastern states.  Graduation from a regionally accredited college or university is important for most jobs that have an educational requirement and for entry into most graduate and professional degree programs.  All 50 states require their public colleges and universities to be regionally accredited.  

·                    Coordinating Board staff recommended that Texas A&M University System, Texas A&M University-Texarkana and Texarkana College officials consult with SACS prior to Coordinating Board consideration of the partnership agreements in order to resolve or determine how to resolve any questions about compliance with accreditation criteria.  After that consultation, SACS concluded that having one president report to two boards would not meet accreditation criteria.  The partnership idea is no longer being pursued.

Short History of Higher Education Institutions Which Began as Upper-Level Universities

            Upper-level universities offer only upper-division and graduate courses which lead to baccalaureate and graduate degree programs.  All upper-level universities in Texas were established in the period from 1969 to 1973.  Some were established on community college campuses.  Others had independent campuses from the beginning.  Some have changed their status over the years, through partnerships with community colleges, downward expansion (to include offering of lower-division courses), or movement from a community college campus location to its own campus. 

Institution (current name)	Headcount enrollment (fall 2002)	Initial campus location (Own campus or community college location)	Significant changes since establishment
The University of Texas at Dallas	13,229	Own campus	Downward expansion in 1992.
The University of Houston-Clear Lake	7,753	Own campus	No change.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi	7,607	Own campus	Downward expansion in 1994.
The University of Texas at Tyler	4,254	Own campus	Downward expansion in 1998.
Texas A&M International University	3,724	Started on campus of Laredo Community College	Moved to its own campus and downward expansion in 1995.
The University of Texas at Brownsville	3,527	Started on campus of Texas Southmost College	Partnership/merger with Texas Southmost College in 1991.
The University of Texas-Permian Basin	2,672	Own campus	Downward expansion in 1991.
University of Houston-Victoria	2,183	Started on campus of Victoria College	No change.
Texas A&M University-Texarkana	1,367	Started on campus of Texarkana College	No change.
Sul Ross-Rio Grande College	908	Started on campuses of Southwest Texas Community College	No change.

Potential Benefits of Allowing Texas A&M University-Texarkana to Offer Lower-Division Courses

·                    Representatives of Texas A&M University-Texarkana characterize this bill as enabling legislation.  It would enable, but not require, Texas A&M University-Texarkana to offer lower-division courses.  There would be no immediate costs to the state or the institution as a result of this legislation. Texas A&M University-Texarkana would be able to implement the offering of lower-division courses if appropriations to enable that were made.

·                    Texas A&M University-Texarkana believes the legislation would have very little effect on existing articulation agreements with area two-year colleges.  The institution intends to continue to rely on area community colleges for most general education courses. Its initial lower-division course development efforts would be focused on areas related to major degree program needs. The institution estimates that lower-division courses would not be offered for, at least, four to six years.

·                    Being able to offer lower-division courses could help Texas A&M University-Texarkana expand its enrollments and might make it possible for the institution to develop needed degree programs in areas where it does not yet have adequate faculty resources or a critical mass of likely students.

·                    Making Texas A&M University-Texarkana a four-year institution could help increase college-going rates and could encourage more young people to attend college in Texarkana instead of leaving the region.  The higher education participation rate in the region is 4.5 percent, significantly below the statewide average of 5.5 percent. The region has the highest percentage of students attending universities outside the region (71.6 percent) and a below-state-average number of students attending two-year colleges (4.1 percent compared to a state average of 5.3 percent).  Only 1.4 percent of the region's population is enrolled in universities, the lowest university participation rate in the state. 

Possible Effects on Texarkana College        

·                    A gradual phase in of lower-division courses at Texas A&M University-Texarkana would probably not have a major effect on enrollments at Texarkana College.  This would be particularly true if Texas A&M University-Texarkana follows through on its stated intention of continuing to work closely with all area two-year colleges.

·                    Because of the significantly higher tuition rates at four-year colleges versus two-year colleges and because Texas A&M University-Texarkana would not be able to offer a broad range of lower-division courses for some time, staff estimates that no more than 25 percent of the students who currently enroll at Texarkana College planning to transfer to Texas A&M University-Texarkana would be likely to choose to enroll as freshmen or sophomores at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.  In fall 2002, 167 students transferred from Texarkana College to Texas A&M University-Texarkana.  A rough estimate is that Texarkana College might lose about 40 students per year, or a little more than one percent of its enrollment, to a Texas A&M University-Texarkana that was able to offer lower-division courses.   

Other Considerations

            The Upper East Texas Region expects a nine percent increase in overall population to 1.1 million people by 2015.  The region included 264,770 residents in the 15-34 age range in 2000.  By 2015 the number should increase by 11 percent to 297,918. 

            Projected space needs through 2015 at the university level for this region indicate a 1.55 million square feet deficit to accommodate a projected target increase of 6,550 students.

            The offering of lower-division courses by Texas A&M University-Texarkana at its current location would be likely to duplicate educational services offered by Texarkana College.  In addition, because university tuition is higher than community college tuition, this duplication would occur at a higher cost to students. 

            From a state-level perspective, converting Texas A&M University-Texarkana to four-year status does not appear necessary.  There are several examples in the state where universities and two-year colleges work cooperatively together to provide students with seamless access to a broad range of higher education opportunities.  Probably the best examples are UH-Clear Lake, UH-Victoria and the North Harris Montgomery County Universities Center.  However, many in the Texarkana area believe that downward expansion of TAMU-Texarkana is needed to meet the educational and economic development goals of the region.

            The downward expansion of Texas A&M University-Texarkana, with or without the creation of a new, separate campus for Texas A&M University-Texarkana, is unlikely to solve the educational problems of the area that it is intended to address:  specifically, downward expansion alone is not likely to help Texarkana keep a significantly greater percentage of college-going students in the region, increase college going rates, increase the number of degree programs available at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, or increase the number of graduates produced in the region. 

            Achievement of those very important goals will require great cooperation of area institutions and concentrated focus on meeting student needs.  In order to be able to offer a broader range of degree programs, Texas A&M University-Texarkana needs more students and more faculty and related resources.  It needs more students both to provide a critical mass of enrollments for new programs and to generate the formula funding necessary to support additional faculty. 

            Whether or not the Legislature authorizes downward expansion, the overall higher education participation rate of the area needs to increase significantly to provide Texas A&M University-Texarkana with sufficient enrollments to support new programs.  This will happen most quickly if all higher education institutions in the area work together with the public education sector to accomplish this goal.  Until it has the students to support additional new degree programs of its own, TAMU-Texarkana should make more use of instructional telecommunications and inter-institutional cooperation with Texas A&M University System and other institutions.  This would allow it to bring needed courses and educational opportunities to the Texarkana area, even before it has the enrollments and resources needed to offer such programs at Texas A&M University-Texarkana on an independent, stand-alone basis.

Recommendations

            The Board respectfully recommends that the Legislature take into account the considerations and benefits stated in the above analysis. 

            If the Legislature approves Texas A&M University-Texarkana to offer lower-division courses, the following steps should be taken:

§        Unnecessary duplication of services should be minimized:

      - Texas A&M University-Texarkana should continue current 2 + 2  and other articulation agreements with area two-year colleges; and

      - During a transition period of several years, Texas A&M University-Texarkana should continue to rely on area two-year colleges for the  teaching of most of the lower-division academic courses that those colleges are now teaching; and

§        To minimize any adverse effects and maximize benefits, Texas A&M University-Texarkana and Texarkana College should emphasize inter-institutional communication and cooperation for the benefit and success of students.