Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Dear Steve:

I hear that you have issues with me and UTEP. We have been close for years. I have been to your house many times. During at least three sessions I worked closely with your wife. I guess the part that hurts most is that you have never ever come here to talk face to face about the UTEP issues.

Steve, my dad went to UTEP. He was the equipment guy for both ’48 and ‘49 football and basketball teams. He worked his way through college like most UTEP students. Zoe went to UTEP this summer. Our family loves UTEP as much as you, but let's be honest. To be a great city, we need a great university. With a 4.5% graduation rate, and a 61% remediation rate, UTEP is not a great university. We can do much, much better.

You and others on the Development Board have privately told me, “you are right, we need to fix it.” What concrete action has out community taken to make “our university” better for the students that UTEP is meant to serve? UTEP is about students and a college degree that guarantees a great job.

It is not fair to students who lose valuable years off a career, it is not fair to families who have to pay for extra years of college, it is not fair to a bustling community that needs a great university at the center of her endeavors to let it continue. If Mike Price has us “believe” on the field, together we can “believe” in the classroom.

In February of 2006, James Huffines, UT Board Chair ordered UTEP and every component to move up to at least 50% by 2015. He set out broad goals and asked for individual campus plans. He put performance measures and contract provisions in every system contract to get it done. I am proud of what he did-- it is exactly the right thing to do. We worked with UTEP for six years to get it done to no avail. But with Huffines’ leadership, it is now system policy.

Thank God that the UT System did what our community should have done years ago--they fixed it. And the best part is that UTEP students built the UTEP 2015 Plan. They worked as a team to offer best practices for our university. Their ideas are the ones that are reforming UTEP. Did you know that? In the future, please pick up a phone-- you may be surprised to discover a few things that you did not know.

You may disagree with my tactics, others have. Perhaps you did not know that I started working with UTEP all the way back to Sharp's performance reviews of our educational system and got nowhere. But please, never, doubt my motivation or resolve. I love El Paso, and will do everything I can to move it forward. In every major battle, from TxDOT funding, to moving Montford away from putting the BHI at Reese Air Force Base, working with the community on ASARCO's 7,000 ton air permit, and now moving UTEP forward, some have voiced concerns. But in each instance, we unflinchingly take on the tough issues and El Paso is a better place for it.

Everyone wants us to change the status quo and move up-- few are willing to risk the consequences of change. Please know that I will never shy from the tough jobs that El Paso needs to do for us to succeed.

Isn’t that exactly what you want in a leader?

Very truly yours,

Eliot Shapleigh