UTEP 2015 Plan: Senator Shapleigh fights for UTEP students
July 13, 2006
"Senator Eliot Shapleigh has dedicated himself to improve higher education at UTEP," writes UTEP student leader Analisa Cordova. Senator Shapleigh listened to the concerns students had about UTEP and together they came up with the UTEP 2015 Plan.
Written by Analisa Cordova, UTEP Student Government Association
Senator Eliot Shapleigh has dedicated himself to improve education in Texas and most importantly higher education at UTEP. He has opened his office to the students of UTEP in a variety of ways. As the former Senate Majority Leader of the UTEP Student Government Association (SGA) and now present Vice-President for External Affairs, I witnessed what powerful change that can come to our University when our state senator, administration, and students come together and work for a better University.
Senator Shapleigh invited the UTEP SGA Senate to be pro-active in the legislation that affected the students, and asked our opinion as student representatives to make sure that we wanted to allow the increase of the caps of these two student fees. The SGA Senate and Student Body voted to increase the Student Union fee cap, because we want better conditions for our Union and we can not make improvements to it unless the cap was increased. Our student Swimming and Fitness Rec fee cap was increased after the student body voted to increase it. We need more recreational space because of our growing student population. Senator Shapleigh made sure that the students had a voice in this process before taking it to the committee. He has been the only lawmaker to actually sit down with students and ensure we want these increases.
Senator Shapleigh listened to the concerns students had about UTEP and together we came up with the UTEP 2015 Plan. I know that this plan was whole heartedly put together by students for the students because I wrote it. UTEP Students were surveyed and interviewed about advising, program curriculum, professors, and student life. From the student input we put together a plan that would be presented to the UTEP administration, SGA, and the UT Board of Regents. This plan included four components:
Online Degree Plan – This is a plan that most universities are adopting including UT- Austin, in order for students to keep track and have control of their degree plan and make registering less complicated.Contract for the Future – This plan encourages students to finish their degree in order to be accepted into law-school, medical school, or enter the work force sooner, with the incentives of advanced registration, a locked tuition for four years, and proper advising. Texas Tech was the first in Texas to create a model for this plan and has seen successful results.
Honors Program – This program is modeled after UT- Austin’s Honors program that implements an honors thesis and specialized program according to their major.
Top Draft – This portion of the plan is about keeping El Paso’s best students at UTEP by offering them job internships, scholarships, and leadership opportunities as high school juniors.
After this plan was presented to the UT- Regents, they passed a resolution in support of increasing four year graduation rates at all of the UT campuses to 50% in ten years. UTEP came up with the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is the blue print plan UTEP students, faculty, and administrators worked on in the spring to improve degree plan curriculum and advising. UTEP Administration also responded to student and faculty concerns about free speech which has already been changing the culture of student participation in political issues that affect the border. This plan was presented and approved by the SACS committee.
I also was given the wonderful opportunity to work on this plan. In addition, Senator Shapleigh has worked to pass tuition bonds that helped create the Bio-Chemistry Building and the new Engineering Building that will provide additional research space that students have needed for years. He also fought for the students and challenged Texas Tech’s Chancellor to make sure UTEP got 25 million dollars of endowment from the Tobacco fund.
The UTEP students of today want a university with quality facilities and faculty that will implement technology, improve student life, and encourage us to be successful and graduate sooner. The reason Senator Shapleigh spent the time to listen to us is because he knows that the UTEP students of today deserve a top quality education. UTEP’s new motto is, “Changing the face of higher education.”
This change can not be done by one person, it takes a community.