Growing With East Texas

PLEASE ALLOW ME to welcome you to a new year and the relaunched UT Tyler Magazine. With everything happening at the university and across East Texas, it seems only fitting to reintroduce the publication now.

In 2021, under the authority of the UT System Board of Regents, UT Tyler merged with the UT Health Science Center at Tyler. We have capitalized on the strengths of both institutions to create a comprehensive university that is fully equipped to help meet the academic and health care needs of the East Texas region. This consolidation also allowed UT Tyler to advance to an R2 Carnegie Classification. This designation represents UT Tyler’s very high level of research activity focused on improving East Texas and beyond.

While UT Tyler has a far-reaching academic and health care impact, you will see in this issue that we remain focused on serving East Texas — the region we call home. UT Tyler continues to grow with the East Texas region in mind.

Plans are to increase enrollment by making education more accessible and more affordable, especially in rural counties. We are expanding our academic programs to respond to the needs of our communities and industry partners, and these programs are nationally recognized and continue to advance in rankings. The most recent U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings list our engineering program in the top 50 nationwide, and our engineering alumni continue to give back to support future engineers. Harnessing the power of technology to meet a vital need, our online master’s in nursing program was also just ranked 24th in the nation.

Contributing to the success of East Texas is a passion also shared by our alumni. We are so proud of Josh and Holly Smallwood, and their story is incredible. I urge you to read about the destination experience they’ve created to benefit the region.

One of our most high-profile endeavors is the School of Medicine, which is just a few short months away from welcoming its first class. There has been tremendous interest in the School of Medicine, so on be half of the university, I extend my sincerest gratitude to the UT System Board of Regents and the community for their support.

The mission of the School of Medicine is to address the shortage of physicians and lack of access to health care in East Texas by training students who are from East Texas and have a passion for improving the health of the region.

The medical school will not only help improve the quality of life of our communities, but it will also boost the economy. Economic experts predict the School of Medicine will create more than $1 billion in annual economic activity. We are merely giving back to the region that has given so much to us. To whom much is given, much is required.

I hope you enjoy this issue (kudos if you can find our pal Swoop hidden on the cover), and if you are an alum, we certainly want to hear from you. Keep us up to date on the wonderful things happening in your career.

With Patriot pride,