Originally published December 22, 2016
In 2016, The University of Texas at El Paso celebrated several milestones, including the 50th anniversary of the 1966 NCAA Championship and the inclusion of UTEP President Diana Natalicio on the 2016 TIME 100 list of most influential people. As the year winds down, UTEP looks back on these and other memorable moments from 2016, arranged in chronological order.
UTEP Included in Plans to Increase Hispanic Faculty
UTEP has been selected as one of three Hispanic-Serving Institutions to participate in a program to increase the number of Latino professors in the humanities at colleges and universities across the United States. Pathways to the Professoriate, supported by a $5.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will prepare 90 students from Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Ph.D. programs over a five-year period.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Receives $3.9M National Science Foundation Grant
A team of computer science faculty from UTEP has been awarded a highly competitive $3.9 million Scholarship For Service (SFS) grant from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security. The funding will give scholarships to 28 bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. computer science students over the next five years.
Read the full story here.
President Obama Honors 1966 TWC Championship Team
President Barack Obama honored members of the 1966 Texas Western College (now UTEP) championship team in a video released Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. The video, which aired during a UTEP men’s basketball game, was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the team’s historic NCAA championship win.
See other 1966 NCAA Championship video tributes here.
UTEP College of Business Administration Receives AACSB Accreditation
The University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Business Administration AACSB accreditation has been reaffirmed.
The accreditation is renewable every five years. Fewer than 5 percent of business schools worldwide have earned the prestigious designation from AACSB, and UTEP’s College of Business Administration is the only AACSB-accredited business school in the El Paso-Juárez region.
The yearlong accreditation review process requires compelling evidence of the college’s innovations, impact and engagement in accordance with the business college’s mission of providing advanced business education for the Paso del Norte region.
Read the full story here.
Planners Embrace Challenges of New Interdisciplinary Research Building
A UTEP committee working with the designers of the planned Interdisciplinary Research Building on campus aim for a concept that will provide UTEP with plenty of oomph for decades to come. University President Diana Natalicio formed the 11-member team in late 2015 to study the optimum use for the $85 million, five-story structure that will be built at the southeast corner of Sun Bowl Drive and University Avenue. The project is on schedule to break ground in 2017 and should be open for the fall 2020 semester.
Read the full story here.
Professor Returns After Leading Environmental Commission
Being a professor and an executive director of an international environmental commission seem like they couldn’t be more different, but Irasema Coronado, Ph.D., finds similarities between the two. After a three-year stint as executive director of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) Secretariat in Montreal, Quebec in Canada, Coronado is back at The University of Texas at El Paso.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Announces Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Program
A new doctoral program will have an emphasis on energy, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, areas which have a strong record of success for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which is part of UTEP’s College of Engineering.
“The program’s long-term vision is to create a new generation of doctoral graduates to lead industry innovation, to create new technology businesses, and to bring jobs to the Southwest border region as well as to our state and nation,” said Department of Mechanical Engineering Chair Ahsan Choudhuri, Ph.D.
Read the full story here.
UTEP President Among TIME’s 100 Most Influential People
TIME magazine has named UTEP President Diana Natalicio to the 2016 TIME 100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The list, now in its 13th year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals.
Read the full story here.
Professor Taps into Therapeutic Power of Child’s Play
Rosa Guerrero Elementary School Counselor Hortencia Tibuni had an interest in learning how to better communicate with students. She admitted as much to a student teacher intern from The University of Texas at El Paso, who excitedly shared what she learned about child-centered play therapy from Sang Min Shin, Ph.D., assistant professor of counseling.
Tibuni said she allowed students to use a sandbox, a doll house and Legos during their sessions, but was curious to learn Shin’s perspective on play therapy. The counselor contacted Shin and the two organized a daylong training for 15 elementary school counselors in April 2016 to study the therapeutic power of play.
Read the full story here.
Tradition and Distinction: UTEP Commencement Turns 100
Each spring and fall, thousands of UTEP graduates fill the Don Haskins Center, eager to participate in a ceremony signifying an important milestone in their lives – college graduation. Tens of thousands of proud UTEP Miners have enthusiastically attended Commencement ceremonies that not only honor their academic achievements, but also serve as a rite of passage that propels them into the next phase of their lives. These ceremonies are part of a long and auspicious tradition that began a century ago.
Read the full story here.
UTEP’s School of Nursing Celebrates 40 Years
The School of Nursing at The University of Texas at El Paso boasts 4,500 alumni, and more than 60 percent of El Paso nurses earned their degrees at UTEP. The school recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with a kickoff event that was the first of several events planned throughout 2016 to commemorate the school’s exceptional contributions to health care in the region.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Team Wins Global Geology Competition, $20K Prize
The Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) team from The University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Geological Sciences brought home a first place win in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Worldwide Imperial Barrel Competition in Calgary, Canada. It was a first for the University and was accompanied by a $20,000 prize.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Research Connects Hulu Series ‘East Los High’ and Teens Making Informed Choices
“East Los High,” an Emmy nominated series about the lives of students at a fictional high school in East Los Angeles, addresses real-life issues teens may face while navigating the waters of high school. The show’s executive producer asked Arvind Singhal, Ph.D, a communication professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, if he would be interested in doing research related to the show. Singhal, an expert in the area of narrative for change, partnered with Hua Wang, Ph.D., at the University of Buffalo to assess the show’s impact.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Racks Up More Than 1 Million Community Service Hours
Thanks to service learning courses and other volunteer service, UTEP has surpassed the million-hour mark for annual community service.
UTEP students reached the milestone by completing 1,115,542 community service hours between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, an increase of 38 percent over the number of hours recorded the previous year.
Read the full story here.
UTEP’s Campus Transformation Earns Global Recognition
Centennial Plaza has lived up to its promise as “UTEP’s living room” since it opened officially in April 2015, and now it is being recognized globally for its sustainable design.
A recent honor from Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) marked UTEP’s Campus Transformation project as the first project in the world to earn a SITES Silver Certification Award for achievement in landscape sustainability. SITES is the world’s most comprehensive program for sustainable land development and aligns land development and management with innovative design.
Read the full story here.
UTEP Posts Record Fall Enrollment for 18th Straight Year
The University of Texas at El Paso broke its fall student enrollment record for the 18th straight year and did it with the largest single year increase in five years. The University registered 23,922 students this fall compared to 23,397 in 2015. That is a 2.2 percent increase, the University’s largest increase since 2011 when student population swelled by 2.4 percent.
Read the full story here.
$7.7M in UTEP Scholarships to Prepare Health Professions Workforce
UTEP will award more than $7.7 million in scholarships over the next four years to qualified disadvantaged students in social work, occupational therapy and physical therapy graduate programs in the College of Health Sciences.
The funding is made possible through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Read the full story here.
NSF Awards UTEP $621K to Continue Arctic Research
The National Science Foundation recently awarded $621,488 to UTEP under the direction of Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Jennie McLaren, Ph.D., for Arctic research that will assess herbivore impacts on carbon cycling in northern Alaska.
“Understanding what impacts the carbon storage in the Arctic is critically important, particularly currently in light of global change,” McLaren said. “This is an amazing opportunity for both myself and also the students at UTEP.”
Read the full story here.
Graduates Celebrate Unforgettable UTEP Experiences
Commencement is a time for graduates to celebrate their academic achievements and reflect on personal experiences. Here are the stories of four recent UTEP students who graduated during the Winter Commencement ceremonies. The University shaped their lives in ways they never imagined.
Read the full story here.