Message From the Chancellor (August 25, 2020)

Ah, c’mon 2020!!

Dear TWU Community,

Happy second day of the fall semester! Already we have had a nationwide failure of Zoom and Canvas, and now Hurricane Laura (following Marco) is heading towards the Gulf Coast. Ah, c’mon 2020!! Sometimes, all I can do is smh—shake my head. How many more times do we have to be strong and get through this together? And yet...we are, and we will!

Last week, with the Fall Assembly, the Culturally Responsive Teaching panel, my husband’s birthday, cabinet meeting, Boldly Go newsletter, Dallas Regional Chamber's “State of Higher Education” panel, and TESSTalk, and then closing out with the annual Block Party, T-dub TikTok Takeover, and sundry meetings between them all, I never had a chance to send you a board meeting summary. So let me quickly offer a few highlights from that TWU Board of Regents meeting:

• Approved the online delivery of three existing programs: M.A. in Sociology; M.Ed. in Teaching, Leadership, and Collaboration; Post-Master’s Certificate in Family Nurse Practitioner. These should increase appeal to non-traditional students;
• Approved an investment strategy to grow enrollment through a three-year benchmarked partnership with Ruffalo Noel Levitz;
• Approved the employee Tuition Assistance Program—hurray;
• Approved increased investment in the Fieldhouse project—investing now when construction costs are lower, financing is less expensive, and the benefits of added academic space will add some breathing room for the College of Business;
• Approved the use of reserve funds for improvements to the security systems for all three campuses;
• Approved the overall budget;
• Approved the renaming of the Bralley Annex to the Support Annex, thanks to the work of the Quakertown Committee;
• Heard highlights of tenured and promoted faculty;
• Received a report on the university’s response to COVID-19 (see excerpted bar graph below), which shows Texas Woman’s well exceeds the national average on overall effectiveness, access to tools, preparation to participate online, and students’ new willingness to learn and engage in online instruction;
• Recognized former TWU Regent George Schrader of Dallas with an honorary doctorate; and
• Thanked Dr. Richard Woodcock for his gifts totaling $25 million to the Woodcock Institute for the Advancement of Neurocognitive Research and Applied Practice.

I want to end with some positive, preliminary news about enrollment. Though the numbers will continue to fluctuate until census date, we are currently up overall, largely thanks to new and continuing dual credit students. While new and transfer student numbers are down, every other category is up. The gem in this nugget of good news is that student retention is strong. If we can grow our enrollment through persisting current students, then we—you and the entire Texas Woman’s community as we see in the bar graph above—are succeeding in advancing the Texas Woman’s mission.

We have so much work yet to do—building up our financial aid infrastructure, graduate student admission processing, and so much more—but I want to publicly thank Dr. Monica Mendez-Grant for her leadership of the Strategic Enrollment Management Committee and all of the positive changes they are implementing.

I know you will join me in holding dear our Houston colleagues, students, family, and friends as well as all of those along the coast potentially impacted by these storms coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.

In closing, I want to send you all my best as we seize the opportunities ahead and overcome the challenges of this first week.

With a pioneering spirit,

Carine M. Feyten, Ph.D.
Chancellor and President

P.S. For the latest information, check out the Fall 2020 website.

Page last updated 3:42 PM, May 7, 2024