Highlights from the November 2023 board meeting

Dear Texas Woman’s Community,

Last week was busy but eventful. On Tuesday, I hosted a meeting on the Dallas campus to talk about the leadership search for that campus. Wednesday, we celebrated the kick-off for our Dream Big comprehensive campaign in Houston and held a similar leadership search meeting with Houston faculty and staff. Thursday, the TWU Foundation board met in Houston, where Associate Clinical Professor Suzanne Scheller offered the board an outstanding presentation on the “Power of Nursing” program. Then, I traveled to Austin for a ceremony honoring the newest inductees to the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. I ended the week in Austin at the quarterly meeting of the Texas Woman’s University System Board of Regents. I am grateful for Chancellor Milliken’s gracious hosting of our meeting at the UT System HQ.

The board meeting started with a closed session. Following that session, Regent Chair Stacie McDavid publicly acknowledged the challenging financial times for many Texas Woman’s faculty and staff. She went on to offer board support to my administration’s approach to employee merit pay increases during this biennium. I am grateful for the regent’s support and recognition that the faculty and staff are the backbone of our mission.

The board meeting included presentations illuminating several areas where the university excels. The regents heard about how Texas Woman’s earned the highly coveted Seal of Excelencia, a certification from the national organization Excelencia in Education issued to institutions that demonstrate exceptional achievement in accelerating Latinx student success. It shows that we have high standards in many areas, such as enrollment, retention, transfer, financial support, and workforce leadership, that enrich the college experience for Latinx students. It is a rigorous process to earn the designation, as only 39 colleges and universities have attained this prestigious recognition (and there are more than 500 colleges and universities with the federal designation of Hispanic-Serving Institution and 400 as emerging HSIs).

Another area in which we demonstrated our distinctiveness was in the high praise our students reported about their overall experience at Texas Woman’s. Vice President for Student Life Monica Mendez-Grant pointed out that the Wall Street Journal ranked Texas Woman’s No. 7 in the nation for student experience this year. In a national, annual student survey of residential students in which more than 300 universities participated, Texas Woman’s received the highest ratings in the categories of overall satisfaction, overall learning, and overall program effectiveness. University Housing and Dining Executive Director Jill Eckardt said Texas Woman’s rated highest compared with peer institutions, those that are members of the same athletic conference, or the overall pool of surveyed universities.

Dr. Javier Flores, vice president for enrollment management, noted that this fall’s first-time-in-college class was 8.7% larger than the fall 2022 class, marking the second year in a row the university reached a record high for that population. While overall enrollment at Texas Woman’s dipped about 2% from a year ago, the number of semester credit hours decreased by only 0.5%, meaning that students are taking more credit hours. Flores said the university aims to reach 20,000 students by 2027, and efforts to raise enrollment are ongoing. He said one strategy is opening empowerment centers in different regions of the state and partnering with economic development offices, which share a common goal of educating more people to take on high-skill jobs that benefit their respective areas.

With Veterans Day last Saturday, we thought it appropriate to demonstrate how the university supports student veterans and active military personnel. Amy O’Keefe, executive director of the Campus Alliance for Resource Education (CARE), reported that the university has 272 registered veterans or active military members currently enrolled. She shared that the university maintains dedicated staff in the registrar’s and CARE offices, has a dedicated veterans lounge, offers military members and vets priority registration, and provides honor cords for graduation, to name a few. One of the more critical aspects of our veteran population is what they bring from their lived experience to enrich our university culture. I so appreciated that value-add mindset.

Finally, regents authorized the university to move forward with plans to create murals and place TWU-branded medallions on both sides of an Interstate 35 overpass at University Drive. The murals and medallions will be part of a larger project involving the City of Denton and the Texas Department of Transportation to add artistic elements to highway walls along a stretch of Interstate 35. We are excited about creating greater visibility for the university, an integral part of the Denton community.

I have said it before but cannot say it often enough. Thank you for all you do to make these board meetings a joy; even though you may not be present at them in person, your spirit is there. The “good news” reports and action items do not just happen. They result from many years of effort from dedicated faculty and staff. It is a privilege to serve at Texas Woman’s along with all of you!

With a pioneering spirit,

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

Page last updated 4:15 PM, November 15, 2023