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President’s Letter
Fall 2008

President RodneyMabry is pictured outside the south building of the Bill Ratliff Engineering and Science Complex.

UT Tyler matters.

We know that higher education increases productivity and improves living standards—our ultimate goal.

With university educational attainment among its citizens less than half the state average, the East Texas region is at a significant disadvantage in generating economic growth. Noted Texas economist Dr. Ray Perryman has said that UT Tyler, even at this young stage of its development, is already the most important single economic influence for growth in East Texas.

This region’s highest priority should be to assure quality education at every level in the area, including a very strong university that rivals the top universities in the State.

After making great strides in stage one to become one of the fastest growing institutions in Texas and one of the State’s finest in terms of the distinguished educational performance of its graduates, UT Tyler is ready to ignite stage two. UT Tyler needs to establish itself dramatically as THE best university in Texas for high-ability undergraduate students—the premier university where they can fulfill their academic dreams in a supportive environment on a uniquely beautiful campus.

We can and should fully develop our strategic educational niche in Texas for first-rate, flagship-capable students—to be the strong alternative institution to UT Austin and the other large, impersonal, urban campuses that dominate UT System and all of Texas. No public institution in the State focuses on providing the rigorous educational experience for high-ability undergraduate students that UT Tyler does.

UT Tyler can be that institution and can make its mark as such. In fact, we envision the day when most highability undergraduate students whether freshman or outstanding transfer students—would choose to attend UT Tyler over all others.

We can develop our niche by further enhancing our curriculum with a new honors program, The UT Tyler Tradition, and enriching the lives and capabilities of our students with a new global awareness program, learning communities and service learning opportunities. We continue to provide the finest classrooms, labs and student facilities available anywhere—and great faculty members who care as much about teaching as they do their research and scholarship.

UT Tyler also matters because this unique and special institution is available at the very instant when East Texas young people, at their most promising and vulnerable moments, come seeking their futures. We can be Texas’ premier public university for high-ability undergraduates.

And, we plan to be.

Rod Mabry