Institutional Enhancement

Texas Tech University received a $50 million Institutional Enhancement grant through the Governor's Office in response to needs accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is currently a one-time grant. We will include a request for non-formula funding in TTU's Legislative Appropriation Request for the 2024-25 biennium (or $25M per fiscal year) to continue the $50M Institutional Enhancement funding going forward.

The $50 million must be tied to pandemic needs – to enhance academic excellence, address student enrollment, retention and student success needs and respond to additional research needs identified during the pandemic.

While the general direction has been decided, the details of programs will be fleshed out with vice presidents and vice provosts with input from faculty and staff.

Funds will be used in three areas:

• Academic Excellence
• Student Success
• Faculty Success

In the area of academic excellence, dollars will be spent to stay connected, communicate proactively and often, and remain engaged with students, faculty, and staff (e.g., Salesforce). Mental wellness investments for faculty and staff are also included in this category. 

Academic Excellence

The university achieved metrics that place us in the top 70 public universities in total research expenditures, doctorates awarded, and faculty awards. To enhance these academic excellence efforts, we will spend $10 million on the following:

• Launching and staffing a faculty mentoring program;
• Equipping and connectivity enhancements for Student Welcome Center; and
• Salesforce Student Success Hub for student advising, operations, and all other aspects of the student journey while at Texas Tech University.
• Funding for new faculty in academic areas supporting mental health and wellness;
• Improved marketing efforts for the Beyond Okay campaign.

Learn more about these efforts at Beyond Okay.

Student Success

As Texas Tech has reached record enrollments, we are committed to student success and preparing students to be ethical leaders for a diverse and globally competitive workforce. To accomplish this goal, we must continue to improve graduation and retention rates while decreasing student debt. We will make efforts at the graduate and undergraduate levels to enhance student success. 

At the graduate level, we will add ($7.5M):

• Graduate assistantships for student success;
• Funding for graduate student assistantships supporting mental health and wellness;
• Doctoral fellowships for student success to improve time to degree; and
• Enrollment and retention scholarships, low-award, high-volume to support self-pay programs.

At the undergraduate level, we will ($10M):

• Hire academic advisors in positions across campus and provide professional development resources to academic advisors on campus;
• Hire student success coaches and managers, centrally trained and deployed across campus;
• Launch and staff a College to Career program;
• Re-envision the Student Basic Needs Resource Center and enhance student mental wellness resources;
• Merit scholarships; and
• Adoption of a telehealth conferencing platform.

Faculty Success

Our research efforts – focusing on key resiliency issues– impact the quality of life for all Texans. Progress in these areas relies on research into these complex, critical issues. For this reason, we will allocate a significant portion of these dollars to hiring additional early- and mid-career stage faculty members with the goal of doubling external federal research funding within the next five years.

Resilience is the key to a thriving future for Texas. We are focused on critical issues facing Texas and threatening its economic security. From urban to rural areas, Texas is committed to ensuring the quality of life for ALL Texans so that our citizens can make opportunities where they live rather than having to live where there are opportunities. Progress in these areas relies on research into some of the most critical, complex issues. To enhance our research success, we will spend $19.1 million on the following:

• Hiring several early-stage and mid-stage career faculty over three years; and
• Funding startup packages in key disciplines.

 

To learn more about this, please email provost@ttu.edu