A Message from President Damphousse

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

It’s a great day to be a Bobcat!

Yesterday, Texas voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 5, which creates the Texas University Fund (TUF). This $3.9 billion permanent endowment ensures sustainable funding for TXST, Texas Tech University, University of North Texas, and the University of Houston.

With this new fund, TXST will receive approximately $22 million per year (starting this fiscal year) to support our research enterprise, and to elevate the educational experience and career opportunities of our students. Not only is TUF good for TXST, it is also good for Texas because the funding will support research that generates new innovations and jobs. TUF will impact the future of our state as a world thought, research, and economic leader.

I want to thank the Governor and the Legislature for having the bold vision to put forward this historic investment in higher education. I am especially grateful for the work of Chancellor Brian McCall and the Texas State University System leadership team for ensuring TXST’s inclusion in TUF. I also appreciate the voters of the great state of Texas for seeing the importance of growing our state’s research and higher education capacity. Texas is the eighth-largest economy in the world, and the state deserves to have more than two top-100 research universities. The TUF will accelerate TXST’s efforts to make that a reality.

TUF also moves TXST closer to reaching our Hopes and Aspirations High vision for our shared future and its five strategic imperatives — elevate student success, Run to R1, increase enrollment, grow the Round Rock Campus, and become an employer of choice. Specifically for the Run to R1, TUF helps us give more students the opportunity to engage in research and provides a greater investment in faculty and research infrastructure.

We have so much to celebrate at TXST. I am thrilled to add TUF to the growing list. I look forward to sharing more details about TUF and what it will mean for TXST in the weeks and months ahead.

Sincerely,

Kelly Damphousse, Ph.D.

President