Large banners displaying a reimagined College of Texas at San Antonio seal in its emblematic blue, orange and white are ushering new and returning college students to the inaugural yr as a merged establishment with the College of Texas Well being Science Middle at San Antonio.
The mixed college will keep the title of the College of Texas at San Antonio, however is now seeking to be generally known as UT San Antonio.
This week the general public analysis establishment welcomes an estimated 40,000 college students and greater than 17,000 college and employees to its six campuses making it the third-largest college within the state and the second-largest within the UT System, proper behind UT Austin.
And it now boasts a $2.4 billion working finances that features $486 million {dollars} in analysis spending and a $1.3 billion endowment.
Educational leaders say that with that scale comes potential — extra college students, extra top-notch college, and extra funding to help all of it, at a time when many universities are tightening their belts.
“This merger is coming collectively for the proper causes and on the proper time,” stated Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, now senior government VP for well being affairs and well being system at UT San Antonio, talking earlier than the UT Board of Regents. “The scholars and the college and the employees are embracing it; if you get that sense, you understand you’re doing the proper factor.”
UTSA graduate Kathleen Becker, 25, sees the merger as a possibility to affix collectively two prestigious establishments.
She moved to San Antonio from Houston as a scholar athlete in 2018. And regardless of having to stop the soccer workforce early on resulting from well being issues, she discovered the help she wanted to finish her bachelors diploma in medical humanities.
After commencement she discovered a simple transition to UT Well being San Antonio’s Faculty of Dentistry, the place she continued her research and expects to graduate with a Physician of Dental Surgical procedure diploma in Could.
“I simply assume on the whole, they’re each powerhouse colleges which have gained nationwide recognition through the years,” Becker stated. “(The merger) provides college students a wider vary of educational applications after which skilled pathways in well being care and science,” she stated.
On Aug. 22, 2024, the UT Board of Regents permitted the proposed merger, which gave the inexperienced gentle for the 2 establishments to start the prolonged course of.
That very same day, Taylor Eighmy, who has led UTSA as president since 2017, was put accountable for overseeing the primary steps of this course of together with then-acting president of UT Well being San Antonio Dr. Rob Hromas.
Hromas had taken the reigns of the well being college simply earlier than the passing of longtime UT Well being San Antonio president Dr. William L. Henrich in March 2024. Henrich had led the establishment since 2009, with considered one of his last tasks being the institution of the UT Well being San Antonio Multispecialty and Analysis Hospital, which opened its doorways to sufferers within the South Texas Medical Middle late final yr.
By early 2025, Eighmy was named performing president of UT Well being San Antonio, with the promise to ultimately be named president of the now-merged establishment.
Within the span of 1 yr, college leaders labored to mix college and employees, shaped working teams, and constructed out a brand new presidential cupboard. All with the intention to kind a stronger, extra aggressive establishment of the 2 collectively or to turn out to be, as Eighmy put it, a couple of.
“This isn’t a consolidation merger the place one plus one is lower than two. It’s not additive the place one plus one is 2,” Eighmy stated. “It’s this idea the place we’re coming collectively to develop and we’re actually operating round saying it’s one plus one equals 10.”
A decades-old concept
UT San Antonio is actually an concept that has percolated in and across the UT System for over 20 years.
Merger proposals date way back to 1999, Eighmy stated, and once more in 2000 when former Democratic state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte introduced ahead laws to merge the 2 establishments. An excellent nearer look was taken about 15 years in the past, when the board reconsidered the thought, bringing in a panel of consultants to weigh in.
“The notion of bringing them collectively made sense. The query was when to do it?” Eighmy stated. “The panel stated, ‘Nice concept. The timing isn’t proper. The 2 establishments aren’t prepared.’”
The 2 establishments had been independently profitable, giving no rapid motive to merge or change what was not damaged, he defined. However that shifted as they continued to develop and rise in status.
UT Well being San Antonio turned the biggest educational well being analysis establishment in South Texas and have become one of many high recipients of federal analysis funds from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. UTSA grew its enrollment to greater than 35,000 college students throughout seven schools, and in addition turned a nationally acknowledged analysis establishment.
The 2 establishments additionally reached coveted “R1” standing from the Carnegie Basis for the Development of Instructing. That’s a designation given to establishments that spend at the very least $50 million on analysis and award at the very least 70 analysis doctorates yearly.
The classification is extremely desired amongst universities and is seen as key to recruiting top-notch college, acquiring extra analysis grants and enhancing their status.
And, throughout this time, San Antonio was rising, too. Its inhabitants surpassed 1.5 million in 2024, touchdown it among the many high 10 most populous cities within the nation, in response to U.S. Census information.
“This Board of Regents has been dedicated to leveraging the dimensions and scale of the UT System for optimum affect for the folks of Texas,” stated the then-UT System Chancellor James Milliken as he proposed the merger to the board final yr.
“We have now that chance immediately in Texas with two of our universities simply miles aside from one another whose distinctive and extremely complimentary applications and trajectories have made this an ideal time to combine as one premier establishment making a powerhouse better than the sum of the elements,” he continued.
Because the board thought-about this transformation, Texas high leaders had been additionally making vital investments in analysis. In 2023, the Texas College Fund was created with a $3.9 billion endowment to help public universities exterior of the UT and Texas A&M methods — which have unique entry to the Everlasting College Fund.
It was a great time to make these inner investments to help present establishments. However a couple of months after the approval, the Trump administration started to chop funds and entry to grants leading to funding cuts to most public universities.
“The reductions that we’re seeing, the grants that had been terminated and awards which have slowed down as a result of the processes in D.C. have been slowed down… all of this stuff are actually vital headwinds for everyone, together with us,” Eighmy stated. “In Texas, we’re slightly bit higher off as a result of now we have a very excessive diploma of state help for public increased schooling.”
The merger additionally creates a stronger and extra nimble establishment, in a position to higher make the most of its funding and sources to reply in a extra proactive method to modifications on the federal stage, he stated.
In January, Eighmy appointed Cigarroa to the brand new position of senior government vice chairman to proceed overseeing the UT Well being San Antonio campus, which he had led and been part of since 1995.
Cigarroa, a practising doctor, was not obtainable for an interview earlier than this story was revealed. However he appeared earlier than the UT System Board of Regents earlier this month — the identical day Eighmy was formally named president of the brand new UT San Antonio.
“It’s unimaginable that only one yr in the past the Board of Regents handed a historic (movement), to merge two Analysis 1 universities in San Antonio,” Cigarroa stated earlier than the UT board. “That is actually one of the crucial necessary votes prior to now 100 years … It’s completely an inflection level, an inflection level for the state of Texas.”
Information of the merger unfold quick after the UT System Board of Regents vote final fall. College officers rapidly launched an internet site meant to replace these on each public step of the mixing course of.
“It’s going to take us a couple of years to completely combine,” Cigarroa instructed the board on Aug. 20. “We’re actually taking two legacy establishments and the easiest of what every does, pulling them collectively, creating a brand new college.”
A lot of the work occurred behind the scenes this yr, as college students and college went on with their spring semesters as deliberate. It’s unclear what number of workers had been laid off over the previous yr, however Eighmy says they had been unrelated to the merger.
“Any type of modest reductions in workforces on each campuses is due to the federal headwinds we’re going through,” he stated. “It has completely nothing to do with merger and integration.”
One of many first celebrations got here by mid June, when the Southern Affiliation of Schools and Colleges Fee on Schools, higher generally known as SACSCOC, permitted the merger plans.
Visits by SACSCOC officers are slated for this fall. That is wanted for UT San Antonio’s accreditation to be absolutely confirmed.
That approval meant that Sept. 1, was the official first day as an built-in establishment.
At the present time is slated to be named in all recounts of the college’s historical past, Eighmy and his workforce are effectively conscious that that is yet one more step towards a extra grandiose aim.
At this time, the merged establishment provides 320 undergraduate and graduate applications and certificates in additional than a dozen fields together with science, engineering, drugs and public well being.
The target is for San Antonians and South Texas residents to depend on UT San Antonio for entry to a great schooling, and a aggressive diploma that leads them to good paying jobs, Eighmy stated. But in addition for groundbreaking, community-impactful analysis.
The extra evident indicators of change for college students, college and employees now and within the months to come back will vary from efforts to attach the 2 establishments bringing college students from one campus to the opposite, to new educational applications meant to be accessible to all college students.
Eighmy stated work is already underway to combine different areas, together with bringing scientists and engineers onto one campus to extend collaboration and publicity for college students.
Already within the works is preparations to launch a 10-year strategic plan as early because the spring to draft a roadmap that prioritizes sustaining the top-research designation, whereas maintaining entry and alternative on the forefront of any effort.
“We’re going to be glorious and the way we offer well being care. We’re going to be glorious about how we educate. We’re going to be glorious about how we innovate… and really positively disrupt society,” Eighmy stated. “However we additionally relatively be recognized by who we admit and who we exclude.”
Danya Pérez will proceed to cowl UT-San Antonio. When you have questions concerning the merger or concepts, electronic mail her at danya@sareport.org.
The San Antonio Report companions with Open Campus on increased schooling protection.
