The Fifth Decade

E4 | Sunday, January 19, 2020 | lmtonline.com | Laredo Morning Times 50 Anniversary and programs Whether serving as pro- vost or president, Arenaz has helped the university steadi- ly expand its fields of study and its programs offered over the past decade. He has stayed true to the mission of maintaining a comprehen- sive university with majors and minors added across a wide-array of disciplines. However, some of the most significant additions have been expanding the univer- sity’s presence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). TAMIU was recognized in January 2010 for its efforts in a study by the University of Southern Cali- fornia’s Center for Urban Education. The study – fi- nanced by the National Sci- ence Foundation – named it among the nation’s top 25 universities considered ex- emplars of good practices leading to the graduation of more Latinos in STEM. A year later in January 2011, TAMIU added a new robotics competition called “FIRST Tech Challenge” aimed toward high school students eyeing a future in engineering or science. Tournament participants were mentored by TAMIU’s engineering faculty and local STEM teachers. In the same month, the university also held the first TAMIU STEM Day at the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center and Planetarium, an event spon- sored by Congressman Hen- ry Cuellar and the Office of Academic Affairs. Cuellar also influenced the STEM presence at TA- MIU as he announced the awarding of five federal grants which totaled more than $49.9 million. The funding went to the univer- sity’s diverse educational initiatives. The second of the grants was for increasing the number of His- panics and low- income students earning STEM degrees. The first grant was for Gain- ing Early Aware- ness and Readiness for Undergradu- ate Programs. The third helped mi- grant students or children of migrant farm workers earn degrees and gain employment. The fourth provided scholarships to low-income nurs- ing students, and the fifth drove sci- ence research by granting funds for an Applied Bio- System 3500 Ge- netic Analyzer for the Molecular Ge- netics Core Facility. The advancements in STEM brought in additional funding that October as TA- MIU received a US Depart- ment of Education Minority Science and Engineering Im- provement Program three- year grant for $749,120 for its STEMMinority Outreach and Retention Enhancement Program. TAMIU advanced its sci- ence research again that Oc- tober using funds from a US Department of Education Title V PPOHA Program called “Graduate Retention Enhancement at TAMIU.” The funds were used to pur- chase a JSM-6610LV high- performance, low-vacuum Scanning Electron Micro- scope. In announcing the ac- quisition of the microscope, Arenaz said, “this provides students with opportunities usually only available at much larger universities and enhances their competencies for further graduate or doc- toral study. In September 2013, the National Science Founda- tion provided more than $1.5 million to TAMIU’s STEM program increasing financial support for minority STEM students. One of the biggest ad- vancements in the pro- gram came in April 2014 as TAMIU announced a fall launch of a university-level academy on campus for high school juniors and seniors focusing on STEM and in- ternational studies. The Tex- as Academy of International and STEM Studies was made possible by legislation authored by Senator Zaffiri- ni and approved in 2005 by the 79th Texas Legislature. “When I came in 2008 as provost, I think one of the reasons Ray Keck brought me in was my background in science,” Arenaz said. “The thought was we needed to expand what we’re doing in science. We were on the cusp of starting engineering. We’d just gotten the systems engineering off the ground, so the idea was how do we build and expand our engi- neering? How do we expand our biology and chemistry and really set into motion a different focus in the sci- ences and engineering? “Those fields provide universities like TAMIU with options you don’t tra- ditionally have in other fields for extramural re- search grants from the fed- eral government and other companies. Part of the idea for building the infrastruc- ture for engineering and en- hancing the sciences was it would generate a bit more extramural funding for us as a university. We’ve done a good job of that. We’ve seen the research expenditures increase quite substantially over the last decade.” STEM advancements are just the tip of the iceberg for TAMIU. In 2011 it began offering minors in English- TAMIU announced in 2014 the launch of a STEM and Interna- tional Studies academy.