UT-Tyler Aims To Be ‘Major Player’ In Higher Ed

(Ritter Tower at UT-Tyler. Source: James Hescock)

The Board of Regents aims to make UT-Tyler a major player in state higher education, according to UT-Tyler President Julie Philley, who spoke to faculty and staff at convocation Aug. 23.

“We have new opportunity…to become a major player in higher education in the state of Texas,” the new president told faculty and staff. “The Board of Regents have(sic) made it clear to me they want to support us.”

In 2023, UT-Tyler welcomed the first class of its new school of medicine and this year it completed a new building for its growing college of nursing. Now, Philley said the University will reopen the shuttered Behavioral Health Center to serve as a mental health facility and to support its academic departments.

“Yesterday, the Board of Regents approved a plan that will allow us to reopen the Behavioral Health Center across the street with plans to provide needed mental health services to this region and a place for our psychiatry and psychology departments to flourish,” she said.

According to the Aug. 21 proposal in The Board of Regents meeting, UT-Tyler proposed its Health Science Center operate a new inpatient behavioral health facility in partnership with Oceans Healthcare, a private management company, in East Texas. According to the proposal, the new facility will include both “academic affiliation and clinical rotation agreements” that will “support the academic operations of U.T. Tyler.”

The arrangement is similar to the joint-venture UT Health East Texas has with Ardent Health Services at its hospital in Tyler.

In her speech, Philley said the University has more moves ahead to position itself as a statewide higher education leader. “You'll see that I'm going to ask and advocate for legislative support for big plays in education and health” this academic year, she told the assembly.

As a combined academic and medical institution, the new UT-Tyler serves East Texas as one of UT-System’s 14 state institutions.

Please send reader comments to hescock james 01 at g mail dot com.

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