In the interest of time, we'll uh begin this legislative intergovernmental affairs committee.

We'll call it to order.

I think we got a quorum, we're good.

First, on the agenda is approval to March 3rd minutes.

Second.

All is in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed?

April or March 3rd meetings minutes are approved.

I went down to briefing items.

We have Tarleton State University Vision Fort Worth.

Dr.

Capp is here along with uh Dr.

Baker as well.

So y'all, you're up.

Great.

Well, good afternoon, good morning, depending on I know what time it is.

Uh, but it's good to be with you.

It's a joy to have a few minutes uh to share a little bit about our Tarleton State Fort Worth efforts and Tarleton State efforts.

So we do have material for everybody, and if you did not get it already, we'll make sure that you have it before uh the end of today's session.

But uh, for those I haven't had a chance to personally connect with, my name is Rachel Capua.

Uh Councilmember Crane, thank you for the the opportunity to connect and uh to share with this committee and this team about uh a few efforts and a few updates related to Tarleton State.

And I do want to be really mindful of time given the agenda and um us starting a bit later.

So I'm gonna run through things pretty quickly.

Uh but if you have any questions as we walk through this, please stop me at any time.

Uh but there's really kind of three main goals for this.

Number one, uh, on behalf of our president, Dr.

James Hurley, and our executive cabinet and team, we wanted to give you some updates about you know university-wide efforts, but really focus specifically on Tarleton State Fort Worth, what's happening here in Fort Worth, um, our our shared vision for Fort Worth, and then how Tarleton State will be part of the Texas AM Fort Worth project.

And so with that, just some quick level setting and context setting.

Uh, as a university, as an institution, um, we're at about 21,000 students statewide now.

Uh, and we really make up uh many locations.

Our home anchor campus in Stephenville, Texas, uh, which just had its 125th anniversary, uh, now just about a cycle or two ago.

Um, and so in terms of the institution and its roots, they run deep here in Texas.

Uh, we are a proud member of the Texas AM system, and so uh it was the first institution to join that system in 1917.

Uh but here in Fort Worth, we've been serving our city here uh and our community here since 1978.

And so we have locations uh in the two uh areas mentioned, and then Waco and then Brian.

So uh just a level set on that context.

I'll be brief with this, uh, but want to share some specific stats about just the university at large.

Uh we are experiencing some really tremendous and encouraging enrollment growth, and since 2019, it's been about 60 percent increase, which is in large part to our president and our team.

But specifically here, uh, this stat that you see on the screen is what we're most proud about.

It's 84 percent, uh now ranked number one in Texas for six consecutive years for students who graduate, which is what we want, right?

We want them to graduate with the post-secondary credential and then move to a uh an employment of choice or graduate school.

So 84% of our students are finding that next step.

Um, and one of those two paths, and again, it's the number one in Texas, which is something that we're really proud about.

Um, related to legislative priorities, and I wanted to hit this quickly for this team and this committee in particular.

Uh, legislatively and from a prioritization standpoint, health sciences is and will continue to remain a key focus for us.

Uh in this last legislative session, we did focus on uh the proposal for a college of osteopathic medicine.

Uh so we hired our executive founding dean for that.

It will be focused on rural health, and so you see on this slide uh as we work and focus and prioritize on health sciences, we want it to specifically impact our rural populations across Texas.

So you'll see some updates and related efforts there, and then it related to health care, it is about facilities, it is about uh ensuring that we have the right spaces and places for these programs to thrive.

So the actual building that you see on the left-hand side is here in Fort Worth.

We opened it in 2024.

Some of you were there, and the building on the right is our new health professions building in Stephenville.

So as we really focus on interprofessional education and processes related to those, programs related to those, we have the facilities to help support.

Let me jump in uh to the most important part of I know what you may have questions about, and that is Tarleton State Fort Worth.

So I mentioned 1978 was when we had our very first program here.

And as the city continues to grow, of course, our higher education landscape is also thriving and also growing.

Specific to our campus here in Cowtown, we're sitting at just under 2700 students here at Tarleton State Fort Worth, about 1800 of those undergraduate, just under 900 graduate.

This also includes our dual credit program with Crowley ISD.

So we actually have these students traveling from Crowley and North Crowley High School to Tarleton State Fort Worth five days a week pending their schedule to take college level credit.