FEATURED, FROM LEFT: Letty Flores, Member, Board of Trustees, Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District; Dr. Luis “Louie” G. Alamia, PT, DPT, Secretary, Board of Trustees, ECISD; and Carmen González, President, Board of Trustees, ECISD. Alamia has announced that Edinburg could see more advancements in construction, sports and medicine when the UT System Board of Regents meets in Austin on Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9, 2024, to consider approving for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg a $135.5 million Student Housing and Dining project, $9 million in field renovations of the recently-acquired Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium, and plans to seek state approval for an optometry program, reports Dr. Luis “Louie” G. Alamia, PT, DPT. This image was taken at the Edinburg CISD Scholarship Golf Tournament held in late April 2024.
Photograph By MARK MONTEMAYOR
••••••
$135.5 million Student Housing and Dining project, $9 million renovations of college football stadium, and optometry program in Edinburg among major projects to be considered by UT System Board of Regents on May 8 and May 9, 2024, reports Dr. Luis “Louie” G. Alamia, PT, DPT
By DAVID A. DÍAZ
[email protected]
Edinburg could see more advancements in construction, sports and medicine when the UT System Board of Regents meets in Austin on Wednesday, May 8 and Thursday, May 9, 2024, to consider approving for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley a $135.5 million Student Housing and Dining project, $9 million in renovations of the recently-acquired Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium, and seeking state approval for an optometry program, reports Dr. Luis “Louie” G. Alamia, PT, DPT.
Alamia, who currently serves as Secretary, Board of Trustees, Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, has extensive professional background. As a DPT, he has a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. A PT (physical therapist) has a bachelor’s or master’s degree in physical therapy. Both DPTs and PTs are qualified to examine and treat movement difficulties.
“These latest plans by the UT System and UTRGV leadership, along with the Board of Regents, will have significant and positive effects on our community and region,” said Alamia.
UTRGV in Edinburg is located in District 20 of Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and in District 40 of Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg.
In addition to his key leadership role with the school district, Alamia also closely monitors and supports state legislative efforts on behalf of UTRGV in Edinburg, the Texas A&M College Higher Education Center in McAllen, which is located in the Edinburg school district taxing jurisdiction, South Texas College, Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, and other post-secondary education systems that serve the Edinburg community.
“These universities and colleges affect and benefit public education, economic development and job growth in Edinburg,” he noted. “It is in the best interest of the Edinburg school board that we take active roles in the key agendas of these colleges and universities, and that we work closely with our state lawmakers, and the leaders for those higher education systems, to make sure all of them succeed for the Edinburg school district.”
UTRGV President Dr. Guy Bailey is scheduled to be in Austin during the board of regents’ two-day sessions, which will be open to the public.
Interested individuals who are unable to make it to the regents’ meeting are able to view the proceedings on both days, or view the videotaped recording after the session, by logging on to:
https://www.utsystem.edu/board-of-regents/meetings/board-meeting-2024-05-08
The agenda packet for the Wednesday, May 8, 2024 and Thursday, May 9, 2024 provides the following information on the Student Housing and Dining project, the field renovations of the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium, and the optometry program.
Student Housing and Dining project
On June 29, 2023, James B. Milliken, Chancellor, The University of Texas System, approved the Student Housing and Dining project, which will be more than 174,000 gross square feet in size.
Gross square feet, or GSF, is the entire square footage of a building. GSF typically includes areas such as the building core, maintenance and operations areas, stairwells, elevator shafts, equipment areas, attics, garages, balconies, excavated basement areas, mezzanines, corridors and walkways.
Located at the intersection of North Sugar Road and West Van Week Street on the western edge of the Edinburg campus, the new facility will be adjacent to existing housing communities and the Vaquero Dining Hall.
Designed to facilitate meaningful interactions that build community and foster connections, the new residence hall will offer double, single, and premium single bed units configured in community pods around shared collaboration spaces.
When completed, it will increase on-campus student housing in Edinburg from 810 to 1,160 beds by 2026 and 1,360 beds by 2027.
The proposed project will construct a residence hall to provide 550 beds.
This facility will feature various common areas tailored for study and community-building activities.
The project will also include a dining facility with seating capacity for 500 students.
Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium
The $9 million in proposed financing is for field renovations at the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium, formerly known as H-E-B Park.
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, UTRGV announced it had acquired H-E-B Park, designating the venue as the primary home for the upcoming Vaqueros football program.
On Thursday, March 21, 2024, university officials named H-E-B Park as the Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium.
The Robert and Janet Vackar Stadium will serve as the home of the upcoming Vaqueros football program and will also host a variety of other university events.
The Vaqueros football team – which begins its first season in the fall of 2025 as a Division 1 program – will play a home game each season in Brownsville at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally.
D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate and nicer facilities and a few more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I
H-E-B Park was built as a soccer-specific stadium in Edinburg.
The stadium has two stands with orange seats covered with a roof and a capacity of 9,735.
It is considered the premiere outdoor sports and entertainment destination in the Rio Grande Valley, and served as a central community hub of outdoor space for live music events, sporting events, festivals and more.
It’s features include:
- 20 acres of festival grounds
- A 360-degree sports bar
- Two (2) soccer practice fields equipped for 7 by 7 and 5 by 5 soccer
- Full catering services
- Food and beverage plazas
- 43 feet by 24 feet LED scoreboard
- In-house PA Sound System
- Thirty (30) Luxury Suites
- Eight (8) Patio Suites President’s Club
Next to the stadium is an amphitheater, an outdoor venue which has a capacity of 2,500 for concerts, stage shows, or special events.
Approval to establish a Doctor of Optometry degree program
The UT System regents will vote on establishing a Doctor of Optometry degree program at the Edinburg campus, and submit the proposal to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for review and appropriate action.
The proposed Doctor of Optometry (OD) program is designed to prepare graduates to be eligible for national board examinations, state licensure, and entry into the practice of optometry.
The program will provide professional doctoral-level education and training in diagnosing, monitoring, and treating conditions affecting the eye and ocular adnexa. The degree program is structured as a four-year, full-time doctoral curriculum based on a medical education model.
The curriculum will integrate classroom and practical clinical experience, providing students with the opportunity to work directly with patients in a supervised clinical setting.
Basic science instruction will provide a foundation of knowledge in physical, biomedical, and behavioral sciences, while clinical instruction and practice will include didactic, laboratory, and supervised clinical experience in the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients.
According to the Health Professions Resource Center, there were 4,318 actively licensed optometrists providing care in Texas in 2022. While the optometrist workforce has grown by 11.4 percent since 2017, Texas still has fewer optometrists than the national average and areas of provider growth are uneven.
Non-metropolitan areas and border areas lag significantly behind metropolitan and non-border areas, with metropolitan and non-border areas having at least twice the number of licensed optometrists per capita.
••••••
For more on this and other Texas legislative news stories that affect the Rio Grande Valley metropolitan region, please log on to Titans of the Texas Legislature (TitansoftheTexasLegislature.com).
