Alan Keys
contributing Writer
The University of Houston System at Fort Bend moved closer to obtaining its own facility Monday, when the Sugar Land City Council voted unanimously to provide $3.5 million toward construction.
The Fort Bend Institute is a multi-institution teaching center where students can take classes and earn degrees from any of the four universities in the UH System: UH, UH-Downtown, UH-Clear Lake, and UH-Victoria.
UH rents space at Wharton County Junior College, which is not large enough to meet the increasing demand for enrollment at Fort Bend.
UH estimated it would need $10 million to complete the construction project. The State of Texas provided $3.5 million in the form of tuition revenue bonds.
The George Foundation in Sugar Land donated $1 million outright and pledged another $1 million if the community of Sugar Land donates $1 million. That left a shortfall of $3.5 million, which the Sugar Land City Council decided to provide.
Eduardo Aguirre, chairman of the UH-System Board of Regents, said the Sugar Land vote makes the project a near-certainty. "I think we are there (financially)," he said.
The facility will allow the Fort Bend Institute to continue to grow, giving the people of Fort Bend county an accessible, convenient institution of higher education, Aguirre added. "This gets our university system closer to our client," he said.
The people of Sugar Land were united in supporting the project, Sugar Land City Manager David Neeley said. "We were missing that vital piece of our infrastructure - higher education," Neeley said. "This provides it for us."
Neeley noted that the first question companies ask when considering a move to Sugar Land is "'Where is the closest university?' The second is what kind of a relationship the city has with that university."
Neeley added that the concept of multi-institution teaching centers is a popular one. "The demand is for universities to diversify and get out to the suburbs, where the masses are," he said.
Ed Hugetz, director of the UH System at Fort Bend, said the construction process will move quickly now. "We anticipate breaking ground in Spring of '99 and moving into the building in the Fall of 2000," he said.
Hugetz said he does not expect any problem obtaining the required project approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, noting that the State of Texas created the concept of MITCs in 1996 specifically to address the demand for higher education in growing areas.
"The state has challenged communities to put up dollars for higher education," Hugetz said, adding that the Fort Bend project is the kind of endeavor the state can be expected to support.
Professors from the four UH institutions teach classes at Fort Bend, either in person or through interactive television.
Thirty degrees are offered at Fort Bend, approximately half of which are masters degrees. Among the degrees offered are an MBA, a masters in education and degrees in computer science and engineering.
Neeley was responsible for determining how Sugar Land would come up with the money. He did not want to raise taxes. Instead, it will take $3 million from part of a sales tax already ear-marked for economic development. The other half-million will come from the city's utility fund.