President Guy Bailey's 10-Year Plan

Amanda Bertone
Alpha Delta Pi

In case you haven’t heard, Texas Tech University’s President Guy Bailey released a business plan for the steps involved in Texas Tech becoming a Tier 1 University. This is a huge step, and an exciting one that will benefit our school we love so dearly. Our university, known for its beautiful Spanish Renaissance architecture and one of the largest campuses, only has room for more improvement and plans to achieve this goal of Tier 1 status by the end of 2022.

The first step in the president’s plan is emphasizing research and spending more funds toward research in becoming a National Research University. Texas Tech encourages all students of all different majors to get involved in research. We offer a broad range of different studies that apply to almost every student. This will allow us one more step toward our goal to expand undergraduate research. Our future is dependent on the students and faculty which shape our school through their hard work. According to Guy Bailey, we should expect research expenditures to increase to around $450 million. Our main goal is to be ranked in the top 50 for U.S. News and World Report by 2022 with a current rank of 160, and to achieve membership in the Association of American Universities.

Some consequences of these changes might include an increase in tuition. However, the benefits far outweigh any kind of consequence and an increase in tuition would only be slight. For instance, some benefits will include classes that will be smaller with the addition of new faculty members. There will also be a more selective and higher standard of incoming freshman, and more students will choose Texas Tech for its prestigious rank and quality education. Not only will our academic standard increase, but this will also affect our athletics as well by becoming a bigger threat. Another benefit is the economic impact that Texas Tech will have in Lubbock. Overall, when we finally attain Tier 1 status it will raise the value of a degree from Texas Tech, even for those who have already graduated.

Looking around campus this past school year you should have already noticed the expanding and growth we are experiencing with the new Chapel, Rip Griffin Park, Rawls College of Business building, and the new Boston Residence hall. More projects are expected to be built such as additional research space in the Mass Communications, Petroleum Engineering, and the HESS buildings. Other Buildings such as Weeks Hall and Doak Hall will be renovated. All these changes and future construction provide the room we need to develop in research.

And that’s not the only growth we should expect, it is estimated that there will be a student body of more than 40,000 students including graduate students by 2020. Although we have witnessed this remarkable growth and anticipate more in the future, there are still some potential barriers that would block us from our goal. Some of these potential issues could consist of unexpected funding problems that have to be directed toward a different cause, hiring wrong faculty, and possibly taking up other projects unrelated to our plan that use up capital.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been more proud to call myself a Red Raider. We are raising the bar and excelling at a rapid rate. All of these steps can only benefit our university to become recognized as the extraordinary school we already know it as. This is a tremendous opportunity and with the help of faculty and students like us, I know we will be able to accomplish our goals and reach Tier 1 status. Wreck ‘em, Texas Tech!

Amanda is a freshman studying international business, art history and Spanish. You may contact her at amanda.bertone@ttu.edu.