Culture of Care
Retention starts with personal relationships. Let’s create opportunities for faculty and staff to engage more often with students and get to know them on a personal level so that they feel connected.
Financial aid, work-study programs and part-time job opportunities within the communities we serve can help ease their financial commitments and cultivate friendships and a family away from home.
Rewarding partnerships with other area agencies and institutions should be established as often as possible. For example, our relationships with Alpine ISD, Big Bend Regional Medical Center, Alpine Community Projects, the Alpine Business Association and the City of Alpine has resulted in the opening of a childcare center in Summer 2023.
We will simplify administrative, financial and technical questions, provide intrusive assistance and support that advances student success, and establish service procedures that are welcoming and embracing.
In short, we will embrace a “culture of care” and help students overcome all obstacles.
Birthplace of College Rodeo
SRSU is the birthplace of College Rodeo and the home of national championship teams and professional athletes. The benefits of our rodeo program to the entirety of SRSU cannot be overstated.
Our facilities and infrastructure are primed for growth. We need now to explore ways to increase our recognition by national brands, who can assist with the establishment of endowment and scholarship programs, and with building out the amenities needed to accommodate an increase in spectators at the San Antonio Livestock and Expo Arena.
More than 315,000 unique viewers tuned into the Cowboy Channel’s broadcast of the rodeo in 2022. They plan to come back in 2023, providing an unprecedented opportunity to advance our brand and attract student athletes.
The Sierra Blanca Ranch is critical to both the rodeo program and to academics. We have initiated genetic testing for breeding a sporting cattle herd and can host production sales, providing research opportunities and demonstrating rodeo as a business, giving our student athletes experience in a professional agriculture setting.
Relationships with faculty and our alumni should be cultivated to maintain synergy in the program.
Lone Star Conference
The Athletic Department applied in January to compete in NCAA Division II programs and has been invited to the Lone Star Conference. SRSU will receive notification from the NCAA sometime this summer. If accepted, the university will enter a three-year provisional period that will include one more academic year in Division III and begin Division II competition in the Lone Star Conference in Fall 2024. At the end of year three, as long as all membership criteria have been met, SRSU will become full members of Division II.
The move would mean that SRSU can begin offering athletic scholarships as a tool for recruiting more athletes from a deeper pool. Scholarships are a significant investment in our student-athletes, and would allow them to spend less time on the road and more time on campus and in the classroom.
Nearly 40 percent of our students are involved in athletics.