UTEP 100

The Texas State School of Mines has come along way since 1914. Through numerous name changes to what we now know today as The University of Texas at El Paso. UTEP is celebrating its Centennial year and has a lot of events throughout the year to fully embrace this momentous time for both the University and city of El Paso. In April 2014, a statewide launch will begin in Austin with a commemoration of the 1913 legislative act that enabled the creation of the Texas School of Mines and Metallurgy.

The University has started a Centennial stories website to showcase the many interesting and extraordinary stories of staff, faculty and students of all ages that have passed through the campus. Stories can be viewed at http://centennial.utep.edu/stories.html. The month of April 2014 will serve as one large open house on campus. One hundred years earlier, in April 1914, the El Paso Chamber of Commerce announced that it had received commitments totaling $50,000—enough to open a mining school in the city. One hundred years later, UTEP invites everyone to come to campus and witness the return on investment over the course of a century when cash, care, and dreams are combined in pursuit of the American Dream of higher education.

One of the lasting legacies of the Centennial will be the transformation of the campus into a pedestrian-friendly public space. A gathering place will be created at the heart of the campus together with a new gateway on University Avenue and other projects on Hawthorne, Wiggins, and Circle Drive; and in Leech Grove, the arroyo, and Miner Alley (between Fox Fine Arts, the Sun Bowl parking garage, and Miners, Worrell, and Hudspeth halls). These redesigned spaces will create an appealing campus climate that will enhance student recruitment and retention and knit the campus together into a unique and memorable public landscape. The University has commissioned two award-winning Texas firms to design the projects—San Antonio’s Lake/Flato Architects and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects of Austin.

The University of Texas at El Paso is home to internationally renowned faculty and talented staff. Throughout 2014, they will share their expertise in 100 free community lectures, ten each month from February through November. In October 2011, the campus inaugurated a Centennial Lecture Series that will continue through 2014. Speakers come from a range of backgrounds and bring a range of expertise to bear on issues facing the University in the present and future, including economic opportunity, academic excellence, and the impact of higher education on individual lives and the Paso del Norte region.