University's Growth and Accomplishments

A New Paradigm, the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan was well underway. The following are just a few of the many points of pride during Dr. Blanchard’s second year as president of the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD).

• Phase 1 of the implementation of UHD’s Wayfinding Project created a more welcoming campus, aiding both guests and community members in arriving at their destination without the stress of getting lost along the way. The project includes new exterior and interior signage for the One Main Complex, the Girard Street Building, the Welcome Center, and several parking garages.

• UHD ascended in its U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings from 2021-2022 and appeared on new lists as well. UHD is considered a Top Regional University (West) with a ranking of 78, ten points higher than the previous year.
  
  
• UHD ranked highly on these lists as well:
  • Top Public Universities in the West: ranked 40 (+5) (ranked 45 last year),
  • Top Performers on Social Mobility for Regional Universities (West): ranked 27 (+5) (ranked 32 last year), and
  • Undergraduate Business Programs (overall): ranked 247 (tied) (+31) (ranked 278 (tied) last year).
    
    
• UHD appeared in these listings for Regional Universities (West) across the United States:
  • Least Debt,
  • Economic Diversity, and
  • Ethnic Diversity.
    
    
• UHD rose 25 points to No. 55 among the 2023 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Applied Administration by U.S. News & World Report.

• UHD’s Criminal Justice Program was again recognized by U.S. News & World Report among the 2023 Best Online Master’s programs with a rank of 26.

• The President’s Lecture Series continued with such lectures as “Supporting Students Starts with Basic Needs,” “Breaking the Ceiling through Innovation & Entrepreneurship,” and “Social Justice and the Arts: Downtown Powerful Art Mural Spaces.”

• The university launched three new academic programs in the Fall 2022 semester and one in the 2023 semester: a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resources, a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence, and a Master of Arts in Strategic Communication, bringing the number of degree programs up to 45 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs.

• UHD served as a polling location for the first time in its history. Harris County residents could vote in the Academic Building for the 2022 Houston-area and Texas midterm general elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

• As UHD deepened its community partnerships, the University co-sponsored the inaugural Northside Festival, which took place near the College of Sciences and Technology building on Nov. 1, 2022. President Blanchard served as the Grand Marshal of the Greater Northside Management District’s 9th Annual Tour de Northside bike ride that morning.

• UHD received $943,724 from the U.S. Department of Education for its Basic Needs Program. The award supported immediate students’ needs, hiring staff to support those needs, and collecting data through a case management process that connects students to comprehensive resources.

• On January 17, 2023, a new era for the University of Houston-Downtown was ushered in with the official opening of its Wellness & Success Center. Designed by SmithGroup in association with HarrisonKornberg Architects and built by Vaughn Construction, the $39 million, 75,000-square-foot facility not only expands UHD’s footprint and visibility, but it also establishes a dynamic core and recognizable landmark for fostering and nurturing an on-campus community.

• UHD was named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs. This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of faculty applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. UHD Faculty Fulbright Scholars are Ms. Natacha Poggio (Department of Arts and Communication) and Drs. Edmund Cueva (Department of History, Humanities, and Languages), Shahnaz Savani (Department of Social Work), & Rahul Verma (Department of Business Administration).

• UHD was featured twice on the front page of the Houston Chronicle in early 2023 with these headlines: “UHD Intent on Doubling Graduation Rate” and “Building a Campus Community,” highlighting the new Wellness & Success Center.

• The “Seal Your Success: UHD in 2023" Campaign, aimed at demonstrating to high school seniors that a college degree is attainable and to boost fall enrollment, was launched in February 2023. As part of the campaign, UHD President, Dr. Loren J. Blanchard and other university leaders visited 12 high schools in Houston and surrounding communities over a two-month period.

• As part of Black History Month 2023 celebrations at UHD, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis “unveiled” the Remembrance Murals from the South Deck of UHD.

• UHD leadership, students, and alumni visited Austin on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, for “UHD Day at the Capitol” during the Texas State Legislature’s 88th Regular Session. Proclamations were read in the Senate by Senator Borris Miles and in the House by Representatives Mary Ann Perez and Christina Morales. Mariachi Los Caimanes serenaded the UHD contingency over a barbeque lunch and in the open-air rotunda before UHD students and alumni met one-on-one with Texas lawmakers.

• UHD held its Inaugural Donor and Scholar luncheon in April 2023, giving donors a chance to see firsthand the impact of their gifts and students a chance to thank the donors who supported their education personally.
  
  
• On April 6, 2023, UHD held a dedication ceremony for a new Josh’s Bench for Suicide Awareness, which is the second of such benches in the state of Texas. The bright yellow bench, located on the Bayou Greensway near the College of Sciences and Technology building, is branded with contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and represents the university’s commitment to mental health and a culture of care.
  
  
• UHD’s Office of Counseling Services and Office of Disability Services (now the Accessible Education Center) collaborated to train more than 150 faculty and staff members, as well as all UHD police officers in Mental Health First Aid.
  
  
• UHD was awarded $2,470,225 by the U.S. Department of Commerce to upgrade the UHD bilingual e-library in support of connectivity and literacy skills of the Hispanic community. Additionally, this project will have a dramatic impact on workforce development and, ultimately, the local economy.
  
  
• The university partnered with Street Art for Mankind on the Big Art, Bigger Change Project, adding a mural on climate change, painted by award-winning international artist Ablade Glover in collaboration with prominent street artist Moh Awudu, to its CPS building.
  
  
• Fine Arts student Giselle Oviedo painted her commissioned mural on the side of downtown Houston’s Zydeco Diner.
  
  
• In keeping with its student success efforts, UHD took several noteworthy steps, including the following:
  • enhanced our Academic Recovery Program for students on probation, increasing availability of courses, and adding evening tutorial services;
  • created both degree plans and journey maps for all academic disciplines to provide a clear pathway to graduation and optimize career readiness;
  • created an enrollment matrix, which allows enrollment officers to prescribe academic and financial support to first-time in college students;
  • opened a new Assistive Technology Lab (March 21, 2023), which includes supports such as screen reading and screen magnification software, ergonomic keyboards, and track ball mice to aid students with disabilities.
  • increased the counseling staff to six full-time licensed clinicians and five master’s level counseling trainees to better support students with mental health needs;
  • doubled the number of counseling sessions offered to students in the previous year, providing more than 3,400 counseling sessions to students in need;
  • opened the physical Basic Needs Center (May 5, 2023), extending its outreach and increasing students’ access to emergency grants and other forms of financial assistance, including food distribution through the university’s no-cost food market.
  • completed the student data migration from Banner to PeopleSoft to create a more consistent and streamlined experience.
    
    
• UHD’s Impact Learning Office achieved a 15% increase in service-learning courses, and the total number of service-learning courses increased by 26%, meaning more than 2,000 students are engaged in service learning in 2023-2024.
  
  
• Applications increased by 25%, and an Enrollment Master Plan is underway to ensure more admitted students commit to earning their degrees at UHD;
  
  
• Funds were allocated for merit pay increases to both faculty and staff.
  
  
• The Academic Master Plan Steering Committee finalized the university’s Academic Master Plan, a comprehensive long-range plan focused on new and innovative degree options. This plan now includes plans to move from 46 to 50 undergraduate programs and from 12 to 20 graduate programs by 2028.

Dr. Blanchard began his presidency with a listening tour through which he gathered information from various stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, elected officials, and community members. More than 1,100 sources contributed information. These lively discussions helped to map UHD’s approach to growth, and in Dr. Blanchard’s first year as president of the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD), the following accomplishments were achieved.

• The Institutional Compass was written to serve as a directional guide for the future growth of the university. The compass includes four priorities: Strengthening Justice, Strengthening Student Success, Supporting Institutional Excellence and Infrastructure, and Growing as an Anchor Institution. The Institutional Compass planted the seed for a new strategic plan.
  
  
• Early in the strategic planning process, UHD’s existing mission and vision statements were rigorously evaluated and revised to ensure relevance to current times and the university’s aspirations.

• UHD’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan: A New Paradigm was created with Student Success as the number one priority, and implementation began in 2022.

• UHD was included in the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (THECB) Student Success Implementation Cohort alongside Sam Houston State University, Midwestern State University, and Tarleton State University. The THECB solicited the help of the National Institute for Student Success (NISS). Over the summer of 2022, UHD began a three-month diagnostic phase filled with data collection, interviews, and surveys. NISS then offered strategies relative to the strategic plan, including the following recommendations to improve Student Success outcomes at UHD:
  • coordinate academic advising;
  • provide consistent academic support and reduce D or F grades, withdrawals, and incompletes of gateway courses;
  • improve systematic first-year support; and
  • increase support of student financial wellness.
    
    
• The reorganization of the former University College and Student Life into the Student Success & Student Life (3SL) Division began in March 2022. This essential infrastructure change incorporates student activities and student health services along with career services and the Academic Support Center. It includes Upward Bound and the Talent Search Program along with the Gator Success Center and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion.
  
  3SL also tackles food, housing, transportation, and medical and mental health insecurities. These measures ensure that more students will have the ability to stay in school instead of “stopping out,” graduate in a timelier manner, and enter the workforce with degrees of value, becoming leaders in their professions and communities.
  
  
• A new approach to advisement was undertaken during spring 2022. While students previously interacted with varying advisors, now, UHD Academic Success Coordinators follow a given cohort of students throughout their academic careers at UHD, providing many points of contact along the way. Advisement is also embedded in the students’ particular areas of study, and students are introduced to career-enhancing opportunities, such as internships and service learning much earlier in their academic journey.

• The Campus Community, special guests, and dignitaries celebrated Dr. Blanchard’s Investiture Ceremony in May 2022, alongside a barbeque luncheon and the Alumni & Friends Celebration Dinner.
  
  
• The University hosted a two-part Student Success & Equity Summit, which included an installment of the President’s Lecture Series, entitled “The Way Forward – Recommitting to Student Success.”

• The following leaders joined the President’s Cabinet: Deborah E. Bordelon as Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost; Javier “Jay” Zambrano as Vice President of Advancement and University Relations; and Kim Thomas as Vice President for Administration and Finance.