Roadrunners start class today at UTSA

(Aug. 21, 2018) -- Today is the first day of classes for more than 31,000 Roadrunners at the UTSA Main and Downtown Campuses. The undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students will be pursuing 165 degree programs to become leaders in the jobs of tomorrow.

New this fall, freshmen at the UTSA Downtown Campus had the opportunity to enroll in block course scheduling. The university implemented Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday block schedules this semester to support student success. The new scheduling provides students with more flexibility to complete their first-year classes while tending to work or other obligations outside of school. Students in the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, College of Public Policy and College of Education and Human Development also will be able to complete their entire degree programs without ever having to leave the Downtown Campus.

While the Downtown Campus is filled to capacity in the evenings as a result of its graduate student population, UTSA staff, including Facilities crews, spent significant time over the summer to prepare the campus for an expanded daytime student population. This semester, students will see ramped up services from the One Stop Enrollment Center, dining, advising, tutoring, supplemental instruction and peer mentoring. Additional services will be added in the spring.

This fall, UTSA also welcomes more than 50 new researchers to its faculty. These faculty join UTSA from top universities, including Rice, Arizona State University, the Mayo Clinic and UC Berkeley. Notably, four of UTSA’s new faculty members earned their doctoral degrees at UT-Austin and another four earned their degrees at Purdue University. One of the 50 is a UTSA alumnus. Their unique specialties will expand the broad areas of study available at UTSA while providing even more research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

Two new academic programs will kick off this fall. For the first time, the College of Engineering will offer a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering to expand San Antonio’s workforce of highly trained engineers. The graduate program offers academic tracks to students in structural engineering, water resources engineering, geotechnical engineering, and transportation engineering. The new degree program will expand UTSA’s ability to confer doctoral degrees, advancing it closer to National Research University Fund eligibility, while contributing to a pipeline of highly trained engineers to address challenges in the coming decades related to the nation’s aging infrastructure.

This is also the first year that UTSA will offer a Health Communication concentration to students majoring in Communication. The concentration will help students develop a deeper understanding of provider-patient interactions, grief communication, the role of the media in health communication and topics related to global public health.

Students enrolled on the Main Campus will notice two buildings under construction. The Science and Engineering Building (SEB), adjacent to the Biotechnology, Sciences and Engineering (BSE) Building, is a $90 million project that will house UTSA’s programs in biology, chemistry, brain health and chemical engineering. The state-of-the-art facility, which is slated to open in 2020, will also include a maker space for engineering students. The Large Scale Testing Laboratory, located on the West side of campus adjacent to Loop 1604 opens in spring 2019 and will feature two cranes that each have a 30-ton capacity for loading, unloading and transporting heavy specimens. Civil and structural engineering researchers will conduct research in the building that simulates a wide range of building- and bridge-related structural challenges, including high cycle fatigue, earthquakes and blast loads.

New and returning Roadrunners will notice an increased diversity of food options on campus. Slide Pizza and Wings and Rowdy’s Global Kitchen open this fall in the Student Union on the Main Campus. Additionally, Rowdy Curbside, UTSA’s food truck, will park in the Sombrilla this year to bring Tex-Mex options to the JPL food course area, including San Antonio’s popular breakfast tacos. Over the summer, Campus Services renovated the JPL food court to make it more spacious. Popular franchises including Panda Express, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Steak ‘n Shake will remain available to students.

The start of classes marks the halfway point for Roadrunner Days, UTSA’s traditional start for the new year. In addition to the first day of classes, today’s schedule includes first day of classes photo station from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. along the Student Union Paseo, Paletas with the Prez from 1p.m. to 2 p.m. in the Sombrilla, networking socials, Roadrunner life hacks, and a fraternity & sorority mixer to end the day.

UTSA is ranked among the nation’s top five young universities, according to Times Higher Education.

— Jennifer Adigwe

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