Wins for UTSA are wins for San Antonio

DECEMBER 27, 2021 — Editor’s note: This op-ed by Lisa Campos, vice president for intercollegiate athletics and athletics director at UTSA, originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.

Roadrunners Football is this year’s Conference USA champion.

Seconds after the championship game’s final play, UTSA fans rushed the field, filling the Alamodome with cheers and excitement—a reminder of how San Antonio has always embraced this team.

“Even as we celebrate the success of our student-athletes, we also celebrate the success of our academic and research excellence.”

Their joy was a reminder, too, of the team’s driving motivation. UTSA running back Sincere McCormick said it best: “This is for San Antonio.”

The tremendous support from our city has been integral to our success. From the very beginning of our football program, devoted fans have been there for us. They have created an enthusiastic sea of orange at our games at home and on the road, especially this season. They cheered with a pride not only for our team but for San Antonio.

Since becoming UTSA president in 2016, Taylor Eighmy has held firm in his belief that UTSA Athletics serves as the front porch of the university.

As San Antonio’s nationally recognized Division I athletics program, UTSA Athletics is dedicated to transforming lives—holding firm in the belief that students who excel in sports, in the classroom and in life are all key to the university’s work to become an institution of excellence.

Every student-athlete accomplishment makes the spotlight on UTSA and on San Antonio shine just a little bit brighter.

Every mention of UTSA’s athletic success is an opportunity to showcase the university’s standing as a center of academic excellence—and how the university is benefitting, impacting and uplifting San Antonio.

Even as we celebrate the success of our student-athletes, we also celebrate the success of our academic and research excellence.

Just last week, we were designated an R1 research institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, becoming one of about 20 R1 universities nationally that are also Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI). The designation will be formalized next month. This recognition is the culmination of our community’s decades-long quest to build a Tier One institution in San Antonio.

UTSA is also the only HSI to hold three National Center of Excellence designations from the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The new School of Data Science that will open this summer will build on those designations, expanding the university’s academic capabilities and further cementing San Antonio’s global standing as a tech hub with a well-trained and diverse workforce.

Like academics and research, the UTSA Athletics enterprise is growing. Our Department of Intercollegiate Athletics recently launched Bold Champions, an historic $70 million capital campaign. To date, our generous supporters have already committed nearly $30.5 million.

This investment in the continued success of our athletics program will fund transformative projects including a practice pavilion at the recently opened Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence, a field house at the Park West Field Campus, and a new basketball and volleyball training facility.

Along with our philanthropic initiatives, we’re working closely with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County to help build these facilities.

The campaign will also provide direct scholarship support for student-athletes, enabling them to compete at the highest levels both on the playing field and in the classroom.

In their quest for excellence, UTSA graduates join a workforce that includes teachers, scientists, cybersecurity experts and more—all contributing to the continued economic prosperity of San Antonio. UTSA and San Antonio are inextricably linked.

We are honored to share with you the success of our student-athletes, our 34,000 students and our alumni network, more than 140,000 strong.

We are The University of Texas at San Antonio.

More importantly, we are The University of Texas for San Antonio.

On behalf of UTSA, our Athletics family and Roadrunners Football, thank you for your incredible support.