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Opening DoorsRGC Students: Past, Present and Future
It’s the same story, over and over. You’ll glean it from the recollections of every former Sul Ross - Rio Grande College student introduced in this special issue of the Vanguard. And you’ll hear it recounted by nearly every member of the present RGC student body.
Like a shared revelation, at some point or another, each one came to realize that the door to a better future stood ready for them to open. They had reached a changing point in their lives: looking at where they had been and refocusing on where they wanted to be. Realizing that “the door” – Rio Grande College – was neither inaccessible nor too costly to enter, they sought the key to open it and move to a higher threshold, applying steady determination to earn a college degree. For many, the college track was an on-again, off-again quest interrupted by family obligations – waiting for their young children to start school in order to rejoin the classroom themselves. Others, breadwinners, opted for night classes and faced putting family life on hold for a couple of years. Another set of RGC students sought a more radical turnaround: giving up on secure professions and longtime jobs in order to learn through college training how to do what they had wanted to do all along: become teachers, independent business people, law enforcement officers, or just well-rounded individuals ready-made for white collar salaries. You also hear from the other side of the classroom. RGC’s instructors are a determined lot, as well. Because of their students’ dedication to succeed, hardly a single RGC professor doesn’t find a deeper inspiration to teach. By and large, they are driven to share all the knowledge and time it takes to get their students into caps and gowns and on the road to economic freedom and opportunities that many had never before been able to enjoy. Rio Grande College’s versatile cadre of professors – many coming from change-of-life professional careers themselves – relishes accessibility and closeness to students that small class sizes afford. Among Texas’ colleges and universities, Rio Grande College ranks 35th in headcount enrollment (averaging about 965 students), third in student/teacher ratio, first in classroom space per student, and second in tenured and tenure-track faculty. Students at RGC are more likely to have direct contact with a terminally-degreed (PhD) faculty member than undergraduates at other institutions. As one of the state’s smallest college Rio Grande Colleges provides some of its greatest educational advantages. “Several of us have been the route of big-time universities where your students have numbers instead of names, and where graduate students take over classroom instruction while the professors sit in their offices and dream up research projects,” says Dr. Ferris Byxbe, RGC’s criminal justice professor. “That’s not nearly as satisfying – nor constructive – as being one-on-one with students here at Rio Grande College.” “It means a lot to both faculty and students when instructors are available to help whenever needed, even nights and weekends,” Byxbe adds. The payoff for this symbiotic student/faculty dedication to academic achievement produces more impressive results with each passing semester. RGC’s Education Department especially shines. Results of Educator Certification testing by the State Board of Education saw RGC’s overall passing grades move up a notch from 98 percent in 2006 to 99 percent in 2007. Helping to fulfill a critical educational need, Rio Grande College ranks ninth in Hispanic teacher education and its graduates dominate the faculty and administrative staff of all public schools in the Middle Rio Grande region. “We’re well above the state minimum requirement of a 70-percent passing score,” says Dr. Fernando Quiz, associate professor of education. “When I came to RGC in 2000, our pass rate was just 62 percent and the college was under review. We’ve made a tremendous turnaround.” This ranking puts Rio Grande College in the upper tier among Texas colleges offering teacher education programs. “Outside commitments may keep many of our students from sweeping through their junior and senior years in three or four semesters,” explains Dr. Frank Abbott, RGC dean. “But according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, our students don’t dally around.” On the whole, RGC students graduate with an average of 144 hours. That’s 14 hours more than the College’s 130-minimum requirement, but still less than the total number of credit hours that Texas colleges average. As laudable as their good grades and studious bearing are, the success rate at which RGC students find their way into the workplace is also top-notch. Rio Grande College is tenth in Texas in the percent of graduates who are employed within one year of graduation.
Since the majority of the College’s graduates remain in Southwest Texas, RGC’s contribution to the economic activity in the region is significant. Dr. Abbott proudly points out: “Economic studies now show that every dollar invested in higher education results in $8.08 in benefits to the community. “Moving students into the workforce with baccalaureate degrees creates a significant leveraging action,” he continues. “Not only do our students become employed, they also stay employed in the region and maximize the economic impact.” Dr. Don Walden, associate professor of English, also praised RGC’s commitment to improvement. He says, “The bar will rise even higher” as RGC’s new Quality Enhancement Plan sets its sights on improving oral and written communications skills throughout the College’s entire curriculum. |
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