SWT center to serve as model for other colleges

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — The Center for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest Texas State University will serve as a model for five other universities hoping to establish regional studies programs on their campuses.

As part of a competition called “Disseminating Proven Reforms,” the center’s regional studies program was selected as a model to be adapted by Angelo State University, East Central (Okla.) University, Northern Arizona University, Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Funding for the program is provided by a $160,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, a division of the U.S. Department of Education.

The program will enable faculty at the five universities to examine SWT’s successful center and begin regional studies curricula appropriate to their students and faculty.

Three faculty members from each of the participating universities will visit SWT to learn about establishing interdisciplinary regional studies programs and to hear presentations by SWT’s Southwestern Studies faculty.

Mark Busby, director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest at SWT, will visit each university twice during the next two years to help coordinate the design of the new programs as they are developed.