LUBBOCK, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Dustin Burrows reviewed programs to invest a billion a lot more condition bucks into Texas Tech University’s endowment up coming legislative session, part of their latest energy to guide the university in achieving the coveted AAU status.

“I want to supply a billion-dollar endowment to Texas Tech that will almost double the volume of endowment they have now,” Gov. Abbott told KAMC News. “That will assist elevate Texas Tech to be what’s known as AAU standing, the leading-degree standing of universities in the United States of The usa. Our intention is to get Texas Tech College to that position.”

“AAU status” refers to membership in the Association of American Universities, a prestigious team of the 64 most elite investigate institutions in the nation. Texas is house to a few AAU universities: The University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Rice University. The legislature has extended sought to make improvements to the state’s standing in the affiliation.

“AAU is the following purely natural point we should want to obtain for Texas,” Rep. Burrows mentioned. “It is embarrassing that we are not putting the sources important to do that. Around the summer, we talked about what we could do to make a splash and try out to get Texas Tech to be a person of those … and the thought is to place nearly a billion dollars into a new endowment set up for it.”

Texas Tech’s endowment is at this time valued at $1.69 billion. Yet another billion-greenback investment from the point out would improve it by about 60 %.

In the 3rd specific session of 2021, Rep. Burrows filed legislation to create the Texas College Fund. HJR 13 would have established a new fund for exploration in the Texas Tech and College of Houston techniques, but it failed to attain traction in the House. Burrows claimed Appropriations Committee Chair Greg Bonnen supports the invoice, and he is optimistic it will achieve pace following session.

“There’s a whole lot of men and women talking about the reality that we want to have at minimum 1 if not two a lot more universities section of this prestigious AAU point,” Rep. Burrows stated. “I believe we’re heading to see motion in the course of the interim to examine it, to look…