President Dr. Robert Vela brought assurances to the community at his 2025 State of the University Address on Nov.19. Vela mentioned many important projects during his address such as the upcoming nursing school at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), a possible women’s soccer team coming to campus and the rising Javelina Trade Academy, an extension of TAMUK.
“I mean, we actually talked about it at our meeting yesterday.
We have a meeting every Tuesday morning, and we think we have the infrastructure, but it could be that we have to potentially hire more project managers. We don’t have quite a bit of project managers. These are all major projects that are going to require someone to start it and finish it, right?
And to be efficient. So it could be that on the facility side and the project management side, we’re going to have to beef up our team there. But I feel confident with the current leadership structure we have. We have enough brain power and talent to be able to get these things through. It’s just the main, the building part that we may need a little help with. But there’s consultants and things and partners that can help us with that,” Vela said.
Projects such as an all-new women’s soccer team and nursing school don’t happen on their own, large amounts of money are involved. State Rep. Denise Villalobos (District 34) was credited by Vela for being a huge factor in TAMUK being granted a nursing program.
“When Dr. Vela came into my office wanting to have this program at the campus, I was all in for doubling down on our backyard, trying to get money for our university, because we’re the little guy.
“We’re competing against all these other major universities for funding at the state level, and I was there as an alumni trying to capture dollars for A&M-Kingsville, and like he said today, there was a ton of inside baseball because they definitely didn’t want to give it to us. So, a lot of negotiating at the Capitol, so we can secure the funding, and now start the rural nursing program here,” Villalobos said.
Vela often speaks of prioritizing and cultivating the backyard of the university, meaning going after and educating those in South Texas looking for or contemplating higher education.
McNair Scholar and Spring 2026 graduate Leeya Flores spoke at the State of the University Address. Flores is one of those students from TAMUK’s backyard.
“I’m from a very small town just 30 minutes outside of Kingsville, kind of on the way to Corpus. I think, honestly, the population might be 100 people. So, you know, not much going on over there.
“I wanted to highlight my experience here at the university. I’ve been here for almost two and a half years, I think. And I’ve had a great time here.
“I’ve done a lot of research. I’ve helped a lot of students along the way, and I’ve even gone to Washington, DC, so I really wanted to highlight that and show students that they get to do cool things, and they can go farther than just Kingsville if they want, or they can stay here, give back to their community. It’s really up to you. You know, the university provides it all for you,” Flores said.
There are many plans in place for the TAMUK, and although campus was struck with adversity over the summer with the MSUB fire and budget cuts, Vela and his team have stayed optimistic.
“I think obviously we had a plan to do and tackle all those major issues by ourselves, but I want to give a big shout out to our Board of Regents and our Chancellor Hager, and they’ve really stepped up to front some of that money to help us because as you know, like the fire, it takes a couple years to get an insurance reimbursement, but that doesn’t mean you got to wait.
“You have to make the fixes now. So, they stepped up and fronted us some money to be able to continue to get that building up. So, I think we have demonstrated that we’re good stewards, that we’re good stewards of our taxpayer money, and our regents and our chancellor believe in us, and they’ve helped us when we need their help. We’re getting things done, and where things are moving,” Vela said.