{"id":7352,"date":"2022-07-01T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=7352"},"modified":"2022-06-29T21:14:15","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:14:15","slug":"the-student-of-yesterday-the-leader-of-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/01\/the-student-of-yesterday-the-leader-of-today\/","title":{"rendered":"The student of yesterday, the leader of today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Javelina alumnus now serves as university president<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Robert Vela, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) graduate, is officially the next university president. Vela started on June 15, after being named sole finalist in late April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1994 graduate reflected on his time at the university as a student stepping on campus for the first time to his first days in the presidential office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve taken these last few days to really reflect and walk the same halls that I walked when I was 18 years old. I think seeing it through the lens of what it means to be a first-generation college student, what it means to be the first in your family to potentially walk the stage and earn a degree is transformational,\u201d Vela said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo come full circle after 25 years in higher education to serve as the president of A&M Kingsville is just surreal to me because I never could have imagined walking the halls taking all the classes that I would ever become president of this amazing university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vela hopes to send the message to students that regardless of where you grew up, or the lack of resources you face, everyone faces barriers. Attending university shows you are willing to work hard to reach your goals, and you can achieve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the university\u2019s new president, Vela is prepared to take on challenges facing the university, listing enrollment as the main issue of concern at TAMUK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTop priority for me is to grow enrollment,\u201d Vela said. \u201cWe have an environment that\u2019s open for all students, that all students are welcome, so it\u2019s very important for me that we all ensure that enrollment becomes and will stay top priority for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vela believes enrollment is everyone\u2019s concern on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnrollment is everybody\u2019s business. We as employees or alumni or students, we should all be advocating for this amazing university,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As President, Vela has no plans to cut program, if enrollment continues to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty Senate President-Elect Dr. Michael Houf said that he and the Faculty Senate President  will meet with the President and Provost of the university monthly, with open lines of communication on each side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of the Faculty Senate is to provide representation to all departments and colleges on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe meet to talk about the issues and opportunities that the faculty have,\u201d Faculty Senate President Dr. Tanner Machado said. \u201cI\u2019m super excited about being able to work with Dr. Vela, the opportunity for him to come down, an individual that is from South Texas, who understands South Texas, who understands the culture that the university has, so I\u2019m super excited to be a part of helping him transition as a president here, to understand the needs of the faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vela will also work closely with student leaders in the Student Government Association (SGA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe plan that I have to ensure that Dr. Vela is able to listen to the student\u2019s concerns is to deeply inform him that the students\u2019 well-being is the main priority. Without the students there will be no university. Every single student on this campus has a powerful voice and every single one should be heard,\u201d SGA President Tyler Larraga said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, SGA meets with the university president on a regular basis and Larraga is confident Vela will continue to meet with SGA allowing them to continue advocating for student life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want students to know that I\u2019m approachable and that I\u2019m a good listener and I really care,\u201d Vela said. \u201cI\u2019m very empathetic about what students are going through. For me it\u2019s always about really listening [and] understanding that student lens and ensuring that students have a voice and they\u2019re being heard and they have a seat at the leadership table to have an active voice in decision making for the future of this university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Vela completes his first weeks in office, the Javelina alumnus assures students he will listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day we want our students to graduate, that\u2019s the most important thing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all have a role in ensuring that students ultimately succeed here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hear the full interview with Dr. Vela, visit thesouthtexan.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Javelina alumnus now serves as university president Dr. Robert Vela, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) graduate, is officially the next university president. Vela started on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":7348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[195],"class_list":["post-7352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"authors":[{"term_id":195,"user_id":48,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ronni-reyna","display_name":"Ronni Reyna","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/16b00811e260d2068b61907787d9e60e.jpg?ver=1776212082","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7353,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions\/7353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=7352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}