UTPB honored for AVID

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tipped its hat Thursday to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin for the university’s implementation of the Advancement Via Individual Determination program in two sections of its freshman seminars.

UTPB President David Watts and other university representatives presented information on the program to the coordinating board, which gave UTPB a $25,000 unsolicited grant to start the pilot AVID course. Watts was joined on the panel by AVID Executive Director Jim Nelson, state AVID Director Eileen Friou and UTPB senior Jonathan Grant Brown, an AVID "veteran." For over an hour, these panelists led the members of the Coordinating Board through the statistics and needs of the second quartile of high school graduates, in particular.

"I think AVID is one of the ways we can take students where we find them and bring them to where they need to be," Watts told the board.

Nelson echoed Watts.

"We have become a college-going culture, but we’ve yet to become a college-ready culture," Nelson said.

The board gave UTPB a special "Recognition of Excellence" award Thursday for getting AVID going quickly on campus.

UTPB is the only university in the country with an AVID component.

UTPB has a site team in place consisting of administrators, faculty from all disciplines, and staff who will identify the barriers to presenting more sections of AVID, and make delivery more efficient without watering anything down, a release from UTPB said.

In the days before the award, Watts credited the Ector County Independent School District for leading the way for AVID in Odessa. He also said he was glad AVID approved the idea of UTPB adding the program even though there wasn’t an established college curriculum yet.