Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences

Campaign Priorities

The Harris College is making a difference by graduating more nurses to stem the urgent nursing work force shortage. Enrollment in undergraduate nursing increased from 212 in 2001 to 565 in 2007. The college's overall undergraduate numbers increased from 613 to 929 during the same time period.

The college's new Doctor of Nursing Practice degree is the first program in Texas that admits all four advanced practice nursing roles:  Nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, clinical specialists and nurse  practitioners.

The graduate program in bilingual speech-language pathology in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is one of only 15 such programs in the country.

On its first application for accreditation, the School of Nurse Anesthesia achieved full accreditation for the maximum period of 10 years.

You can help Harris continue its legacy of excellence in preparing healthcare professionals who will serve our communities now and far into the future. To address today's healthcare needs, the college is creating two new centers:

The Center for Obesity Research at Harris, housed in the Department of Kinesiology, will foster faculty and student research aimed at finding solutions to this health crisis. Areas of focus include fitness for children and youth, K-12, in school systems; bariatric surgery and its effects; and community lifestyle transformations.

Because Texas has the fourth largest older adult population in the United States, the college is introducing the interdisciplinary Center on Health Aging to tackle the healthcare, social and economic issues related to this demographic shift.

Your support is needed to help fund each of the important initiatives mentioned, both existing and planned, as well as provide much-needed support for:

• Undergraduate and graduate tuition and scholarships
• Endowed faculty positions in Nursing, Social Work, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Kinesiology and Nurse Anesthesia
• Research support
• Additional laboratories, equipment and facilities for our burgeoning student population
• International student experiences