TTUHSC Celebrates Growth and Excellence with Your Life, Our Purpose

• By Hope LaFreniere
• November 15, 2016

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) announced the Your Life, Our Purpose campaign. The campaign seeks to raise $150 million to advance initiatives in education and research while providing better health outcomes locally and globally. In conjunction with the campaign, which will run through TTUHSC’s 50th anniversary in 2019, the university is expanding its campuses in Lubbock, Amarillo and the Permian Basin.

 

“This campaign will be a catalyst for our continued growth and success, pioneering a greater vision for the future and spurring a new level of innovation, collaboration and excellence,” TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., said. “We have already raised $60 million in the silent phase of our campaign thanks in part to donors like the J.T. and Margaret Talkington Charitable Foundation. This addition allows us to pursue new advances in technology and develop new ways of thinking about treating patients. These physicians aren’t just your hometown doctors – they are leaders throughout the nation.”

 

In Lubbock, the expansion will grow the TTUHSC campus by more than 183,000 square feet (GSF), helping to meet the demand as more TTUHSC students enroll. An addition to the Academic Classroom Building will connect it to the Preston Smith Library of the Health Sciences with a state-of-the-art gross anatomy laboratory and additional classroom space. Two buildings will be added on the north side of the campus, expanding on research, education and technological facilities while including a new conference center and office space. A central campus boulevard will be installed creating a new formal entrance to the university with access to the new facilities.

 

“For nearly half a century, TTUHSC has been at the forefront of medical education, research and patient care in West Texas and beyond,” Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert L. Duncan said. “Founded with a vision to meet the needs of an underserved region, our university has more than answered this call and become a statewide and national leader in higher education and health care.”

 

TTUHSC at the Permian Basin will launch the Your Life, Our Purpose campaign by breaking ground on a new Academic Building located on the Odessa campus. The approved project has a $22.3 million budget to complete a center with 51,000 GSF that will house research laboratories, lecture halls, classrooms, offices and conference areas, allowing for more graduate students to enroll at the campus.

 

TTUHSC at Amarillo has begun construction on the Panhandle Clinical Simulation Center, an effort in which the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation contributed $500,000. The center will use simulation training at a higher level to improve patient safety and health outcomes in West Texas. The Panhandle Clinical Simulation Center construction project has a budget of $9.75 million and 20,865 GSF, which will provide space for teaching clinical simulations using high-tech, state-of-the-art mannequins and computer software.

 

While the expansions grant more space for students, Your Life, Our Purpose contributions give students at TTUHSC additional opportunities to further their education. TTUHSC enrolled 4,625 students for the Fall 2016 semester, with more than one-third benefiting from more than $2.5 million in scholarships, helping them achieve their goals. Along with increased scholarship opportunities, campaign contributions will support TTUHSC research initiatives, patient care enhancements and projects in collaboration with other institutions within the Texas Tech University System.

 

“Think of the legacy we are creating for generations to come,” Mitchell said. “Thank you for helping us establish a strong foundation, and thank you for being an integral part of our future. We look forward to teaming up with you to accomplish this noble goal.”