Texas Tech Announces Record Enrollment and Plans for Vet School

Wednesday on KFYO Mornings with Dave King and Matt Martin, the President of Texas Tech University Dr. Lawrence Schovanec joined Dave and Matt to talk about the continued plans for the veterinary and dental schools, as well as Tech reaching record enrollment, football news, and more.

Texas Tech will be reaching another record enrollment this school year. Dr. Schovanec announced that the enrollment numbers will come in around 38,200-38,300 students. This will be a little over 3% of an increase compared to last year. On top of this, Schovanec says that they will have around 6,000 freshman, that SAT average scores will be up, that Tech will have 26 national merit finalists, and finally, that Texas Tech's retention rate will be over 85% this year.

Dr. Schovanec also spoke on the news that Amarillo's former Mayor Jerry Hodge would be withdrawing his $10 million donation to Texas Tech for the veterinary school. Schovanec explained that Hodge just isn't ready to give the gift at this time. Despite this, Texas Tech continues to gain support and funds for the school with donations coming in from Amarillo, and support from Dustin Burrows, Senator Perry, John Frullo, and more. Dr. Schovanec said, "We continue to raise money for the vet school. That's the third time we've been up to Amarillo to acknowledge a significant gift in the last 2 months. We feel very good about where we are with the vet school." Texas Tech is still on track and is moving forward with their plans. Dr. Schovanec does, however, expect problems with Texas A&M, which he finds disappointing because he believes they could be great partners.

"I think that since chancellor Duncan's retirement, you'll find that there has been a kind of a galvanization of support for the vet school...this is a matter of what's best for West Texas."

Dr. Schovanec is happy that Texas Tech continues to grow in a time where other large universities are not increasing in enrollment. Moving forward, he hopes to secure the funding they need for their dental school, vetirary school, and mental health initiative.

Watch the full interview with Texas Tech President Dr. Lawrence Schovanec in the video above.

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