UT System to begin search for new UTPA president
EDINBURG — The University of Texas-Pan American's interim leader hopes to continue the momentum started under the direction of his predecessor as the University of Texas System begins a nationwide search for a new UTPA president.
Charles Sorber, who served as president of UT-Permian Basin from 1993 to 2001 and as interim president of UT-Arlington for most of 2003, is set to step in as UTPA's interim president starting Feb. 23.
He takes over from Blandina "Bambi" Cárdenas, who retired Friday after a three-month investigation into whether she had plagiarized parts of her doctoral dissertation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1974. The UT System dropped its probe when Cárdenas, the university's first female president, announced she was retiring after 4 1/2 years at the helm.
Sorber prefers to take a hands-on approach to administration, he said, but he acknowledged the university has already made real progress improving its graduation rates and hiring quality faculty.
"My role is to make sure we march along in the proper direction," Sorber said.
His first order of business will be to meet with community and university leaders, UTPA staff and the area's delegation in the Legislature to "try and understand how they think, their view of the university and what needs to be done," he said.
The UT System is in the process of developing a committee, meanwhile, that will oversee a nationwide search for the next UTPA president. That committee is expected to be composed of members of the system, UTPA and other representatives from the community, system officials said last month.
Local lawmakers said they would be happy to help the system in its search.
State Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, hopes the next president will continue the work carried out by Cárdenas.
During the former UTPA president's tenure, more students enrolled in the university and graduated, and some even went on to pursue graduate degrees.
"I think Dr. Cárdenas took us a long way," Gonzales said. "We don't want to see students just attend. We want to see them succeed."
Gonzales said she was pleased by the recent appointment of Dr. Francisco Cigarroa as the UT System Chancellor, because he knows and cares about the area.
A nationally renowned pediatric and transplant surgeon, Cigarroa is from South Texas and was responsible for expanding medical education programs in the Rio Grande Valley when he was president of the UT Health Science Center.
As the UT System searches for Cárdenas' permanent successor, Gonzales hopes it will talk with local delegates to get a feel of what the community here is looking for in a new UTPA leader.
"We know the area," she said. "We've seen the progress that has occurred."
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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.
