Biomedical sciences In 2012, the
Lubbock campus expanded its Biomedical Sciences program to El Paso. The inaugural class in El Paso was admitted in the Spring of 2013.
Medicine In 1998, TTUHSC El Paso celebrated 25 years serving the El Paso community. The following year, then-Texas Tech System Chancellor John T. Montford shared with the Board of Regents a vision for a full-fledged four-year medical school in El Paso to help alleviate a severe shortage of physicians in the area. Currently, there are less than 110 physicians for every 100,000 people in El Paso. The national average is 198 physicians per 100,000 patients. The Texas average is only 150 per 100,000. Studies have shown that most medical students remain in the region in which they received their education to establish their practices. The addition of the first two years of the medical school would allow students from El Paso and nearby regions to complete their education near home, in hopes of retaining doctors in the area. In 2001, longtime community philanthropists J.O. and Marlene Stewart donated 10.2 acres of land near the HSC for the new medical campus. The Paso del Norte Foundation approved a $1.25 million scholarship grant program for local students contingent on the approval of the four-year medical school. During the 2001 Texas Legislative Session (77th), the El Paso legislative delegation secured $40 million in tuition revenue bonds for the research facility, one of three buildings on the new campus, just a short walk from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center—as well as an $11 million clinic expansion project that took about two years, and added a third floor on the present TTUHSC El Paso Medical Center building. In 2002, the
Paso del Norte Health Foundation announced a $1.25 million scholarship/grant loan program for TTUHSC El Paso students choosing to practice in El Paso. In 2003,
Texas Governor Rick Perry visited the El Paso campus for a ceremonial signing of House Bill 28, article 10, which authorized Texas Tech to issue $45 million in tuition revenue bonds for the construction of a classroom/office building for a four-year medical school at the El Paso campus. The governor also announced an additional $2 million in funding to finance start-up costs and faculty salaries. On December 9, 2003, the groundbreaking for El Paso Medical Science Building I took place, and two years later in January 2006, a ribbon-cutting followed. The 93,000 square-foot facility houses research on diabetes, cancer, environmental health and infectious diseases, as well as a repository dedicated to data on Hispanic health and a genomic facility to link hereditary diseases in families. TTUHSC El Paso Regional Dean Jose Manuel de la Rosa was also appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission. The commission developed and coordinated actions to improve the health and quality of life along the United States-Mexico border and studied ways to solve the border's health problems.
Nursing The Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing (GGHSON) was officially opened as a free-standing school of
nursing on September 1, 2011. The School was launched through the generous donation of $10 million by the Hunt Family Foundation, and in April 2011, received initial approval from the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Board of Nursing. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education's Board of Commissioners acted at its meeting in April, 2013 to grant accreditation to the baccalaureate degree program in nursing for five years, extending to June, 2018. The accreditation action was effective as of September 12, 2012. The program met all four accreditation standards and determined that there were no compliance concerns with respect to the key elements. The GGHSON is on the U.S./Mexico border. The current enrollment is 85% Hispanic, with a total of 103 students. ==Campus==