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×ÔοÊÓƵ Institutions Welcome Sen. John Cornyn to Campuses

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn visited campuses throughout the ×ÔοÊÓƵ System to see firsthand how the CARES Act, a coronavirus relief bill, is helping universities battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

 August 25, 2020 | By Montana Chandler

The ×ÔοÊÓƵ and its universities hosted and welcomed U.S. Sen. for a visit on Monday (Aug. 17) in San Angelo at Angelo State University (ASU) and Tuesday (Aug. 18) in both Lubbock and Amarillo, including Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (×ÔοÊÓƵHSC) and Texas Tech University (×ÔοÊÓƵ).

The purpose for the visits was for Sen. Cornyn to see firsthand how the CARES Act, a coronavirus relief bill he supported in March, is helping ×ÔοÊÓƵ System institutions combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sen. Cornyn visited the ASU campus on a special occasion for the university — the first day of fall classes and the official announcement of as the 11th president of ASU.

Sen. Cornyn and President Hawkins joined ×ÔοÊÓƵ System Chancellor Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., ×ÔοÊÓƵ System First Lady Janet Tornelli-Mitchell, M.D., ASU alumnus and ×ÔοÊÓƵ System Regent Mickey L. Long and other members of the ×ÔοÊÓƵ System and ASU leadership for the campus tour.

ASU received approximately $6.8 million in federal funding from the CARES Act of which $3.2 million was used to support 2,637 ASU students in continuing their education.

Following the campus tour, Chancellor Mitchell, Sen. Cornyn and President Hawkins joined other community leaders, including San Angelo Mayor , Tom Green County Judge and San Angelo Independent School District Superintendent for a joint press conference to discuss the CARES Act funding for the community.

 

Mitchell and Cornyn	Cornyn	Hawkins and Cornyn
Cornyn	Cornyn with ASU students	Mitchell and Hawkins
Cornyn	Joint press conference	Cornyn

 

Tuesday, Sen. Cornyn began the day by visiting ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC in Lubbock where he was welcomed by Chancellor Mitchell, ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC President , ×ÔοÊÓƵ President , Lubbock Mayor , UMC Medical System President and CEO , and members of the ×ÔοÊÓƵ System and ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC leadership team.

Sen. Cornyn toured a drive-thru COVID-19 testing clinic and was briefed on both telehealth clinical visits and telehealth curriculum for ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC students. Sen. Cornyn was updated on the ways in which CARES Act funding has supported research, innovation and collaboration between ×ÔοÊÓƵ and ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC.

 

Joint press conference in Lubbock	Cornyn and Mark Funderburk	Rice-Spearman and Mitchell
Cornyn and Schovanec	Cornyn and Rice-Spearman	Cornyn and Mitchell
Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC tour	Mitchell and Schovanec	Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC tour
Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC tour	×ÔοÊÓƵHSC	Cornyn with ×ÔοÊÓƵ System leadership

 

Cornyn’s visit was concluded with a visit to Amarillo on Tuesday where Sen. Cornyn toured the viral transport media (VTM) lab where ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC’s team produced VTM testing vials used for COVID testing. The ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo tour also included other types of medical equipment that CARES Act funding assisted the university in purchasing to help fight the pandemic.

Sen. Cornyn, Chancellor Mitchell and President Rice-Spearman were then joined by Amarillo Mayor , North West Texas Health System CEO , BSA Health System CEO Bob Williams and Amarillo College President for a joint press conference with the Amarillo media.

×ÔοÊÓƵ benefited from the CARES Act by receiving approximately $27.5 million in federal funding — with $12.8 million used to support ×ÔοÊÓƵ students. ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC received approximately $6.4 million in CARES Act funding with more than $897,000 for its student body. Combined, ×ÔοÊÓƵ and ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC were able to provide funding to more than 22,000 students.

The day was completed with Sen. Cornyn visiting the construction site of the new ×ÔοÊÓƵ School of Veterinary Medicine, which is located on the ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo Campus. Sen. Cornyn had a chance to sign a beam from the facility and pose for a photo with ×ÔοÊÓƵ System leaders and Mayor Nelson.

 

Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo tour	Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo tour	Joint press conference at ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo
Cornyn	Cornyn on ×ÔοÊÓƵHSC Amarillo tour	Cornyn at ×ÔοÊÓƵ Veterinary Medicine site

 

About the ×ÔοÊÓƵ
Established in 1996 and headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, the is a $2 billion higher education enterprise focused on advancing higher education, health care, research and community outreach. Consisting of four universities – , , and – the ×ÔοÊÓƵ System collectively has approximately 55,000 students, 17 campuses statewide and internationally, more than 300,000 alumni and an endowment valued at over $1.3 billion.

During the 86th Texas Legislature under the leadership of , legislative funding and authority was provided to establish a new Texas Tech University veterinary school in Amarillo and a new dental school at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. This will be the state’s first veterinary school in more than a century and first dental school in over 50 years. The addition of these two schools makes the ×ÔοÊÓƵ one of only nine in the nation to offer programs for undergraduate, medical, law, nursing, pharmacy, dental and veterinary education, among other academic areas.