LU to create new college in January

Lamar University will create a new college beginning in January. The College of Nursing and

Health Professions will bring together health departments from multiple colleges into a

single hub.

The college will include the departments of health and kinesiology, speech and hearing

sciences, social work, nutrition, and hospitality and human services, alongside the School

of Nursing.

“Bringing all of our departments together under one college helps to enable

interprofessional education,” Joseph Tacy, interim dean of the College of Nursing and

Health Professions, said. “We can then, being under one umbrella, work together to

understand all members of the team when it comes to advancing health.”

This new college not only brings healthcare professions together but also aims to fulfill

community needs.

“What we try to do with academic programs at Lamar is to ensure that, first of all, it’s

unique, it’s needed, it fits the profile of Lamar, and most importantly, that it is in line with

what Southeast Texas wants and needs,” Brett Welch, provost and vice president of

academic affairs, said. “The healthcare community came to us over the past couple of

years with needs within different healthcare professions. We had a school of nursing, but

they wanted to see that enhanced.”

After analyzing community needs, the university put in a legislative appropriations request

for funding. These requests must be very specific, so the university focused on nursing and

healthcare, Welch said.

Among the funding needs to create the college, staffing needs have to be considered.

"To build a college, you have to have what we call faculty lines, which is money to hire

faculty,” Welch said. “So, we’ll be able to bring in not only faculty but high quality faculty.

We’ll be able to bring in consultants that will build high quality programs, and individuals

who will be liaisons between Lamar and local hospitals.

“You have to have that relationship with the community more so than you do in other

programs. Liaisons to hospitals give students opportunities to have internships, clinical

experiences and field experiences.”

In addition to high quality faculty and liaisons, future students also benefit from new

programs over the next few years.

“What we’ll build is the medical laboratory science program, nurse anesthetist program,

and we’re leaning toward an occupational therapy program,” Welch said. “In two or three

years down the line, you’ll have these new programs for really high quality nursing and

health professions, programs that people can graduate from and immediately gain high

quality employment.”

The new programs will allow Lamar to offer more options and appeal to prospective

students, Tacy said. This will enable Lamar to help fulfill that community need by allowing

students to learn in Southeast Texas and then work in Southeast Texas.

“I think that this is just an amazing opportunity for Southeast Texas to be able to offer

programs in our region that will hopefully help solicit applicants and individuals who want

to learn and grow in this region and help to give back to Southeast Texas,” Tacy said. “I

think, often, we have programs that are not available in this region, and then we have a

drain of that wonderful potential as they leave and get educated in other regions.

“So, with bringing the education here, my hope is that they’re going to stay here to help give

back to Southeast Texas.”

UP Photo by Carlos Viloria

Written to be published in the September 10, 2025 edition of the University Press.