University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
IN-23: Serving Underrepresented Groups

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is a Hispanic serving institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Through the enhancement of culturally appropriate university coursework delivered bilingually and/or through Spanish and through community engaged teaching, research, and service, UTRGV emerges as the second-largest authentic Hispanic-serving institution in the nation. UTRGV builds on regional cultural and linguistic assets as an integral part of how it transforms the Rio Grande Valley by fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education, which aids in the mission of Goal 10, Reducing Inequalities. Higher education provides the opportunities that lift communities from poverty, reducing inequalities in income within a country. https://www.utsystem.edu/news/2014/11/05/utrgv-poised-be-nations-top-producer-hispanic-graduates The B3 Institute is a university wide initiative that facilitates UTRGV’s movement to become a bicultural, bilingual, and biliterate Hispanic Serving Institution. Guided by the Regents of the University of Texas System’s founding principles for UTRGV, this new university explores and integrates significant elements of biculturalism, bilingualism, and biliteracy across the university as a macro approach to achieve greater student success. The B3 Institute pursues its work through curricular approaches, community engagement, relevant research initiatives, and an emerging health and medical education vision that pertain to the communities of the Rio Grande Valley. Building a bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate university is a long-term vision cultivated by UTRGV’s legacy institution. The University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) innovated curricula and programming consistent with the spirit of nurturing bilingualism, biculturalism, and biliteracy. UTPA and UTB pioneered historically significant bilingual education and cultural programming that have impacted the public schools of South Texas and initiated dual language instruction at the higher education level. The legacy institutions nurtured generations of students to create the vibrant socio-cultural and linguistic landscape that is the Rio Grande Valley. The B3 Institute is the result of the visionary work of educational, cultural, and political leaders that intended to fashion UTRGV’s identity that befits and respects the history and culture of the region. A theory of change informed by community cultural wealth and an assets based approach to teaching, learning, and service guides the work of the B3 Institute. These assets based model challenges deficit based perspectives that have historically shaped educational practices vis-à-vis minority students. http://www.utrgv.edu/b3-institute/about/index.htm