Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
University officials confirmed UTRGV will vacate its leased facilities on the Texas Southmost College campus by Fall 2026. A lease authorization from the University of Texas System Board of Regents shows the agreement expires Aug. 31, with plans for the university to gradually reduce its footprint as operations are relocated to other facilities.
“We actually started two years ago when that new lease was signed in 2024, and so overall we are vacating 160,000 square feet of space that we were leasing,” said Patrick Gonzales, vice president for University Marketing and Communications. “That was our choice. We signed a new lease with TSC in 2024 and until 2026, so we knew in 2024 that we wanted to be out.”
He said UTRGV has already vacated the following TSC buildings within the past two years: Cavalry Hall, Cortez Hall, the Garza Gymnasium, the Bookstore and part of the Vocational Trade Shop.
“This is a major transition, but our goal is for students to experience minimal disruption and for them to be able to continue their classes,” Gonzales said.
The move will shift academic programs, such as engineering and fine arts, into new and existing university buildings on the Brownsville campus.
In a Thursday email to The Rider, Gonzales said the university will not vacate the TSC Recreation Center, and students will continue to have access to the facility.
Jeffrey Ward, dean of the College of Fine Arts, said the university has long leased multiple spaces on the TSC campus, including Rusteberg Hall and a rehearsal space known as the “Red Room” in the TSC Performing Arts Center.
“We knew this day was coming, so it wasn’t a surprise,” Ward said, noting fine arts programs are inventorying equipment and planning moves into new or existing campus spaces over the summer.
Robert Jones, a professor of engineering and chair of the Informatics and Engineering Systems department, said relocating engineering programs requires extensive preparation because of the specialized infrastructure used in labs.
“It’s a fairly complicated move,” Jones said. “These are engineering facilities, and they require unusual power requirements. Many require compressed air and other utilities that don’t exist in the Brownsville Interdisciplinary Academic Building we’re moving into.”
He said the transition involves multiple construction projects, including modifications to existing classrooms, modular buildings and a new machine shop and materials laboratory.
Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
“We have three construction projects going,” Jones said. “None of the buildings are ready yet, and we have about five months to get everything moved.”
Teviet Creighton, a physics professor in the South Texas Space Science Institute at UTRGV, said most of the institute’s equipment in the Science, Engineering and Technology Building at TSC will be moved to the Interdisciplinary Academic Building and other campus facilities.
Creighton said one space affected is the Space Engagement, Entrepreneurship, and Research room, originally set up as a remote command center for radio astronomy.
“We’ll move the computers and equipment into a room in BINAB,” he said. “But we may not be able to replicate the same setup right away.”
The Rider reached out to TSC for comment, but officials declined to be interviewed or did not respond.
Students who rely on specialized labs at TSC said the transition could impact coursework.
“Anything that has to do with a lab will be taken at TSC,” said Darren Mora, an electrical engineering senior. “That’s where all the power supplies, all the multimeters, all the equipment that we use for measuring circuits or testing anything is located.”
Mora added the move to modular buildings may limit instructional capacity.
“The portables will not be at the same capability as the facilities here at TSC,” he said. “The portables are just not large enough to be able to house all the equipment, on top of having all those students in there.”
The Rider submitted a public information request Friday for a copy of the lease between UTRGV and TSC.
Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
