"Excitement continues to build for the opening of the Blinn College District’s Walter C. Schwartz Building at the RELLIS Campus.
On Friday, Blinn enrolled its 1,000th student who will attend classes at the RELLIS Campus this fall. That enrollment includes 348 traditional college students, 465 students enrolled in the Texas A&M-Blinn TEAM Program and 187 students who will participate in the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan. First-year TEAM and Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan students will take their courses at the RELLIS Campus beginning this fall.
“The RELLIS Academic Alliance is bringing bigger and better opportunities closer to my hometown,” said Antonio Garcia, a Caldwell native who plans to earn his Associate of Arts in criminal justice from Blinn before completing his Bachelor of Science in criminal justice through Tarleton State University at the RELLIS Campus. “It is a great feeling to be a part of a new and innovative concept.”
Located in Bryan, the RELLIS Campus fosters cutting-edge research, technology development, higher education and workforce training. Through the Academic Alliance, students can complete their freshman- and sophomore-level courses through Blinn College and seamlessly complete their bachelor’s degree in related fields from an A&M System regional university, including Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Prairie View A&M University, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M International University, West Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Central Texas.
Fall 2018 offerings at the RELLIS Campus will include:
• Bachelor of Business Administration from A&M Corpus Christi;
• Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Tarleton;
• Bachelor of Science in public administration from Tarleton;
• Bachelor of Science in biology from TAMUT;
• Bachelor of Science in health science from WTAMU;
• Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences in criminal justice from TAMIU; and
• Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in nursing from PVAMU.
Anticipated fall 2019 offerings at the RELLIS Campus will include:
• Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) in business management from A&M-Central Texas;
• Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from PVAMU; and
• Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Texas A&M-Kingsville.
“Taking classes at the RELLIS Campus will allow me to stay close to family and friends while I earn my bachelor’s degree from West Texas A&M,” said Citlaly Lara Rivera, a Bryan resident who recently graduated from Bryan Collegiate High School.
Blinn will open the Walter C. Schwartz Building, a new 83,000-square-foot facility at the RELLIS Campus, for the fall 2018 semester. All students at RELLIS will utilize the 19 classrooms and eight laboratories during the first academic year.
The Texas A&M System’s academic facility, located across the street from Blinn’s facility at RELLIS, is scheduled for completion in June 2019. Upper-division students at RELLIS will complete their bachelor’s degrees at the facility upon its completion.
In addition to a seamless transition process, the RELLIS Academic Alliance offers a competitive tuition rate. Students enrolled in upper-division courses at one of the Texas A&M System regional universities at the RELLIS Campus pay $295 per semester credit hour, or $8,850 for a 15-hour course load for the fall and spring semesters – almost $2,000 less than many other universities in the region.
Students taking Blinn courses at the RELLIS Campus pay Blinn’s tuition rate of $111 per semester credit hour for out-of-district students.
Rosalba Gutierrez, a Rudder High School graduate who just completed her freshman year at Blinn, will complete her associate degree at Blinn on her way to a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
“It’s a really great opportunity,” Gutierrez said. “There will be professors from all over Texas coming to RELLIS specifically to help us and teach us different career paths, and there are going to be internships and other opportunities on campus. I’m really looking forward to attending RELLIS and to being one of the first students to graduate from A&M-Corpus Christi at RELLIS.”
For more information about the RELLIS Academic Alliance, visit https://rellis.tamus.edu/academicalliance/."
-West Texas A&M University
