The Texan to Red Raider program has been one of the bigger projects for South Plains College and the Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Ryan Gibbs.
An update on the program was provided during the last South Plains College (SPC) Board of Regents meeting.
Dr. Gibbs and SPC staff have been working closely with Texas Tech University to strengthen their relationship and provide a pathway for students to transition from SPC to TTU in a seamless manner.
The work of enrollment management along with marketing and communications was praised by Dr. Gibbs.
Draft materials in the form of a postcard with a QR Code and step-by-step process sheet for the program were given to those in attendance in the meeting to show what the college staff has been putting together to hand out to advisors, parents, students and those interested in South Plains College.
Dr. Gibbs explained the pathway is essentially an option for those who wish to attend Texas Tech but desire a less expensive pathway.
“We want all students to have access to that pathway regardless of how they come into our institution,” explained Dr. Gibbs. “If they want to go to Texas Tech, we want them to consider starting at South Plains College first. That is the whole goal of Texan to Red Raider.”
Dr. Gibbs added that the program will be beneficial to both institutions, the students but most importantly the party that is paying the bill.
A “soft opening” has been underway for the program and work has been going on behind the scenes with both TTU and SPC nearly every week to get things sorted out.
With strengthening the agreement between the institutions, transfer guides will allow SPC students to fill out and show transfer advisors to stay on an efficient course pathway. The transfer guide will have the courses that are listed for SPC students to take in the lower division which would be freshman and sophomore courses.
Dr. Gibbs explained that the good news is that Texas Tech is not going to be surprised when SPC students show up and hand the advisors the filled out guide. He also added that the transfer guides are also considered official publications for Texas Tech.
If a transfer advisor or department advisor is not familiar with the student and suggests various courses, the student with the transfer guide can show that advisor what courses they need and what they want to take.
“We do not want students taking extra courses,” said Dr. Gibbs. “We do not want them taking courses here that they don’t need.”
Dr. Gibbs said it’s very important that students identify early, they get a road map and they stick to that road map so that they do not lose money by taking classes that they don’t need.
“I want to give a lot of credit to Dean Alan Worley and to Lisa Sharp who have been our pathways coordinator for a few years now,” said Dr. Gibbs. “Also our faculty are directly working with the faculty at these institutions to make sure we’re teaching the right classes, our students are taking the right classes and that the curriculum aligns.”
Dr. Gibbs highlighted SPC’s Lauren Gregory as an example as she has worked closely with Texas Tech and the Rawls College to make sure that the courses SPC is teaching are preparing the students for when they get to Texas Tech or wherever they may go.
“We are very pleased and very proud of how our students do when they transfer,” said Dr. Gibbs. “Our students do as well or better than native students when they go on to bigger institutions. We know that for sure because we have data that shows us that. We plan on continuing that and this is a major step in doing that.”
An additional positive from the model that Dr. Gibbs pointed out was it gives the student an opportunity to take these courses and get a really good understanding of what they’re getting themselves into when they transfer.
Regent Joe Tubb showed his appreciation to Dr. Gibbs and the SPC faculty for working on the agreement as he acknowledged that building this type of relationship takes a lot of effort.
“When you are working with different colleges, the history of some of these schools changing what they will accept has sometimes changed with the weather changes,” said Tubb. “I have seen it too many times, but the work put into this is great.”
Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Stan DeMerritt provided a few items during the meeting. The presentation began with the Fall 2024 Census Enrollment Figures. The college is over 18,000 contact hours from last year. The current number sits at roughly 1.69 million contact hours spanning all campus locations. In terms of credit hours, they have also increased by 729 total credit hours over last year.
SPC will recognize Vernon Norwood and Leslie Valentine with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award for their noteworthy achievements. Norwood was a gold medalist in the men’s 4x400-meter relay during the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Valentine serves as the senior regional product creation director at Nike.
The public is invited to honor the recipients at a comeand- go presidential reception from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Nov. 8 in the Wilburn and Helen Wheeler Science Center on the SPC Levelland campus. The award was established in 1987 to honor outstanding SPC alumni and their noteworthy achievements.
Norwood was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from Morgan City High School in Morgan City, Louisiana. As a first-generation college student, he attended SPC from 2011 to 2013 and majored in general studies. At the college, Norwood was a six-time NJCAA all-American who ran on 4×400 relay teams. He set personal records of 20.93 seconds in the 200-meter dash and 45.72 in the 400 in 2012. He was also SPC’s record holder in the 600-yard run after winning the event in 1:08.8 at the 2013 Texas Tech Red Raider Open.
In 2013, Norwood enrolled at Louisiana State University, where he was a four-time NCAA champion and an interdisciplinary studies major. At LSU, he earned NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles in the 400 in 2015 and ended his career as the No. 2-ranked 400meter runner in LSU history with personal records of 45.31 for indoor and 44.44 for outdoor. His outdoor record made him the No. 8-ranked performer outdoors in NCAA history on the all-time collegiate Top 10 list.
Since his time at LSU, Norwood has represented Team USA in multiple competitions. In the 2020 Summer Olympics, he earned a gold medal in the men’s 4x400 relay and a bronze medal in the mixed 4x400 relay. In the men’s 4x400 relay of the 2024 Summer Olympics, he ran the second leg with a time of 43.3. Team USA set a record of 2:54.43 and earned their third consecutive gold medal in the event. Norwood was also on the mixed 4x400 relay team, which had the third-best time in history and won a silver medal at 3:07.74.
“For SPC to give me this distinguished award means a lot to me,” Norwood said. “South Plains made me who I am today.”
Valentine is a Tahoka native and a graduate of Tahoka High School. She attended SPC from 1984 to 1986 and received an Associate of Arts. While at SPC, Valentine worked as a tutor in the college’s Learning Center and performed in the band. Before starting her career in the sporting goods industry, she graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Tech University in 1988. In addition to her education, she has earned the Intercultural Development Inventory certification from Kaleidoscope Executive Consultants and a professional certificate in strategic foresight from the University of Houston.
After graduating from Texas Tech, Valentine juggled buyer, merchandise manager and store manager positions at Foot Locker for nearly a decade. From 1999 to 2004, she applied her skills in merchandising and product creation roles at Adidas. In the past few decades, she has worked her way up from sales account executive at Nike to the company’s senior regional product creation director who managed teams in Singapore and other Asian countries.
With over 35 years of experience driving strategic growth in the product creation and management space, Valentine has been recognized for her people-first approach and resultsdriven leadership. She has earned Nike Maxim Awards for The Consumer Decides and Master the Fundamentals and completed the Dare to Lead Training through Brene’ Brown Brave Leaders Inc.
“This is just a delightful surprise for me,” Valentine said regarding the Distinguished Alumni Award. “It has sent me down an SPC memory lane.”