Editor's Note: In celebration of Houston's 175th anniversary, we asked leaders to imagine the city's future. In this essay, University of Houston chancellor and president Renu Khator examines the ties that bind the city to the university.

Since my arrival in 2008, I’ve learned many things about the city whose name we share. Which freeways get crowded, where to buy good rodeo clothes, how to pronounce “San Felipe,” who has the best barbecue and why “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

But the most important thing I’ve learned is that the city of Houston understands and appreciates the importance of higher education.

This is particularly evident when I’m invited to speak to local groups. I often ask those in attendance how many are University of Houston students or alumni. As you might expect, a number of hands shoot up, usually making the “Go Coogs” sign. It’s wonderful to see that display of Cougar spirit.

Then I’ll ask the remaining folks how many of them have a friend or a family member who attended UH? More hands go up.

Then I’ll ask how many work with someone who is a Cougar? Or attended a football game or theater performance on campus? Took part in the annual March of Dimes walk held at UH? Perhaps attended a wedding at the Bruce Religion Center?

Not surprisingly, it doesn’t take long before just about every person in the room is raising a hand.

I could keep going, of course.

How many of you have children educated by school teachers and administrators who graduated from UH?

Gone to an optometrist or a pharmacist or a lawyer trained at UH? Live in homes and work in buildings designed by our architects? Driven across bridges devised by our engineers? Enjoyed the hospitality at an establishment staffed by our hotel and restaurant graduates? Been informed by the TV and print journalists trained at UH? Had medical treatment facilitated by our scientists and researchers?

The point is obvious, but on the occasion of Houston’s 175th anniversary, it makes me particularly happy to say it: UH is helping to make this a great city.

And, in doing so, UH is becoming a great university. Clearly, our destinies are intertwined.

Tier One pride

Naturally, our growing national (and international) reputation for academic and research excellence is gratifying. Our designation as a Tier One public research university by the Carnegie Foundation has filled us with understandable pride and provided our city with yet another significant distinction.

How many major American cities can boast two Tier One institutions? Houston, with Rice University and now UH, can.

And the notable success our football team has enjoyed the past few seasons has certainly attracted a good deal of additional attention to our school — and our city. The recent invitation to join the prestigious Big East Conference is one more confirmation of our enhanced stature.

But such headline-grabbing, high profile achievements are just one way to gauge UH’s real progress.

Those “show of hands” examples I mentioned before are another, equally legitimate measure of success. Semester after semester, year after year, decade after decade, UH has consistently played an essential role in shaping and sustaining the city whose name we so proudly bear. We have helped edify and inspire Houston’s leaders, train an educated workforce, contribute to the overall cultural climate and serve as a vital component of the area’s economic engine, with a $3.5 billion annual impact.

To date, UH has awarded nearly 270,000 degrees, including more than 8,000 doctorates and 18,000 professional (law, pharmacy and optometry) degrees. Notably, more than 3,500 of our alumni are heads of their own companies or are presidents or chief executives of businesses or corporations.

And that is just at UH.

Taking the name seriously

Our other institutions in the UH System — UH-Clear Lake, UH-Downtown and UH-Victoria — reflect our commitment to deliver quality educational services as the Greater Houston region has grown tremendously. Responding to this continuing expansion, we have filled in the gaps, so to speak, by adding teaching centers and branch campuses in Sugar Land, Cinco Ranch, Northwest Houston, Pearland and the Medical Center.

Taken as a whole, the UH System provides a wide range of options for aspiring students and continues to meet early benefactor Hugh Roy Cullen’s call for a university that serves “the working men and women and their sons and daughters.”

At UH, we take our name very seriously. While we pursue academic excellence and knowledge creation for their own sake, we also strive to be the University of Houston. By that, I mean we have developed a university that meets our community’s needs and encourages its ambitions. We have expanded and improved our programs in energy, in the health sciences and in the arts because those are essential to Houston’s character and its commerce.

We have, for example, recently become a full member of the Texas Medical Center, opened a 75-acre Energy Research Park and acquired a second public radio operation to provide Houston with its only full-time classical music and arts station.

Of course, we are also “of” Houston in our student body. Roughly two-thirds of our enrollment comes from the Greater Houston area, so we are truly educating our “own.”

However, UH is far from being parochial and, like our city, we enjoy a diverse and international flavor. We are consistently among the Top 20 universities in the country for the number of international students enrolled. This year, one of every 12 students on campus is from another country, ranging from China and India to Burkina Faso and Sri Lanka. As Houston endeavors to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy, UH provides an invaluable opportunity to gain an international perspective.

Even in these economically challenging times, Houstonians have demonstrated a generous and enlightened support of its premier public university. While many institutions have struggled with notable declines in their philanthropic donations, UH has run counter to that trend.

Why? We have told Houston that student success, nationally competitive research and academic excellence are important to us and, I believe, Houston has answered back, “Yes, these things are important to us, too.” The gratifying level of private and civic backing is the result of our sharing a simple but inevitable realization: Improving UH helps improve Houston.

So, happy birthday, Houston. We’re both getting older, and we’re both getting better.

  

Photo by Thomas B. Shea University of Houston