RELLIS: A Transformational Initiative for Collaborative Education and Research

The Texas A&M University System is transforming a 2,000-acre tract into a premier research, technology development, and education center. When completed, the campus will have five focal areas: an academic campus, a historic campus, a full-scale testing site, secure industry laboratories, and joint research facilities. The goal is to provide multiple pathways to education and training credentials and degrees for students, and to enable new technologies to be developed and progress to the marketplace through collaborative research. Presented in this paper is the roadmap from planning to implementation necessary for the academic activities to achieve the envisioned capability. Introduction to RELLIS In September 2015, the 2,000-acre tract known as the Texas A&M University Riverside Campus was transferred to The Texas A&M System. In May 2016, The System announced an initiative to transform the campus into a premier, high-tech research, technology development, and education center, and to rename it the RELLIS Campus. RELLIS is an acronym of the Texas Aggies’ core values of respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, integrity and selfless service. When completed, RELLIS will have five focal areas: an academic campus, a historic campus, a full-scale testing site, secure industry laboratories, and joint research facilities. The overarching concept is for one campus to provide new and multiple pathways to an academic degree for students with the opportunity to obtain multiple credentials, and to enable new technologies to be developed and progress from the laboratory to the marketplace through collaborative education and research. Chancellor Sharp estimated that when fully developed, as many as 10,000 students eventually could be studying at the RELLIS Gateway Education Center, the focal point of the educational and training activities at RELLIS. The System’s 11 universities, its agencies, and a community college are collaborating on the campus to provide relevant academic and workforce development programs and to contain the cost of education. The collaborative nature of the RELLIS Campus, offering unique opportunities for students and faculty, is shown in Figure 1. Students will be able to obtain academic credentials from multiple institutions in a manner that is seamless and transparent for the student. For example, students will be able to pursue a major from one institution within the System, a minor from another, a certificate from one of the agencies, and participate in applied research with industry, all at the same location. In the context of the offerings that are available to students, RELLIS is a 21st century polytechnic campus. Polytechnic campuses provide career-focused education in the arts, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, education, and the sciences. On a polytechnic campus students engage in active applied learning and research necessary to advance society and industry. (Sorensen, Dec 2006) Figure 1: The RELLIS Collaboration Model Working to implement the academic offerings at RELLIS has presented some wonderful opportunities, a few hurdles that had to be overcome, and some issues yet to be resolved. Presented in this paper is the roadmap from planning to implementation necessary for RELLIS to achieve it full envisioned capability. Included are the criteria for selecting the degree programs that are to be offered, seamless academic advising across multiple institutions with each student retaining the same advisor for the entire degree program, providing all student services necessary for academic study, developing a consistent tuition and fee model across institutions that have varying tuition and fee structures, and recouping the revenue necessary to support the campus infrastructure. Hopefully, this paper can serve as a model for other institutions that are pursuing a similar endeavor.