Generosity Getting Rowdy Here

Alumni, students and fans worked together to “bring Rowdy home”. The statue, created by R. G. Box of Lubbock, Texas, has roosted in the Central Plaza since 2013. 

They say this fountain brings luck to students! Donations, including a lead gift from alumni Nancy '93 and Andrew Ozuna '91, helped cover the cost of rehabbing the fountain so that the water supply was supplemented by condensation from nearby buildings and can sustainably flow year-round. 

To help ease the burden of the high costs of textbooks, UTSA donors Scott Sawtelle and Kathleen Curry have committed $100,000 to the UTSA Libraries’ Adopt-A-Free Textbook program which supports faculty in utilizing free and low-cost open source learning materials in lieu of textbooks.

Gifts to the UTSA Art Collection supports one of the largest Latinx art collections in the country, featuring San Antonio and South Texas artists. 

Donations to unrestricted funds such as the President’s Associates and the UTSA Fund allow UTSA President Taylor Eighmy to greatest flexibility in addressing the most pressing needs at the university. President’s Associates donate $1,000 each year while gifts to the UTSA Fund come in all amounts. This funding has been used for scholarships, student travel and student success initiatives for which other funding is not currently available.

The Alumni Association was founded in 1979 with the purpose of making education at UTSA sustainable through scholarships for bright, talented students. Membership and gifts to the UTSA Alumni Association have provided more than $1.5 million in scholarships for current UTSA students over the years.

Designed to be a place where Roadrunners can reflect on those who have passed away, this special space was dedicated in 2018.  Championed by the UTSA Student Government Association with support from numerous student organizations, the garden host three poles flying the U. S., Texas and UTSA flags and was made possible in part by students, alumni, and staff who collectively donated more than $39,000 through the university’s crowdfunding platform.

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) is one of the world's foremost hubs for multidisciplinary education and development in the areas of infrastructure assurance and security. Thanks to corporate sponsors such as Raytheon, each year the center offers several competitions that help prepare the next generation of cyber defenders.  

In 2021, Carlos and Malú Alvarez committed a $20 million gift to UTSA’s College of Business. The gift was used to advance research-enhancing activities, including establishing endowed faculty positions, graduate research fellowships and undergraduate research programs.  In recognition of the significance of this gift, The University of Texas System Board of Regents authorized the renaming of the College of Business to the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, making it the first named college at UTSA.

Every year, corporate partners, including H-E-B, Valero, Rackspace and Boeing, help fund Center for Student Professional Development programs that ensure our business students graduate from UTSA career-ready.

Donors to the College of Liberal and Fine Arts help every student at UTSA. Due to core curriculum requirements, every undergraduate student at UTSA takes part in classes offered by COLFA. The experiential and interdisciplinary nature of the college helps students develop critical thinking, preparing them to take on a wide range of career opportunities.

Mary McKinney, a school teacher from San Antonio, made her first gift to UTSA in 1994:  $10,000 to create an endowed scholarship in honor of her parents, the Felix and Elizabeth McKinney Memorial fund. In what became a surprise for UTSA administrators, she ultimately left almost her entire estate to the university including land with mineral rights, which totaled $22 million. As of 2020, the scholarships awarded thanks to McKinney’s generosity equals almost $12 million to about 3,000 students from colleges/programs across the university.

Not all students can afford a new suit before landing their first job. With the Career Closet, students can borrow a professional wardrobe to wear to job interviews, career fairs, and other career-related events organized by the University Career Center. Donations of clothing and dollars make this resource available at no charge and help keep the offerings clean and updated.

The pantry provides food and toiletry items to students in need. The resource operates solely on donations, including thousands of dollars from of individual donations—from $5 and up. Since opening in March 2017, the pantry has served more than 12,000 visitors and distributed almost 100,000 pounds of food. The pantry has ongoing relationships with Whataburger, H-E-B and the San Antonio Food Bank to support operations.

The Fostering Educational Success Center supports Roadrunners with a history of foster care. These students often require additional assistances in the face of emergencies, for things like loss of income, housing struggles, vehicle repairs, and many other unforeseen circumstances that could be detrimental to the students’ academic success, health, and emotional well-being. Support for emergency requests comes from donors at all amounts. 

The Volunteer Organization Involving Community Education and Service (VOICES) regularly crowdfunds for extra resources to make volunteering conference attendance, alternative semester breaks or community service opportunities available to UTSA students free of charge.

Named for everyone’s favorite grocery store to honor H-E-B’s consistent support for the university equaling millions of dollars for student success initiatives.

They are the spark of UTSA spirit—the cheerleaders! More than $14,000 was raised for new uniforms for the cheer teams. Donors were also given a vote as to what the new uniforms would look like. 

Gifts from alumni and fans sent the UTSA Volleyball team to Eastern Europe in 2016, which is where some of the best volleyball is played in the world. 

The club sport triathlon team raised more than $6,000 with gifts from $15 to over $1,000, to send students to the 2018 USAT Collegiate National Championships in Alabama.

The Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence (RACE) is a nearly 95,000-square-foot facility that includes practice fields, locker rooms, sports medicine and strength and conditioning facilities, as well as academic study spaces, offices, and meeting rooms. The facility is made possible by the Roadrunner Foundation and support for UTSA Athletics through ticket purchases and donations of all sizes.

Tobin was a businesswoman and philanthropist, as well as the third woman to serve on the UT System Board of Regents. This 22,000 square-foot facility has housed UTSA faculty and graduate students researching emerging infectious diseases since opening in 2005. The Tobin Endowment provided $1 million to fund the Margaret Batts Tobin Distinguished Chair in Biotechnology in support of research in the new facility.

A gift from Alamo Music Center as part of the 2021 UTSA Giving Day is ensuring that cost doesn’t stand in the way of students being able to hone their musical talents.

Since 2011, The Spirit of San Antonio Marching Band has represented the heart of UTSA. Students from across the entire university participate in SOSA, performing for athletic events, university functions, and throughout the San Antonio community. Gifts of all amounts—from alumni, students, fans and families—have helped provide uniforms and scholarship opportunities for SOSA members.

The UTSA College of Engineering received $500,000 from Ed Whitacre to support a dedicated makerspace for engineering students that includes collaboration and project assembly space, a design studio, a machine shop, a 3D printing room, and cutting-edge equipment that elevates the student learning experience. Whitacre, former chairman of the Board of ExxonMobil, has been a generous donor to UTSA for many years.

Thanks to support from prominent foundations, such as the Brown Foundation, Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, Semmes Foundation, the Perry & Ruby Stevens Charitable Foundation and the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund, researchers at UTSA are collaborating to answer fundamental questions about the mechanisms of brain health and disease.

If you want to see a strand of human hair magnified 20 million times—UTSA has a microscope that will do it with a resulting image the size of San Antonio. Dubbed Helenita, the U. S.’s first aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope arrived at UTSA in 2010 thanks to a generous $1.2 million gift from namesake Helen Groves and the Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation. The electron microscope, one of the most powerful on earth, is housed in the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center.

This lab is home to 10 practical experiments, where students apply the theories on fluids and heat transfer they have learned in previous semesters. The lab name recognizes the generous support from Steve ’92, ’93 and Tami Griffin ‘94, whose gifts to UTSA have provided scholarships and ensured student success.