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The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College enjoy a mutually beneficial partnership. Together these institutions, one a four-year university and the other a two-year college, enroll approximately 11,000 undergraduates. UTB/TSC offer more than 150 academic programs and grant certificates or degrees in such fields as medical coding and billing, paralegal studies, forensics, Spanish, and physics.
Construction is a constant at UTB/TSC. The new Recreation, Education, and Kinesiology Center has basketball and volleyball courts, a weight room, an indoor track, and classroom space. The $25 million Arts Center currently under construction is scheduled to open in 2010. The building’s focal point will be an 800-seat performance hall whose stage can accommodate 150 performers simultaneously. Also under construction are a new classroom building, a new library, the Center for Early Childhood Studies, and the Science and Technology Learning Center.
More than 60 student clubs and organizations provide extracurricular opportunities. Campus Catholic Min-istry members traveled to New York City to see Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, and members of the award-winning UTB/TSC chess team continue to rank among the best at tournaments worldwide. Varsity sports teams in golf, soccer, volleyball, and baseball compete in the NAIA’s Red River Athletic Conference. The university’s well-regarded performing arts groups include the Master Chorale and the One O’Clock Jazz Band.
Taking advantage of the region’s semitropical climate, students head to nearby South Padre Island year-round for fresh seafood and miles of coastline. Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande, has shopping and concerts. Brownsville also holds its annual Charro Days Fiesta each February.