Bhutan and Tibet inspired the campus silhouette in front of you: the University of Texas at El Paso, founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy. It became reality after SB 183 was signed on April 16, 1913, and the school opened on September 28, 1914, with just 27 students. Today UTEP is an R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity institution, and it is the largest and oldest Hispanic-serving R1 university in the contiguous United States, exceeded only by institutions in Puerto Rico.
The campus perches on hillsides overlooking the Rio Grande, with Ciudad Juárez visible across the Mexico–United States border. Nearby you can see the Sun Bowl stadium, home to the annual college football competition the Sun Bowl every winter. Take a moment to notice the unique silhouette of many campus buildings, designed in the Dzong architectural style typical of Bhutan and Tibet — an unexpected but defining visual of this place.
You are standing where a tiny school of 27 students became a major research university with a distinctive skyline and an international outlook. Notice the hillsides, the Sun Bowl stadium, the Rio Grande below, and the border reaching across to Ciudad Juárez.